Magnolia Mud Research

A long time ago I was in a ceramic ART class when another student came in with a "3d printer" that was converted to print several simple ceramic items. The printer could print several simple pot forms, but the products were obviously NOT art; because each print was always the exact same pot. Bill Kielb made a picture with his cell-phone and can print that picture many times, but if he and taken 15 pictures of the moon each would have produces 15 different pictures, some interesting, some not; but each would met the "ART" requirement because each picture would be different in some way. The question is really are you a maker of pots, or an artist that makes art pots? One way to make the "3d printer" a ceramic tool is to make the printer make each pot slightly different. I liked the class studio wheel that had a small wobble when throwing bowls, just because it never made the same exact round shape of bowls; bowls that were interesting just because the wheel helped me in a way that no one else in the class could make and neither could I without the wobble. The real question is are we making pots for "walmart" or are we making pots that are art? (a question given by the professor to students on the first day in the college ceramic art class). The tools we use to make our art are just tools; some artist will make bowls by hand, others will use a kick-wheel while others will use an electric wheel, some will cast the shape and then spend an hour carving a story on the surface of the bowl, others will use the casted item as a surface to paint with glazes; both are examples of art. When I was taking art photography we were taught how to make many different prints from the same negative, (something that our cell-phone could not). Each print was classified as ART because we were taught how to change the way the negative was printed (without changing the negative). The challenge for the future is how can we use a new tool to make ceramic ART. LT

long time ago I made a "test" kiln with a few of bricks and a fired with a gas torch flame gun; it worked just fine; took longer to cool than it was to get to test temperature. the idea was based on a page in book written by one of the early 1900 experts whose name I don't remember. the size was about the 8x5x5 inches. The book picture of the kiln had triangle cross section. I have also seen someone convert a gas camp stove to a small kiln; again an example of Improvise, Adapt, Overcome. LT

The pot was first made as a thrown cylinder that was about half the diameter of the final diameter. A coating of dry kaolin or a nearly dry paste of kaolin was applied before the cylinder and then allow some time for the coating to dry somewhat. This could be by waiting for the surface to dry or by heating with a heat gun. When the surface was "dry enough" for the surface to crack when the cylinder was spread to final dimensions. The pot was then bisqued. The glazes was applied and then fired in a kiln. This pot was in a gas reduction kiln to ~cone 10. If the pot were fired in a electric kiln the glaze would be different due to the lack of reduction and some moisture from the gas fire. some areas were coated with a shino glaze, some was coated with a spray of baking soda. The project was to create a cracked surface. The choices of glaze and the ways of application can make the cracks stand out or almost disappear. If my memory is correct, the glazed cracked areas was applied with a sponge. the none glazed area was sprayed from a hand sprayer. the top area and the faraway edge top area the cracked area in the image is a run of the interior glaze which was a celadon glaze. The cracked surface and the method of application of a glaze gives the potter a wide range of final appearances. The method is great if you are willing to have each pot be different. If you must always have the same look you will be wasting time and material. I chose kaolin because it was available; Crushed bisque ware, sand, and other materials will work. I switched long ago from slips to dry or paste coatings as they always make cracks; work with the old alka seltzer slogan "try it you'll like it" approach; you learn more that way. LT

ZERO! grandma don't like water on the piano! if the pot leaks at cone 6 then fire to cone 7 or 7 and half. I started ceramics using a Cone 06 clay body that was fired to cone 2 to produce pots that did not leak. At cone 06 one is depending on the glaze to keep the water inside the pot; any glaze crack means grandma uses that pot for an outdoor flower pot or for the next trash pickup. LT

I solved this "problem" by making the edge slightly leaning opposite of the way the drying moves the rim; the rim then will be straight up. my memory says I made three different pots each a little different from the others to find how much to move away from vertical. the idea is if the edge leans left when drying then make the edge lean right when you make it. LT

Robin Hopper (aka GRASS): wrights about mocha: https://rhrising.blogspot.com/search?q=mocha+ part of his discussion of MOCHA is: Monday, March 11, 2013 MOCHA DIFFUSIONS one of his recipes: ROBIN'S UBIQUITOUS SLIP ANY BALL CLAY 75 ANY KAOLIN 10 SILICA 10 ANY FELDSPAR 5 TOTAL 100 TO DEFLOCCULATE THIS SLIP SO THAT IT BECOMES FLUID WITH LESS WATER. ADD 1% SODIUM SILICATE AND/OR 1% SODA ASH THERE ARE MANY VARIETIES OF SLIP TRAILER. THE ONES I LIKE BEST ARE RUBBER BULB TYPE CHILDREN'S ENEMA BOTTLES WITH DETACHABLE TIPS, OR BULB TRAILER SETS WITH VARIABLE SIZED TIPS FROM TUCKER'S CERAMIC SUPPLIES, ONTARIO, CANADA LT

yep! long ago the family was going to grow molds for some reason. The setup was using a network of pipes that were connected with copper joints. The joints killed the molds; took some time to realize that the joints were the problem. When I was told why the molds died I started using copper wire stuck in the clay; the old mold died, and no more came back.

One way to manage the stinky mold is to stick a couple pieces of copper wire (or use a copper container) in the slip and water (or hang Copper Pennies). Most molds don't like copper.

Sam: If I were doing what you are trying to do: I would do the following: 1. Use all of the dry ashes and the water that is use to suspend the solids in the glaze slurry. I would also add some strong clear vinegar to convert the potassium and sodium caustics to netural that becomes dissolved into the glaze slurry. I would also measure the amount I use so that I would know the amount to use next time. 2. Add about 4 grams of sugar for ever 100 grams of dry ash that is used for the glaze. The sugar will help keep the calcium in the dry ash from converting the glaze slurry to a solid lumps of concrete after setting for a day or so. If the slurry goes solid over night I would know I did not add enough sugar. The 4% is based on the assumption that the calcium compound is about half of the total weight of the ash. If the calcium were less than half I would use less sugar, and if more than half, use more sugar. My reasoning: Loosing the potassium and sodium components is a waste; both helps melting of the glaze (think American Shino). Calcium is a main ingredient for concrete and sugar slows setting of concretes; I learned that from a university professor that studied concretes; a bucket of such glaze with sugar survived half a year before I got bored with it and switched to a different base glaze. It is the potassium and sodium that creates the great coatings in wood fired ware along with the other elements released from the buring wood that also get cared to the surfaces of the wood fired wares. If done right, using wood ash as a applied glaze one can almost make pots in a non-wood fired kiln that will appear to have been wood fired. LT

Callie, a story which has information about a clay in water: long long ago, but not to far away, I was still assigned to the refinery when one of the plant cooling systems was changed from deep clean cold water wells to river water that had a small but visible amount of yellow river clay suspended. Shortly after the switch to river water, the plant heat exchangers began to plug with clay and the exchangers had to go off line to be cleaned (not an easy or low cost task). The lab was trying to find why the plugging was taking place and they were not finding anything about why the system was being plugged. A lab technician had put a bottle of the river water in the window to watch it over time. After month nothing had changed, the clay in the bottle of water was still suspended. Later on, someone decided to clean the window shelf and set the bottle of river water into the sink which had some warm water flowing through. When the someone picked up the bottle to it back to the window shelf, he noted that all the clay was now at the bottom of the bottle and the water was clear; and he came upstairs to tell me what he had found. my recommendation is to heat the slop water a little bit and see what happens. if your clays are like my south Texas river clays, boiling is probably not needed. LT

When we produce a ceramic material that allows "light" to pass through that material we are working with a "glass" even though us potters call the material a clay body or a glaze. Todays "Ceramic-Tech-Today" article: Colored glass: From alchemy to empirical chemical design https://ceramics.org/ceramic-tech-today/education/colored-glass-from-alchemy-to-empirical-chemical-design/ has some useful information and background that might help determining why the bone-china pots show a color when seen in a light source. Remember that the source of the "light" is also an important variable. LT

you will often get a greenish shine from a light on window glass at an angle. small amounts of iron in the glass is mostly the reason, but the source of the light and thickness of the glass are also a variables. take a look at: https://physics.stackexchange.com/questions/247939/why-is-glass-green question: When I look at a glass block at an angle the edges appear green, but when I look at the edge sideways, so that is directly in front of my eyes it appears transparent. Why? answer: Most glass contains iron oxide as an impurity which gives the glass a slightly green hue. When you're looking straight through a pane of glass you don't notice it because the glass is so thin. But when you look down the side it becomes apparent because of the thickness. LT

I've been there. and learned to ignore the "official methods" and simply crushed the dry clay as small as possible using a hammer and kitchen screen utensils to get rid of the "big" rocks. Mix the clay with water to make a slurry that is somewhere between the buttermilk and the milk level (or a little less). Let the mixture set for a while to let the heavy particles to sink, and then pour the liquid into a separate container which will contain most of the sig. Stir up the original container again and let it set a while, and repeat pouring off the water to get remaining sig. Yes, this is not the official method, but it has worked just fine for the clay I take from my ponds and roads to them. I have also used that same method for making sig from scrap commerical clay bodies. If you are able to get wet clay from the backyard just start with that; add water and mix well; if you have sand, it will sink along with the heavy particles. I have a pond that collects fine clay every time there is a decent rain. After the rain there will be a thin layer of fine clay above the big paricles. My first round on terra-sigillata I followed the "official" method; it worked ok. After noting what was happening in the ponds and just getting a bucket of pond mud and water I begin to make my own method which has worked just as good as the textbook. The best "official" recipe I have found (beyond my own) is Vince Pitelka's version: http://www.vincepitelka.com/wp-content/uploads/2022/10/Super-Refined-Terra-Sig.pdf /*/

when wondering around the property this week I notice a rotting stomp of a large pine tree that was blown down a few years ago; the dried yellow clay still on the bottom of the stomp was simular to the color of the plastic cat litter buckets; the clay on the stump contains iron oxides. Long ago while solving problems for plastics, fine particles of iron oxides were used to produce colors to the plastics. My point is you should think about the iron being taken from the plastic. Test using a plastic bucket that is not yellow. LT

I have been down a similar route long ago: make a round object (a piece of stiff flat tarpaper); place on the soft clay; use a sharp cutting tool (I used a small sharp pointed kitchen knife) to cut the circle of clay. Start with a large flat sheet of clay on a piece of dry paper or cardboard, use the round object and the knife to cut the clay with the knife; when all of the coasters are cut, then remove the clay between the coasters leaving the coasters on the cardboard. The coasters are allowed to flat all the time. smoothed the sharp edges of the coaster after the bisque. LT