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Joseph Fireborn

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Posts posted by Joseph Fireborn

  1. As a work around perhaps try something suggested earlier, that is place wooden or steel dowl rods of just the right height to give you a good thickness on either side of your mold and roll the rolling pin across those. That should stop the rolling pin dipping down at the edges and making your tile too thin there.

     

    That is what I ended up doing for those last 2. I made a square around the mold so that I didn't roll it thin, still tricky to do it right. 

  2. Yea. It was a lot harder than I thought it was going to be to roll tiles over the mold. I should have made mine like yours and left a box around the mold. That would have been the smart thing to do. I have to be super careful not to thin my mold on the edges when I roll it. But eventually I will make another one. Getting better at rolling out slabs with a rolling pin. Thanks for all the help along the way. I will post my first grids when I finish them.

  3. So there is no weighing out 0.3g of oxide 35 times?

     

    Yes I think it is done this way. I don't really mind the work though if you think about it it's still a lot easier than any alternative test method.

     

    EDIT: Actually no if I am reading right, you don't weigh it, you use the syringe to pull up the volume equal to the addition you want. So you only weigh out the cup then syringe the rest. It is still tedious but not as bad as weighing out each cup.

     

    He figures out the dry weight in each cup using a table he provides that uses your equalizing volume. So in his example he says that 480ML(single batch eq.vol = 30 gram dry(per cup). so .3 grams would be 1% of an addition, so we want say 5% iron, you would then have 1.5 grams of iron, so 30x1.5 = 52.5 grams of weight in our iron cup. then we mix and use the syringe to add 1/35th into each cup. 

     

    if that makes sense. lol. 

  4. Joel,

     

    In his book he has a lot about mixing colorants into the whole grid test. It makes sense the way he explains it, but I haven't tried it yet. He is big about taking the time to mix up large amounts of the 4 corners then using it to make multiple grid tiles and adding different amounts of colorants to other ones besides the first so that you get a base, then see how the colorants change the melt etc etc. 

  5. Curt,

     

    Thanks for the awesome response. I will look through some of the past glazes I have used a lot and see if I can find one without any colorants. I don't think I have used many that didn't use some form of iron, zircopax, or tin. However I am sure I can find something that meets these requirements. I do have a glaze which I have used hundreds of times but it contains RIO and Tin. However I wouldn't mind seeing different variations of that. I am currently only working with one clay body, however I do have some porcelain lying around from some test I ran, so I will do that. 

     

    I think I might mix up the glaze without colorants and then do another with colorants. He explains it in chapter 7, but I am having a hard time understanding the maths. I will just have to read over it a few times. That would probably be the best way to start. Take my classic cream white and mix it without the RIO and Tin, then add it to each cup for another tile. 

     

    If I am going to be mixing enough for multiple, I am going to have to get a new measuring cylinder, mine only goes to 200 ml. So I am going to have to get one multiples I think so that I can accurately measure under 500, under 1000, under 1500. 

     

    As far as the cups for the 35 glazes, did you buy heavy duty ones that are clear and just wash and use them over and over or do you just use cheap throw away cups. I am trying to find some wide based ones so that I can fit my stick blender in them. 

     

    So much stuff to figure out! It's so exciting, probably another 3-4 days before my mold is dry enough to bisque fire. I think I am going to go ahead and make another mold. one like this one which has a place to prop the other molds on top of it later one once I figure out the thickness needed.  http://ceramicartsdaily.org/ceramics-monthly/wp-content/uploads/sites/6/2015/09/Screen-Shot-2015-09-17-at-3.29.39-PM.png

  6. Any tips on the first trail of this thing? Should I start with a clear for kicks? Or just pick a glaze I want to work on? I am at the point where I am going to practice making jars, plates, and other things that I plan on selling in the future once I nail down my glaze lines. So while I am doing all this throwing and learning. I plan on using my kiln to be running these currie test. 

     

    Also, how do you guys stack these in the kiln, do you use some wadding? Or do you just put some clay between them? I think the next version of my grid mold I will add 5 points that are lower than the rest of the grid so that when I roll my slab over them it will create stacking points that are above the glaze areas.

  7. I got my grid created today. I made the squares 1.25 inches. I am not sure if after they shrink they will be less than an inch. Some of them got a little smaller then I wanted, but I will remake it again when I have time. I am going to continue drying this one under plastic between two boards to make sure it stays perfectly flat.  Although I doubt that matters that much as after I roll the clay on top of it I can just lay that flat and it should be ok. So maybe I am wasting time with it under plastic. I might just dry it between two boards and no plastic, thoughts?

     

    I think this will be a good one enough to start, I am sure that I might make it better eventually. I am excited to get started with it.  I will fix the corners and stuff once it is more dry. I dont want to warp any of the cells messing with it before its almost bone dry.

     

    If this ends up not working as I planned. I will probably just roll out slabs and let them dry for a day then stamp them as Joel does. Hopefully this will work though. I think an inch thick slab bisqued carved down on the sides a little should be able to be pressed down on enough to roll a soft slab of clay over it. If it snaps, stamps away!

    post-63346-0-64504400-1464710170_thumb.jpg

    post-63346-0-64504400-1464710170_thumb.jpg

  8. I think I am just going to make a thick bisque tile mold out of clay. I am going to get some thick pieces of wood and roll out the master mold out of clay 2'' thick, then let it dry slowly under plastic for a week or so between two pieces of drywall with weight on top of it to keep it flat, and carve the grid on it at the right time, then continue drying it slow and then run a long preheat and bisque it and use that for my master mold. Does this sound like a bad idea? I am not in hurry to get the grid up and going now that I have read through the book and understand the process better. I am more interested in getting a really good master mold to work from as I want this to be done as best as possible so that I can have good test. 

     

    Thanks for all the help and comments. I am sure I will have more once I get to actually doing the process. Off to roll out 3-4 master mold blocks.

  9. I can't decide what to do. I want to get started right away. So I think I might just roll out a slab and stamp this first version and then get some plaster this week and get my plaster slab setting up.

     

    Rolling a slab this large uniform is going to be challenging. At least I can put some of Akira's workshop to good use. He showed us the best way to roll slabs. Works well.

  10. Thanks for all the good information. I guess I am going to have to get some plastic and get a mold made. I definitely will make it thick and I will have no problem using 300G batches. I too use a stick blender so that will work great. I will probably finish the book tomorrow and make plans for everything. I am going to do some basic test to get a feel for the process then I am going to jump into chemical reduction via silicon carbide. 

  11. Excelllent news. Did you get "Revealing Glazes" or the earlier one?

    Revealing Glazes, since it was the one that was made for the grid method. The other one seemed more about pottery in general. I could be wrong though, also the other one wasn't available from the publisher. So.. kinda forced to get this one, but its amazing. Going to get started as soon as I finish testing this new porcelain with my glazes. If it ends up being brighter than my stoneware then I don't want to conduct all my test on stoneware and not the porcelain, so lots of beautiful test coming up. I can't wait. 

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