terrim8

sounds nice !

I am not too short just getting old.  I put a false floor in my electric.   I laid old firebricks with space between them on the bottom being careful not to cover my vent holes and then a shelf of top of the bricks.  The shelf was one that had broken in half  so I made sure it had a nice gap.   I called Skutt about it and they said they didn't think it would fire properly.  I think it fires  more evenly than it use do.   I have a dual pyrometer and really had to adjust for a cool bottom and hot top.  Now there is a minor difference.   Denice

sometimes things work out for the best!

Back in the day, one issue with Gerstley was its variable chemical content. Natural materials are always variable over time , depending on what part of mine it came from, etc., but Gerstley was variable from batch to batch, and some even gave it the nickname Ghastley Borate. When Laguna bought the whole mineyard (but not the mine, nothing new coming out of the ground anymore), they processed it all at once and thoroughly mixed it all. So now the many years worth stock in the warehouse is all pretty much the same. But also slightly different than what it was 20 years ago. The published analysis of the current stock compared to ~1999 show somewhat less silica than before, but other fluxes are about the same +/-. So get some Gerstley and make a test batch of your glaze recipe to see if it needs any tweaking.

Terri:

given your background: study ulexite.

another evaporite mineral! - I just bought a 50 lb bag of Laguna Gerstley Borate so I didn't need a substitute. Started mixing up glazes today. Will add a few touches to the raku kiln in the morning so I can operate it by myself, then I'll have more pictures for the gallery.

ashamed to say that I called in one of my kids to help- I used word - which I'm used to and she'll convert it to pages that has a prettier template- Some days...............

That's what kids are for  I used to type up most of my mums stuff because it would take me 1/10th of the time.

Problem is the conversion from Word etc. to Pages etc.and vice-versa is not always a two-way street. It is hard to shift from one system to another when one way is virtually automatic from years of experience and the "new" one has been perversely set up to be "backwards" & everything is in weird places. I feel your pain! 

It would save freezing our butts off. 

wouldn't it be great if that actually worked?  (butt freezing) Like that "cool sculpting" you see advertised all over the place

But then we couldn't get all ragey about the guilt tactics that diet manufacturers and health clubs use this time of year!

Have fun!

Marcia

Keep those skis together!

wow- I was pretty shaky yesterday. Have to go every day now to get my ski-legs back.

They know something we do not. 

it was 6 below here this morning....but I am certain it must be that cold or colder in Canada.....

You know, the scientist are saying about 6 southern states are in an unusually cold pattern that has been going on since the 1960's. They call it a "Warming Hole" - go figure... 

Dam Russians!

yes. I am. Thanks!

My raku pieces are also in Raku; a practical Approach by Steven as well plus lark's book on Raku and Advanced Raku by Bill Jones and Alternative Kiln by Watkins and Wandless.

Marcia

nice. I want an artsier avatar like Mark. Will have to do some close ups of surfaces.

Mold making all week with different kinds of machinery!

Jealous! Are you going to check out that store with the weird spray painted tumbleweeds again?

No- I didn't have time! The course was extremely concentrated time wise. i even showed up early as the key fob lets you in- like 6 am once! It might have been easier if I had some experience with it but I didn't and it moved fast. only 1 lathe too so I tried to get in early for that. And it was HOT!!!!!! I didn't even have time for carrot cake!

ya- me too. I have wet pulled handles. I thought about a week- more or less. I'm not "speedy gonzales". I wonder where that came from- speedy gonzales?

oh- just googled it- a cartoon character.

You're a young one terrim8. LOL or you just didn't watch cartoons on Saturday mornings.

the foot is kind of small- about 6 inches diameter. It's handbuilt- not thrown.

Depends on the clay, wall thickness. The fact you are not sure, suggests maybe you should.

Let us know what you do and the outcome. I always wonder about those things.

gotta google that!!

sounds like fun!

we've always used pattern resists but there's some ideas that translate other than fabric folding.

stay warm. Nice town. Very cool ceramics center. we close on our house 10/31. are you still looking?

Yes but looks like we have to wait. Commitments here will take some time. You'll have to post pictures of the new digs, new kilns...

send me your email.

I had a student /rancher that said Plainsman clay got their clay from her Montana ranch. I don't know what part of a clay body it is. I have used M340 when I taught in Billings.

interesting- they are close to the border so I guess they operate all around the area.

wish I had a mini kiln for tests

ebay, Craig's List, garage sale, estate sell, etc. There's on out there waiting for you. Never give up looking.

get a copy of Ian Gregory's Kiln book. I forget the exact name of it, but it has all types of little test kilns. I want to do the soda kiln.

Sounds like a good day at the pottery mill.

phew! glad to hear you got good lab results : )

I will be planting roses this week and mining with each rose.

We going to see these results?

yep! I hope to pick up some today- mind you its just test chips before I glaze the next load- then i'll post pictures.

If they're running Dean Starks, or anything else related to core, you're probably not their priority right now. You'd likely get faster service in the summer.

its Sunday. Anxiously awaiting pics.

tired from the drive but i put two up before i left. Have to rest so more pictures tomorrow.

found a couple more- going for a nap now.

mugs and lamps so fingers crossed. (i.e. mid fire grey clay and some porcelain)

it worked!

Great!

I have a A82B Paragon kiln that I fire to ^6 without any problems. It has actually saved me when my big kiln went down.

Unless the electrician checked the ohms on the elements. And the condition. I don't think he could make that assessment.

believe it or not, it was a bit of kiln brick fragment stuck way deep in the sitter.  Its fixed now. 

I should start shopping for a used nice electric kiln with a controller. Maybe I can find one in the US and ship it back across the border????

(no spell check?)

post results when you unload.