Babs
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Posts posted by Babs
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Porous pots fine for plants, in fact recommended, if not placed on your french polished grand piano or dining table, could just sit in virtrified saucer.....of course, seepage may change overall look of pot. If an inner saucered pot could fit in your beautiful pot then prob solved for the planters.
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Not able to advise on the clay body but the curing with milk is no cure. Better use a tile sealer on inside and only for vases , not foodware, if no one can sort your problem.
I thought talc at high temp becomes a flux but your clay doesnt sound like its vitrifying, and talc used in clay bodies more in the raku temp range of firing bcause of its ability to withstand thermal shock. Is your work really thin? c.o.e of glazes you are using and your body are incompatible.
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I am asking if your glazeis not flowing enough, too "thick"? If texture is clean, it has been wiped clean of all dust, or sluiced in a bucket of water prior to glazing AND your glaze is at right state, it "should" fill most indents. It may work bettr to fill any obvious holes after glazing. I do this when my texture has narrow deep indentation. Fettle the poblem areas then lay glaze on truoble spots.
CMC will thicken on standing. It newds to be cooked, of course.
Second layer of glaze needs to be applied before 1st layer dries off
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Hi, is it possible to post a photo of blistered pots and cones? That way folk can better understand the extent of underfiring and length of soak required. A hold of a minute or two won't account for much imo.
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I have used toothpicks or skewers placed befire glazing. Use the above to grab and dunk in glaze, remove before glaze dries, no chips on glaze around hole. You can get tiny "bottle" brushes these days if any need cleaning out
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Yip, will drill staff a bit more when I buy again. My new stuff is a poorer quality, dont trust it as ware boards which is what I bought it for.
Looking for a light, strong board,small old person here, cut to a span to fit my rack.
New stuff good for wedging moist clay.
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2 hours ago, Russ said:
Not all cement board (tile backer board) is equal. Within the last year Hardibacker has come out with a "waterproof" type which will not absorb water. ASK if youre not sure about which one is which. The water proof is several dollars more than the regular hardibacker. That being said I have used a plaster wedging table with a removable canvas cover for 30 yrs or so. No problems for me but I dont slap the clay on it either.
That's good to know. I did notice the different absorption quality ofthe new stuff I bought compared to old stuff but put it down to change in manufacturing, same thickness more flexible, less strong?
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Cement board is great. A warning however,it sucks the moisture out of clay ..I found if making certain items this is a negative , somethings a positive.
Canvas, for reasons given by other posters, I'd avoid.
Cement board great but look out when making handles from coils or rolled out clay. CB easy to clean.
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What are your table tops made of?
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47 minutes ago, Pres said:
Once demonstrated for a very good attentive group of students. The demonstration was wheel throwing 3# of clay. I told them it was all about touch. . . then proved it by having one of them blind fold me completely. They had seats enough to not get too antsy. I did the entire demo including shaping and trimming the base of a vase form about 8 inches tall with flared belly and narrow neck flaring to the rim. There were some giggles in the audience, but all seemed good until I removed the blindfold and there was my Vice Principal sitting in among the students. She told me afterwards that she would have never approved such a reckless lesson plan. However, she said she was amazed at how I had them enthralled with the demo, and that it was probably the best demo she had ever seen! That was my yearly observation, and afterward we seemed to have greater respect for each other.
best,
Pres
Well I had a similar experience!
Just down from Northern hemisphere, hot Northerly, just under 40degC, out on sports field, xlegged under tree, kids summoned by hand gestures and demos etc done from shady spot, turned to see a guy leaning up against another tree, summoned him over......he was my supervisor, to judge whether adequate to teach in Aust.!
He was impressed! My excuse, I was out there all day, kids out there 45 mins.
He joked saying, " Well what are you going to do about that dog?"
A big mutt was carrying off a softball!
Well done re your demo. Removing the visuals can help focus on the feedback from the hands, and visualising with eyes closed can be another really underused focus.
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The glaze looks pretty thick and is running at the bottom
Wondering If the long slow firig is giving more heatwork treatment to the glaze?.
At the top of glaze area , glaze is thinner.
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I ended up using a variety of depths of plastic tubs with towels on the nottom, newspapwr between the pots, and towels on top. One tall one with an extended foot, think tree roots , had a plastic bucket lined with towels and supported by foam bits all to itself!
All home, on their rims, on the shelves, a few touch up colour slips needed . Tomorrow..
Subaru back full, bucket strapped in to front passenger seat. Left fox terrier at home , too risky, eh!
- Rae Reich, Kelly in AK, Hulk and 2 others
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19 hours ago, Pres said:
I used to do guided practice in the dark, my room was without any windows so complete darkness. I would walk around the room calling out the steps to a pinch pot, and they would work on their 1-2#ball of clay. This actually got much better results than the previous exercises, but then it was the third exercise at pinch pots. However almost every one of the students had thinner more consistent walls with better form. My reasoning for the exercise in the dark was tactile pinch control, and being able to trust the touch to the thickness of the walls. Sometimes other senses get in the way of touch.
best,
Pres
Absolutely, I do this from time to time when throwing, learn to trust the feel, they giggled and laughed AND there were no phallic symbols, sorry , or maybe there were and were never allowed to get placed on the table!!
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My class took place yesterday. The women and a few children had a fine time!
Gave each a lumo of clay, got them to form into a ball, then hands under the table to shape for a few minutes, then pass to nneighbour, no peeking, x4 so clay now back with original owner, reveal all, keep, or squash.
Lits of laughs, then slab building, or pinching , or any of the above, coliured slips, or not..
I had a big bit of paper and they gave their name, drew a sketch of their pots and what glaze they would like listed.
Whew, did they have fun. Exhausted Babs trundled home.
Now to return topack and collect the pots, and home to dry , bisque and glaze. What gutsy folk are out there
- Jeff Longtin, Roberta12, LeeU and 3 others
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I recently held a class quite a distance from my property. The attendees made a variety of pots, bowls, plates.
My question is
When will the clay be at its best stage to transport. Initially I ws thinking leave till dry but today I was wondering if hard side of leatherhard would be better, my gut feeling.
Wrap in newspaper?
Bubblewrap?
Thanks
Babs
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So head is solid clay?
Wow! You do need to get inside that Head! Beautiful.
I'l put it in a damp box with a sponge if water in there too. And make another one, and slice that open at leather hard and carve out abd rejoin. Time taken to get your initial sculpture Maube alright to fire may be a lot of time wasted.
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41 minutes ago, Ben xyz said:
Had considered this method, after having bought pre-colored porcelain once ($$$). Good info to have for the future - thanks. If I understand correctly, this would involve using stains with slip, correct? Wondering if Mason stains are colorfast? With all that heat and light from firing, my guess is that they would be. Will check on their site to be sure.
Still find it odd that Amaco sells their "Velvet Underglaze" line when they can't vouch for its unsealed surface (kind of negates the flat 'velvet' aspect and description).Underglaze is made for just that! Useit any other way and Company won't vouch for it.
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On 4/4/2023 at 10:09 AM, Jeff Longtin said:
That sounds like fun Babs. Congrats!
I would steer the women towards coil building mostly. That allows them to make a pot, of any size, of their choosing. Any time I tried to pinch a pot I was always limited to making small cup forms. (To make a tall pinch pot you really need to let the clay stiffen for a period of time. Is that something you can do in this limited situation?)
If you choose to offer slabs of clay maybe you could bring coffee cans or plastic bowl forms that they can use to mold the
Lots of great ideas, folks.
Thank you so much.
B
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What kind of temp rise do you have on the bisque firing from ambient to say 600degC
Does any of the pot jut out from shelf into direct flame path?
Closing All air inlets at top temp? Glaze and bisque.
Shelves clean?
Flick all your bisque pots . LIsten for the ping or pung. Like Min I think some of those cracks are happenning at or before bisque stage.
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30 minutes ago, Jeff Longtin said:
That sounds like fun Babs. Congrats!
I would steer the women towards coil building mostly. That allows them to make a pot, of any size, of their choosing. Any time I tried to pinch a pot I was always limited to making small cup forms. (To make a tall pinch pot you really need to let the clay stiffen for a period of time. Is that something you can do in this limited situation?)
If you choose to offer slabs of clay maybe you could bring coffee cans or plastic bowl forms that they can use to mold the
@Jeff Longtin Wow, didn't think of making slabs for them.!!
I have a lot of straight preserving "bottles".
I find beginners, unless taught properly, hmm, have quite a lot of failure re coils not squushed, scored and slipped.
Thickish slabs would give the choice of shaping,or/ and texturing.
Thank you Jeff.
- Jeff Longtin, Hulk and Roberta12
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Another thing to do is to "ping" your biscqued pots. Often unnoticed cracks which will not get better when going through glaze firing.
Try to get a hold of Hamer and Hamer, your cracks are textbook examples.
"A POTTER'S dictionary of materials and techniques."
Grog can cause cracking as as the clsy body drIes, the clay shrinks but, surprize, surprize, the grog doesn't.
Not saying that your images reflect that.
Are you supporting the belly of your large dishes as you turn?
What do your unturned/ trimmed platters look like?
Are you flipping the platter as soon as it can hold itself after throwing?
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6 hours ago, Roberta12 said:
I like the underglaze idea. And you could use handcut paper stencils, simple designs, circles, squares, clouds, etc. Could you have them make simple clay cups or mugs? If they used underglaze, then you could bisque and all you would have to do is dip the pieces in clear. Just a thought.
r.
I think the idea is to get their hands on clay for therapeuticexperience . Ad to that gathering withwomen of like experience, food and wine. BUT maybe I'll make them little cups to decorate.
Thinking ofgiving them a bit of clay to pinch whilst I introduce stuff, or to play with for 5mins and pass to the one on your left...just for fun...
And then???? Give them.a lump to pinch a mug / receptacle, then dry and decorate.
I was learnig to say no but y'know these women have been strong for their families, many home alone when the fire front engulfed their homes, men ,and women , away fighting fire on a different front when the change came.
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1 hour ago, LeeU said:
What clay body & glazes & type of fire will you be doing--and how many people? And wheel work or slab/other handbuilding?
Hand made, pinch, slab or coil.
If non glaze will take to c5.
I would have to do any glaze application.
Clay could be red clay which is short but can tolerate c5
Or cream firing c5.
They have 2-3 hrs go to whoa.
So.....
Could try to dry surfacw....hairdrywrs ?? So could apply coloured under glaze....
Raku glaze angst question please
in Clay and Glaze Chemistry
Posted
Cooking, ie powder form is mixed with very hot water, syrup thickness and left overnight. It is usually much thicker in the a.m. and I thin again.