Pres
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Posts posted by Pres
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Just reminded that when I was still teaching at the HS I would run a one week workshop in Ceramics for an Intermediate school Summer camp. We did Slab project, some extrusions, and some coil work. Every day I would put pots on the two downdraft tables in the room after class at noon. In the afternoon they would be nearly bone dry, and go into the kiln with a 2 hour or so water smoke. Day 3 of class we started glazing, and by day 5 they all had about four pieces of pottery that went in the final glaze firing of two kilns. Crazy how those downdraft tables would save my bacon in end of the semester rushes.
best,
Pres
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Use an underglaze or stain to sign then refire to a lower temp.
best,
Pres
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I used to candle overnight wet to leather hard pots for the kids. Would start the kiln right after school 2inch lid gap, work until around 530, and head home. Next morning would check kiln for peep moisture around 645, then depending start a slow ramp to bisque 06. Worked most times, especially when there were heavy spirit houses or coil pieces in the kiln.
Years ago, mid 70's I went to a workshop at Indiana State College of PA. They were doing fast firing one day with pearlite addition. Threw like crap, but the pots survived and were glaze fired in two days of the workshop! Took students to the workshop also, and they were impressed!
best,
Pres
- Marcia Selsor and Rae Reich
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Since for years I had now way of knowing the temp of the kiln with not pyrometer or thermocouple, I would just start with the bottom switch at 10% overnight with lid 2". Next morning crank all to 10% for 1-2 hours, lid down, until I no longer felt dampness in the kiln by putting my hand up to the peeps. Firing from there was pretty much as most others. Worked well with student handbuilt pots and student wheel thrown pieces.
best,
Pres
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@Anna MWelcome to the forum, we hope you find some answers to your questions while visiting with us.
I fired an electric kiln for years in my garage with no ventilation. It wasn't a major problem, but it had its bad spots as many hand tools in the garage needed extra care to keep them from showing rust or getting tarnished heavily along with woodwork and such needing more paint and care than other outdoor structures. However, last year I replaced my kiln with a newer kiln that had a controller and a downdraft vent system like @neilestrickdescribed. Actually Neil helped me pick out my new kiln, don't tell him I said so, but he's a great guy.
I have noticed that the tools in the studio do not rust or tarnish as much, and the new kiln seems to be firing very clean. I run a vent out the window, and the system has a blower that keeps the kiln interior cleaner, and moisture from bisques gets ducted outside, not in the garage atmosphere. Venting highly recommended.
Once again, Welcome to the forum!
best,
Pres
- Rae Reich and neilestrick
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Mark,
Another way you have been a good example for the community here. I want to live long and play in the clay as much as possible, travel, and enjoy life. Not to suffer through it.
best,
Pres
- Piedmont Pottery and Hulk
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Really Professional looking booth and set up, as it has been whenever you have posted. I am glad to hear that you wear a mask at this point, I do whenever going somewhere crowded and will until the ugly covid head if finally gone. Tis a sad thing to know you are cutting back, but from your position I imagine a sigh of relief!
Great work, great presentation, now great retirement!
best,
Pres
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Last week @kswanposed a question in the QotW pool. His post read:
QOTW: What tips do you have to make cleaning up your studio easier or more time efficient?
Some areas aren't too bad for me, such as keeping the footprint of my throwing area small, arranging things to close any gaps where clay bits can fall to the floor. I use a damp sponge to sweep little dry bits into a dustpan and then wipe the floor with a clean sponge.
Unfortunately, I feel like I am chasing my tail some days, trying to get up all the little bits that fall off surfaces all day as I work. With the layout of my space, I can't condense the tables and shelves any more, so I have to walk from one area to another, which inevitably spreads clay around. One solution I'm doing now is to have a slightly damp towel on the floor to wipe my feet on as I move about. I check my soles time to time, and if they look dusty, I wipe them with a sponge and then try to find the section of floor that's dirty and wipe it too. It just feels like I'm spending half my time doing this. ANybody else feel this way or have solutions?
Someone should invent a clay Roomba! I'd buy it in a heartbeat!
I would be second in line for that clay Roomba, but then I have so many things stored in the shop right now that I have to climb over things to get around. Renovations can play havoc with the shop!
Big Thank You to kswan for posting in the pool. . . it is always helpful!
Once again, QOTW: What tips do you have to make cleaning up your studio easier or more time efficient?
best,
Pres
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Christy Ann, could you post a picture so that we can actually see what the results were?
best,
Pres
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Suz, I would look up the orton cone chart, and compare the temps for the self supporting and small cones. I believe you will find the small cones fire hotter than the self supporting. At the same time, check carefully to see that your drop rod of the setter is in the center of the small cones length. You pictures are helpful, but I can't figure on which set of cones you are showing as you mention 3 different firings.
best,
Pres
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That is quite an order. I remember undertaking an order for 2000 vessels several years ago. Took me a year to finish them as I was still teaching. I just barely met the deadline for the job.
I would think this would be a job for a coop of some sort. A group of potters that could share the burden.
best,
Pres
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Hi folks, nothing new in the pool!
So I will pose another question for this weeks QotW.
Last week we asked about digital scales and find that probably 90% of you have gone digital at least with scales. Hmmm that makes me wonder.
I used to keep all of my notes on glaze formulas and recipes in a large sketch book. I even had drawings in it of pots and how I glazed them in the early days. Then in the 1980's I started working on apple II computers, and Commodore Amigas. Yeah, started to push my glaze chemistry onto spread sheets. Early ones were really simple, but a good way of storing things, and they could be printed out whenever you wanted to mix of glazes or other materials. These days I still do it, and often will post a picture of a pot with the glaze on it in the spread sheet. I have the spread sheet set up for 500 and 750 grams of glaze which makes it easy for small and larger buckets.
Recently, I got rid of the paper punched sheets and now slip them into a plastic protective sleeve. I number my containers of glaze, and my test tiles, with corresponding numbers marked on the plastic sleeve. I remember the names, but the numbers are easy to keep on the containers, and if I decide to move a glaze out and another in, I just keep the same number. When mixing glazes I mark each completed component on the sleeve over the recipe. Makes things easy and keeps me on track.
QotW: Do you keep your glazes in a notebook, or some other paper depository, or have you gone digital with your glaze and materials recipes?
best,
Pres
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Coning the clay wedges it on the wheel somewhat. Pressure from the left hand at the base of the wheel is greater than the pressure on the right hand pushing down on the clay. When coning up, be careful to keep pressure even across the clay with the palm of the hands. It takes practice not to rip the cone in half, but is a good exercise for centering. Do the cone up and down about 3 times and you should end up with a pretty homogenous well centered cone of clay, almost like a bucket hat with sloped side inward.
You are right not to go any further until you have mastered the centering on your new wheel.
best,
Pres
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@Finn EwinsDo I assume that you learned on a wheel at a center or a friend/mentor? If so you may have problems adjusting to the height of wheel head on your second problem; not centering well.
As to the wedging, and throwing, you are working in a new area, at home I assume. If so is the height of your wedging area the same height as where you are used to working? Sometimes a lower or higher table height effects how you are wedging. For myself when I set up my wedging table, I measured the height of the table with a ball of clay around 10#s on it and the length of my arms to reach that ball of clay. Then I built my table to those dimensions maybe an inch or so higher. You arms should be relaxed and resting on the clay with just a slight bend in the elbows. Most of the motion for wedging comes from the body movement, not the arms. A properly setup table height will allow you to use your body most efficiently.
Hope this helps.
best,
Pres
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As I have had hearing problems much longer than the Brent, I don't worry. I was more interested in the torque, and ability to help me center larger pieces of clay. . . those days have passed also. I also drive an econobox as my car leaving the v-8's and V-6s. in my youth.
best,
Pres
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Ceramics by Nelson was our text at Mansfield State College. A small school near my parents home in north central PA. I was taking ceramics as part of an undergraduate program for my Art Education BS. The school had several good, albeit lesser known professors. My ceramics professor was Stanley Zuchowski, a graduate of Alfred. He threw large, and was a big man often hefting barrels of slip from one end of the room to the other when making clay. In order to keep anything in the class from the wheel he had to see a 9 inch cylinder out of 3lb of clay. After that we were allowed to throw almost anything. I believe I got some of my prejudices from him: There are only 3 forms off the wheel, the cylinder, the bowl, and the plate. A bowl always has a round bottom, if the bottom is flat it is a lowly dish.
My true introduction to ceramics books came when perusing the office of the ceramics department at Penn State University where I began graduate classes. I took them within the Fine Arts department as non degree. There were several texts i there that I knew I would one day own: Clay and Glazes for the Potter, by Daniel Rhodes; The Potters Dictionary of Materials and Techniques, by Frank and Janet Hamer; to name a few. To be honest, I first looked at these books for the pictures of pots, I had been interested in art all my life, but had very little experience with ceramics until that first class in college. It wasn't until I started reading beyond the pictures that I understood the art, craft and science beyond the pretty pictures. So my library has grown to fill much of a room.
best,
Pres
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@NovicePotter, I think I can shed a little light on your question, and others I am sure will add to it. Let me welcome you to the forum first off, hope you find the answers you need here.
I have mostly fired my pieces with a lower bisque than the glaze temperature. My first reason for doing so is the obvious one, and the one you spoke of . . . it was what I was advised/taught to do. Not that your advice is necessarily wrong, but let me explain. Bisque firing to a lower temperature than the glaze will remove organic elements from the clay, dry the clay and harden it, and have some effect on the total shrinkage of the clay body. This clay body will not be as dense as the higher temp used for the glaze firing, thus the clay will absorb some of the glaze into the surface of the clay. This absorption promotes a better bond between the clay body and the glaze in the firing. You could say that the particles get locked into the clay body with the further shrinkage that goes on in the glaze firing.
So is what you were advised wrong? No not really, but with provisions. Commercial ware is often fired to a higher temp in the bisque for a few reasons:
- Higher bisque firing means the ware is fully vitrified and less fragile to handle in the glazing than lower fired bisque temps
- Glazes are often machine sprayed on to the ware, and absorption is not needed for the glaze to stick to the body as much and often the glazes used have a binder to help glue them to the ware
- Firing the ware at higher temps for bisque means tighter stacking, more ware in the firing, and thus more cost efficient.
Finally, if you are not having problems with your ware, and are using the clay body and the glazes your local pottery is using you are probably doing fine. If however, you want to go your own road in the future, you may need to investigate clay bodies, home mixed glazes, and other firing alternatives. Many of us do not like to glaze ware that is fired to the glaze temp because it is hard to get the glaze to stick to the surface without additives, and it limits much of the decoration techniques many of us use.
All IMHO,
best,
Pres
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Always kept a container of water saturated with Epsom salts in the HS, when mixing glaze would add 3-3 tablespoons full of the solution to the wet glaze when mixing new glaze. This does major good in keeping from glaze hard panning in the bottom of the bucket, and is stayed in suspension longer also.
best,
Pres
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You may find this strand on the forum of use:
@Mark C.has been helpful in identifying these wheels. I would say you have an A or B model when looking at the size of the motor. As in Marks post your controller looks to be original and no parts exist. Best of luck with this. I have had my CXC for many years and it still runs great with very little maintenance.
Welcome to the forum!
best,
Pres
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The caulk gun conversion is on my blog site:
https://picworkspottery.blogspot.com/
Sorry so late in noticing the wish for the handheld extruder.
best,
Pres
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@Babs, I used to used to use the heel of my hand to flatten large platters and patens, but now I use a rib. I have three ribs that are about 8'' long maybe 2-3" wide. Each has a slightly different shallow curve. I flatten a 5-7 lb ball of clay with my fist and arm as a rib, then use the wooden ribs held at a 30-45 degree angle to flatten and compress the slab more. These ribs have taken a major amount of stress off of me when compressing large pieces. I have even used them inside of large bird baths and succulent planters.
best,
Pres
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Seems like my spoon does much the same, but reversing the spoon gives me a wide flat dish,, whereas the other direction gives me a deeper rounder bowl form.
best,
Pres
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I love my magic water, and the power extruder of course. Looks like a great little hack for having 3 hands.
best,
Pres
I have noticed that the tools in the studio do not rust or tarnish as much, and the new kiln seems to be firing very clean. I run a vent out the window, and the system has a blower that keeps the kiln interior cleaner, and moisture from bisques gets ducted outside, not in the garage atmosphere. Venting highly recommended.
So I will pose another question for this weeks QotW.
Large vessels
in Studio Operations and Making Work
Posted
Nancy, are you looking to make yours with the pointed/rounded base or with a flat base? I believe that part of the process is determined by the base. Thickness of the larger pots seems to be 2-4" in coils, and then the scraping will bring the walls a little thinner. flat bottoms have more stress on the bottom for weight of the walls whereas the rounded or pointed bottoms are supported with the side walls with different stress points. Interesting project. . . wish we could help more. I would think your best efforts would be to work smaller and ramp up when you get more assured/confident of your process.
best,
Pres