Cone 6 Oxidation glaze site

[Chris Campbell]

I received an interesting email today from Terry Rorison and got permission to share here. The websites mentioned have excellent images showing the results of firing some Cone 6 glazes with and without controlled cooling. Also a link to a Smithsonian site with interviews of pottery greats. I have copied and pasted and not sure if the hyperlinks are working but the sites are worth the copy and paste to browser job. Enjoy!

 

Currently write a blog

 

http://www.wpapotters.blogspot.com

 

aimed toward potters. Have chosen to work at cone 6 oxidation (electric firing) for a number of reasons but mostly to force myself to learn a new way of working. Part of the aim is to produce glazes in oxidation that have the richness achieved through reduction without using reduction, just using the chemistry of the clay and glazes.

 

http://wpapotters.bl...ts-group-8.html

 

Have found that interesting results are also achieved through controlled cooling from 1900 degrees F to 1400. Red Iron intensifies and glazes with zinc, titanium, rutile grow crystals, and the controlled cooling with combined glaze layers also yields some interesting results.

 

At this stage of my life, my choice is to mostly give back so the work I sell is funding to non-profits that I support. Other than the glaze results I don't put my work up on my blog but do profiles of other potters through interviews and photography so potters can learn how other potters work.

http://wpapotters.bl...y-anderson.html

 

 

In addition to working in the studio, I am embarking on a project to do video interviews of respected, older American potters to provide a record for students of clay. In this regard, I have self-funded it thus far, investing in a high-end video camera, lights, computer, video editing software, and sound equipment. Needless to say, there is a big learning curve to do this well. However, I have never shied away from big projects so why start now! I started with links to the Smithsonian's interviews done in audio and transcribed to text

http://wpapotters.bl...interviews.html

http://wpapotters.bl...interviews.html

 

I have been talking to the Smithsonian and NCECA about being the repository of these interviews so the record does not die when I do. May turn this into a non-profit endeavor to help raise funding to defray travel expenses. Have not decided which way to go yet. Plan of soliciting input from the potter's community to help decide who to start with. We have lost at least 6 significant ones in the last 6 months or so.

[Marcia Selsor]

Chris,

These are great examples of excellent testing and firing notes. Having become involved with ^6 oxidation in the past few years, I really appreciate their painstaking note taking. I have worked with different glazes but noted that down firing really helps with the final results. Thank you for sharing this fine work.

And thank you to the Western Pa potters for putting it all together.

Marcia

[teardrop]

Very nice. Thank you for passing these links along, Chris.

[Guest JBaymore]

Glaze results for studio-type glazes are more about cooling rates than probably most all other aspects of the firing.

 

For example, I can distinctly tell the differences between mu same glazes fires in chanbers 2, 3, 4, or 5 of the noborigama....... based upon microcrystalline development in the matrix. Each of thoe chambers cools at a different rate due it its size, and its position within the long kiln structure and proximity to either thermal energy stred in the main firebox structure, hot common chamber walls, or exterior walls.

 

best,

 

...............john

[neilestrick]

This is especially important if you have kilns of different sizes. I fire cone 6 oxidation in two electric kilns, one 5 cubic feet and one 20 cubic feet. The cooling rates can vary by as much as 18 hours depending on the density of the load, which gives me dramatically different results with some of my glazes. Generally speaking, the faster the cooling the glossier the glaze, although I also see differences in color development with a couple of glazes. In order to get consistent results, I fire down at a rate of 175 F degrees per hour to 1700F. This gives me virtually identical results from the two kilns. I know some people fire down all the way to 1400F, but for my glazes that's overkill.