williamt

Occasionally I need to burn up some brush, dead fall, etc. I thought why waste a perfectly good fire! These two pieces made from raku clay and bisqued at 04 electric. I coated them with some copper based raku glaze. While I was piling up the brush, I just placed these two pieces in the middle of the pile and lit it. I then spent the next couple of hours running around the yard for more deadfall to keep the fire going. I got the pieces hot enough to melt the glaze and got a pretty good workout at the same time. Next time I'll try to have more burn stuff piled ready to go. The are the results!

ok before your say craft or more "duckies and chickens" let me tell you about this. Started as an exersize in clay shrinkage and designing to fit. As we know, clays have different shrinkage numbers and temp certainly has an effect on that shrinkage. The experiment started with just going by the shinkage numbers given with the clay body. I soon discovered that there is some deviation to that number (they should give the average shrinkage and an observed deviation). But I digress. I liked the way they looked and they were different. So...... I measure the appropriate dimensions on the found glass objects, interesting things from thrift stores. I then throw a base and a lid, based on the glass dimension, plus the published shrinkage, plus a fudge factor that you have to determine with the clay you are using. I bisque, the glaze, fire to cone 5 (stoneware). Usually now, I get a pretty good fit. Sometime the lid is a little big or small though. if I like the way the lid looks, I'll grind or add cork or foam filler. I found that folk like and actually buy these. If you want more info, shoot me an emai.

This was a commission. They were looking for a kind of old look. This is stoneware.