liambesaw
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Posts posted by liambesaw
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It is a really good wax. Luckily very close to me.
Another great wax, but with different properties, is reed wax from brackers. Both are the best waxes I've used, and SPS crystal wax is a product that Mobil oil no longer makes (or at least that was the last news), so there is a limited life on it.
You cannot let it freeze, I know that's not a big deal for you @CactusPots, but could be for others here.
Reed wax is nice because it can freeze, but also is a decent wax in general. And is available into the future.
I do hope mobilcer-a continues to be available, but I have a good back up just in case.
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Freezing slip will cause water to leave parts of the slip, leaving drier clumps when thawed, but a little bit of time in a blender or magic bullet or whatever will set it straight.
If it's casting slip, the water will separate and the deflocculant and other salts present (I'm looking at you neph sy) will crystallize. Would be a bit more of a task to thaw out casting slip.
What will work fine at keeping mold out though, is a tiny pinch of copper carbonate.
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I've never had mold issues with clay, it's more bacteria than mold. Anaerobic bacteria sets up shop in my throwing water and reeks to high heaven.
You'll have to just give it a try and find out how sensitive you are to whatever mold or bacteria is in your studio. You can't get around it by spraying everything with h2o2, it's just not feasible.
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10 hours ago, MarkTilles said:
Specifically I’d like to know what these five different icons represent on the top right of the menu, and why the furthest one to the right is enabled on my iPhone Safari browser at all times, yet is never lit on my laptop chrome browser, whether or not the system is running a heating cycle. What I haven’t found is a manual or readme with details about these things.
Line 23 of index.html says (from the right I think) heat, cool, air, hazard, door. I'm on my phone so I can't grep the files for the term hazard, which would be the best way to find how the icons turn on and off.
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On 4/23/2021 at 5:57 AM, MarkTilles said:
Can any of you out there point me in the right direction to be able to look at (and maybe even tweak) the web interface? I can't figure out where it is coming from and how it interfaces with oven.py. First off I want to see what the other status symbols in the menu represent ... Thanks in advance
What specifically? It's all dynamic so it's not as simple as looking at the html. The values are populated by the program. The html is in /public and the javascript is in /public/assets/js and the python code is scattered about. You can search for the symbols you want in the files to see where they're stored.
- MarkTilles and Bill Kielb
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Yep that's a typical wash recipe! The wash above looks like it could be manganese, iron, or a mixture of the two
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I've done my share of both and they have their own ups and downs. I find gas firing more enjoyable because I like to tinker and feel like I'm more responsible for the outcome. But when I've got things to do, it's really nice to set it and forget it with my electric kilns. As far as the outcome of either.. I mean I don't think there's a huge difference personally. Yes, reduction firing can be used to get some great/different colors, but so can electric, and I can make things look fuel fired in an electric, so it's not a big selling point for me.
Gas firing was more expensive in both energy and time for me, which is why I eventually got away from it, and by using a spray gun and unique glaze combinations I have been able to achieve the same look and feel, so I'm exclusively electric now.
Electric is far easier for me.
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I have the TA metalworks one too, it works great! He's also really flexible in the dies that come with it, if you want different ones.
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I put mine on half inch posts because the bottom element is 1.5 inches up and want it exposed rather than covered.
- Bill Kielb, Pres and neilestrick
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Oh boy, I just fix things as they break and clean things when I can't move anymore... I'm really bad about that, but this is not my full time job, and it's in a separate building, so it's kind of out of sight out of mind.
Speaking of which, I'm getting a new 3D printer soon so I need to clear off a shelf for that... Hmmm, where to put this giant box of underglazes....
I do prebox things I put on my website so I can simply grab them and toss them in an outer box and ship them out as soon as an order comes through, so I'm not completely disorganized...
Also, I do keep general maintenance parts around (elements, thermocouples, wheelhead grease, etc) so that when something does finally get bad I can fix it right away.
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1 hour ago, LeeU said:
The 3 feet of snow on the back porch has slowly melted down to a foot & a half X a foot & a half bar of solid ice, welded to the flooring, so I still can't get out the back door without a jack hammer. I need to move 2/3rd of the stuff in my kiln room out onto the porch, mostly furniture. Then I can get at the kiln, the ware cart, the 2nd work table, the firing supplies etc. I'll throw hot water through the screen until I can pry it loose.
Of course, I'm delighted to be procrastinating, since I dread how much I have to push myself to get on with it---"it" being another boat load of the ever-popular (but oh-so-boring to make) plant markers. At least they bring in the spendoolies and I am truly grateful for that.
Oh-here's a fun fact. The case of them that I sent to an outlet in the Philippines in very early January arrived yesterday. Yesterday!! I will never ship international again. And I only learned after the fact that the U.S. does not track after it leaves the states, and I have no recourse if it is lost/stolen/damaged. I ship almost nothing, ever, & don't qualify for any discounts, anyway. I am learning to love local!
Cool! I've been to Quezon city many times, it's very nice there! How did you land that gig!?
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At my home studio the only people who pilfer pots are neighbors and family, which is 100% OK with me and I've told them all so. In high school/college the only pots that disappeared after firing were incognito bongs and pipes and I know the teachers accidentally lost them on purpose
Right now on my bench I've got several more lamp projects and coffee pourovers. This lamp has 7 soviet era neon bulbs (nixie lamps) to provide a warm communist orange glow.
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32 minutes ago, LeeU said:
so...do you snort it, shoot it, or huff it?
Depends on my mood. Pottery... It's a helluva drug
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2 minutes ago, oldlady said:
reminds me of an old (1910) metal lamp base. crackled slip??? nice job on color and finish. two thumbs up.
Thanks, this glazeless application was definitely a new process for me, but I still can't sell anything right now so instead of making mugs and bowls every night I've turned to drugs. Wait, no, not that, I've turned to just having fun with stuff and not making things that have a price tag.
Crackle slip, iron wash, and then soaked in a mixture of soda ash, sodium silicate and bone ash.
Came out just how I pictured it in my mind beforehand!
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17 minutes ago, Bill Kielb said:
Cute! Battery or corded?
Either or. There's going to be an optional battery connection inside, or a nc female jack mounted into a hole in the side.
Another one I'm working on is using neon indicator bulbs instead of LEDs and that one will be wired for AC... Well... Because neon.
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Here's one of the finished lamps. Using low power LEDs. Not bad for a prototype!
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13 minutes ago, Callie Beller Diesel said:
Lunch today. Pulled pork sammies on homemade “extra toasted” pretzel buns. My plate, Noel Bailey mug that was a gift from a friend. Apple pie in the background as it turns out my 9 year old daughter has a touch for pastry. And it was Pi Day.
Hey I have the same pie dish!
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Sounds like a fault with the clay, not with your methods.
You may be drying it out too much with your wedging. If it's pugged clay from the manufacturer try just using it straight from the bag and see if that helps.
Some clays are just short.
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I found an old intro to one of my videos making fun of the ghost question:
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21 minutes ago, Min said:
One females take on this...It's not so much that the scene in Ghost was staged, it's a movie and it's expected. What does bother me about it is when some random guy at a market gives me a pervy look and asks something along the lines if I make pots like that. ick!
Goes both ways, I get it from men and women. It's uncomfortable for me, so I try to make it as uncomfortable for them as possible too by pretending I know nothing about the movie and have them explain the scene. Works pretty good.
I accidentally watched the movie when I was a kid, I thought it was gonna be scary, but it was just dumb.
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3 minutes ago, Mark C. said:
Add 5% EPK (dry mix) to a test before wet mixing and since you are testing do a 10% EPK. This will stiffen the body just a bit. Maybe enough -cast a mig with handle on each test and see if the 5% or 10% works.
I assume this is cone 6 as you did not say-just a guess
Use grolleg or nz if you are trying to preserve some sort of translucency, otherwise EPK is great and cheap
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Set a schedule and adhere to it. If I'm potting this week I will write down what I need to accomplish and then when I put the kids down for bed, I go out to the shed and do it.
This can mean making pots, decorating, glazing, etc. But it can also mean cleaning, organizing, taking photos, listing items on my website, filming or editing video, etc.
Just about everything in my life outside of work and family is pottery themed. I stay away from social media to avoid having my ideas and styles tainted by others. I do use it to post my work and answer questions, but that's all. It can be a big time suck if you let it.
Gold Lustre
in Clay and Glaze Chemistry
Posted · Edited by liambesaw
I wasn't successful getting the gold to reduce with just pine resin, if you buy Greg Daly's book "lustre", he details making it from elemental sulfur and gold chloride. This works well. Commercial lustres using pine resin thinned with toluene use a different gold salt, I'm guessing that's the reason they work. I think the compound is a chlorohexanoic salt of gold.
You'll also need a bit of bismuth in there to act as a flux bridging the gold and glaze.
I had some luck making a silver lustre by making silver soap. Silver decanoate. But it was difficult to dissolve in almost everything so it was a pain to apply. Was conductive though and I made a few touch lamps using it. Also had success doing a similar thing with copper.