Hyn Patty
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While looking into replacing the wiring - I have also learned that the Skutt kilns were originally set up with 14 gauge wiring to and from the relays. But more recently they have swapped to 12 gauge in order to keep the relays (both black and clears) cooler and lasting longer. So I think that will be helpful, whether I order ready made wiring kits or just get spools of wire and make my own, that I be sure it's the heavier gauge and not the more common & thinner 14 g. Useful info and practice for any appliance rewiring, kilns or otherwise. Can anyone here tell me what kind of wire the thinner red wiring is? Probably they can tell me if I take a sample to my local hardware store.
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I can certainly replace wiring and I'm about to that with my Olympic already. The wiring in that one is looking pretty shabby but the wiring in my Skutt still looks clean and new. Testing the wiring in the Skutt with a multimeter also shows very little resistance in the wiring - and we checked every wire in there. Not sure I can replace these with another style of relay or not. My first thought was that this pair was faulty since my last pair of relays, which were the exact same kind, lasted 20 years without issue. Still reading all other comments...
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So, while swapping out the elements on my 20 year old Skutt, when I went to test fire it afterwards the kiln firing schedule starts, the relays click, but there's no heat. In fact there is no power at all getting to the elements. After a few minutes into the firing schedule the relays stop clicking and the kiln just sits there displaying the same temperature it started with. No error code. I sent photos to Ryan at Kruger Pottery of various things to make sure I had done my re-wiring precisely and he says it's fine. But he did notice (as I had) that both of my recently replaced relays had bent connection pins in one corner. I replaced those about three months ago but clearly they have already failed in a new, strange way. I'm attaching a photo to show how the two lower left connections sank into the relay body and went crooked instead of staying straight like the other connection pins. I contacted the company that sold me the relays and we chatted about whether or not they'd had any similar failures like this, especially in that batch. But they said no. My old relays failed in the usual manner by burning out internally and the clear plastic went black. But never seen this kind of failure before. They are kindly sending me a replacement pair of relays but I'd love to know what might cause it and certainly do not wish to keep repeating it. After chatting we decided that my 20 year old kiln's Signal Transformer might be failing. There is no discoloration on it, and it tested fine using a multimeter for continuity, but I went ahead and ordered a replacement transformer since it's only about $15 anyway. I double checked my Olympic Doll E and it uses the same kind so I went ahead and ordered a second one for that kiln too, since I fire it a great deal more often than I use my big Skutt. My replacement parts are long overdue so I'm trying to get a leg up and make sure both kilns, and especially my heavily used Olympic, are kept in tip top shape. Anyway, if you have had this kind of failure on relays before, or if your signal transformer in your kiln controller has gone bad, I am just fishing to see if you had similar experiences. The more I know the better! Thank you for your input.
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Problem with my K thermocouple is that not ALL of the wire is sheathed. Just the tip where the two are joined it has no covering - so it still drops flakes off of the tip. So yes, I am a huge fan of a good S thermocouple instead so not to risk ruining my work. For whatever reason those are fully sheathed and last so much longer too. So sorry you had to pay SO MUCH for your elements, Babs. I assume a lot of that is freight cost but likely your kiln is much larger than my Skutt which is about medium sized for a kiln. Large compared to my little Olympic but fairly small compared to my Mother-In-Law's huge Skutt that's easily twice the size of mine. Hers probably does utilize twice as much element wire so that would make sense if the cost were at least doubled.
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Feeling Like an Idiot - Watch Your Firing Times!
Hyn Patty replied to Hyn Patty's topic in Equipment Use and Repair
Oops! I should have posted this in 'Equipment Use and Repair' so if a kindly admin would move it for me, I'd appreciate that. I'm looking but I do not see a way to move it myself. Thank you! -
A while back I mentioned on my Workshops Facebook group that my large Skutt kiln cost a small fortune in electricity to fire and that a newer kiln wouldn't have that issue. Which turns out to be true - in a simplified way. A long firing using my Skutt after 20 years was taking too long and eating a lot of power. It might run me $50 in electricity to do a single long, slow firing and that's nuts. I had no idea until my husband commented on how much our power bill had jumped up when I started using that kiln again. But for a while I had used this kiln so little until the past year that I forgot how long the firing schedule should have been. While firing a Cybis 'Nashua' I've been working on for a while, one evening my kiln finally threw an error code and aborted the firing. Thankfully my client's Cybis wasn't ruined. It merely didn't fire up to temperature. Either one of my kiln elements had blown or my thermocouple had gone bad. Testing was in order. A simple multimeter (while the power was disconnected) showed me a LOT of resistance in the elements that still worked. I then ordered new elements for my Skutt and they arrived yesterday! Mind you, BOTH of my kilns have been used much of the past 20 YEARS and NEVER had anything replaced on them until last year. My Skutt especially still looks brand new and I try to keep both kilns in top condition, but.... My Olympic suddenly blew a relay last year and that was a wake up call for me! Now this. Needless to say I should have replaced the relays and elements YEARS ago. Expensive as they are I've surely wasted several times the cost in electricity in just the past few years due to having worn out elements and not realizing it. All my firings have continued to go just fine - I just wasn't keeping a log of how long it took for those firings. If I had been I'd have seen that my firing times were getting longer and longer over the years. It did that so slowly I didn't even notice. I barely even use this large Skutt kiln compared to my little Olympic Doll E so why would I have caught that? Now I feel stupid for not catching it sooner. As I am fond of saying, 'No matter how much you think you know about anything, there is ALWAYS more to learn!' Ceramics is definitely no exception to that rule. So guess what I am doing today? Replacing all four elements in my Skutt. I've got this! There's a YouTube video for almost anything out there...
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Yes, that was the going rate at that time from ANYWHERE (for my kiln) so yeah, I decided to wait. I always price shop around and look at a lot of different places and at that time everyone's prices were stupid crazy. Some had them cheaper like $350 but then the shipping was insane so I'm glad I waited. I was able to get backup relays at that time for regular price thankfully. As for S thermocouple that may well be true and that is my concern also. Which is why I want to test it but hadn't yet. I may put it into my little Olympic kiln and try it rather than in my larger Skutt. I really detest K thermocouples and how they flake off bits of metal. I am always having to steel brush whatever part of them that isn't fully sheathed and vacuum out my Olympic before any glaze firing - else risk little bits of black flakes in my finished pieces. As I typically get several thousand dollars per piece I just can't have flaws like that in my scupture.
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I feel you. My now 20 year old Skutt failed to reach temp on a firing for the first time recently and gave me an error code that suggests either the elements or the thermocouple are failing. Ugh. With the price of rhodium gone through the roof, that could be costly. Tbh I haven't replaced ANYTHING on this kiln, or my Olympic, since I got them new 20 years ago with the exception of the relays - and I have used them a lot. The relays went out on both kilns in the past year so they are brand new. As much as I have used the heck out of my Olympic Doll E, I have no clue how on earth I haven't had to replace anything else in all these years. I've just been amazingly lucky, I suppose. My SKutt however was in storage for about a decade and has been used a great deal less than my little Olympic. Good news is I found a platinum rhodium replacement thermocouple S out of China that only cost $15 shipped (instead of $400) but I haven't tested it yet. It is supposed to be good to fire up to cone 16 and since both of my kilns only fire up to cone 10, that would do very well if it works. I'll be swapping it to test shortly but hadn't gotten around to trying it yet. Alas, testing my elements on my big Skutt showed a lot of resistance and one bad element. No wonder my electric bill has been going higher and higher when using the Skutt. Thankfully a full set of 4 new elements for my KM1018 have come down in price. During COVID I had already priced them and they were about $400 USD with shipping. OUCH. But now I got them for $253 postage paid. Whew! That is a nice surprise.
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Satin Spark - Bay going Flea Bitten Grey
Hyn Patty posted a gallery image in Browse Member Galleries
From the album: Hyn Patty LLC
Satin Spark, Arabian mare Sculpted by Sarah Minkiewicz-Breunig and produced in earthenware ceramic by Donna Chaney for Thomas Bainbridge Studio. I have completed her to a bay gone grey with the first flea bites starting to appear. Custom glazed by Hyn Patty, October 2023 - all work done in the kiln. Tons of subtlety in this piece, hair pattern and more my camera was challenged to capture. Satin Spark #1 of the edition stands 4.75" tall by 4 inches long. See more of my work at hynpatty.com© 2023
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Satin Spark - Bay going Flea Bitten Grey
Hyn Patty posted a gallery image in Browse Member Galleries
From the album: Hyn Patty LLC
Satin Spark, Arabian mare Sculpted by Sarah Minkiewicz-Breunig and produced in earthenware ceramic by Donna Chaney for Thomas Bainbridge Studio. I have completed her to a bay gone grey with the first flea bites starting to appear. Custom glazed by Hyn Patty, October 2023 - all work done in the kiln. Tons of subtlety in this piece, hair pattern and more my camera was challenged to capture. Satin Spark #1 of the edition stands 4.75" tall by 4 inches long. See more of my work at hynpatty.com© 2023
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From the album: Hyn Patty LLC
Satin Spark, Arabian mare Sculpted by Sarah Minkiewicz-Breunig and produced in earthenware ceramic by Donna Chaney for Thomas Bainbridge Studio. I have completed her to a bay gone grey with the first flea bites starting to appear. Custom glazed by Hyn Patty, October 2023 - all work done in the kiln. Tons of subtlety in this piece, hair pattern and more my camera was challenged to capture. Satin Spark #1 of the edition stands 4.75" tall by 4 inches long. See more of my work at hynpatty.com© 2023
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From the album: Hyn Patty LLC
ARANDOR - sculpted by Sarah Minkiewicz-Breunig and produced in earthenware ceramic for Thomas Bainbridge Studio! This boy is mini in scale, packed with attitude! I have completed him to a red chestnut rabicano with minimal sabino in high gloss finish. What a challenge to photograph! All work fired in the kiln Orton cones 04 through 018. he stands 3.5 " tall by 4 inches long. See more at hynpatty.com© 2023
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From the album: Hyn Patty LLC
ARANDOR - sculpted by Sarah Minkiewicz-Breunig and produced in earthenware ceramic for Thomas Bainbridge Studio! This boy is mini in scale, packed with attitude! I have completed him to a red chestnut rabicano with minimal sabino in high gloss finish. What a challenge to photograph! All work fired in the kiln Orton cones 04 through 018. he stands 3.5 " tall by 4 inches long. See more at hynpatty.com© 2023
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From the album: Hyn Patty LLC
ARANDOR - sculpted by Sarah Minkiewicz-Breunig and produced in earthenware ceramic for Thomas Bainbridge Studio! This boy is mini in scale, packed with attitude! I have completed him to a red chestnut rabicano with minimal sabino in high gloss finish. What a challenge to photograph! All work fired in the kiln Orton cones 04 through 018. he stands 3.5 " tall by 4 inches long. See more at hynpatty.com© 2023
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From the album: Hyn Patty LLC
Dante - sculpted by Sarah Minkieqicz-Breunig & produced in earthenware ceramic by Joan Berkowitz of Pour Horse Pottery, this large mini boy stands 4" tall by 4.5 inches long. His tail was broken in two places and missing the curled piece on the tip. I kiln repaired him and custom glazed him to a mulberry rose grey with coppery and gold accents in satin finish. I also made him a very minimal black base so he'd be less tippy. All work done in the kiln and fired to Orton cones 04 to 016. Collection of the glazing artist. See more at hynpatty.com© 2023
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From the album: Hyn Patty LLC
Dante - sculpted by Sarah Minkieqicz-Breunig & produced in earthenware ceramic by Joan Berkowitz of Pour Horse Pottery, this large mini boy stands 4" tall by 4.5 inches long. His tail was broken in two places and missing the curled piece on the tip. I kiln repaired him and custom glazed him to a mulberry rose grey with coppery and gold accents in satin finish. I also made him a very minimal black base so he'd be less tippy. All work done in the kiln and fired to Orton cones 04 to 016. Collection of the glazing artist. See more at hynpatty.com© 2023
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From the album: Hyn Patty LLC
Dante - sculpted by Sarah Minkieqicz-Breunig & produced in earthenware ceramic by Joan Berkowitz of Pour Horse Pottery, this large mini boy stands 4" tall by 4.5 inches long. His tail was broken in two places and missing the curled piece on the tip. I kiln repaired him and custom glazed him to a mulberry rose grey with coppery and gold accents in satin finish. I also made him a very minimal black base so he'd be less tippy. All work done in the kiln and fired to Orton cones 04 to 016. Collection of the glazing artist. See more at hynpatty.com© 2023
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Good to know! Of course it does depend on what kind of underglaze you are using. I don't have Amaco Velvets though I keep meaning to get some to try. I agree, doing tests - that's always wise before you commit to working on an important piece.
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Panda Bears with cracks following first firing.
Hyn Patty replied to Terri98's topic in Studio Operations and Making Work
As an animal sculptor myself, your pieces are beautiful. Lovely work! I agree using a bisque mender (I don't bother adding paper fiber myself) will work great and you can carefully tint it with underglaze or clay to match your original clay. If the color after firing is off just a touch and bothers you, you can softly apply a little opaque underglaze to the area to blend it in and re-bisque one last time to hide it. Again matching your colors to your original unglazed piece so it's not visually a problem. I repair bisques of various kinds this way all of the time, even thin broken legs. If you are able to rough up the edges of the break the mend will be stronger than just filling in a smooth crack. If it is at all possible to deal with your thickness issue you should. Even with hand building you can always start with a wadded up bit of paper as your core for pieces that will be too small to get your fingers into to hollow out properly. Dry it slowly and the paper will burn out in the first firing. May even want to make plaster molds of various parts before assembly so you can slip cast replicas that then you can resculpt anew into individual pieces and save you both some time and cracking, but up to you. Good luck with it! -
Best Detergent For Removing Clay out of Clothing
Hyn Patty replied to Vik's topic in Studio Operations and Making Work
I'd prewash your items by hand before throwing them into the wash or simply hand wash and not use machines at all. To remove clay residue from the washer afterwards I'd suggest running empty loads with vinegar added - the same as you would with hard water build up in a dishwasher. But that won't help if it's in your dryer. You REALLY do NOT want clay dust in your dryer anyway. It will throw all that dust up into the air when running a drying cycle and that is a health hazard for everyone involved. If it's really important to get clay stains out of cloth, use a color safe or regular bleach. Pretreat the stain as you would blood as mentioned. But again, that will degrade your cloth items over time with chemical decomposition that will make fibers fade and become brittle. So probably best to have specific sets of clothes and aprons and rags for working with clay and not worry about stains. -
It depends on the kind of underglaze you use. If it is a transparent underglaze then no, it won't work. The black will show through and kill your red. If that's the only kind of underglaze red you have, first mask it off and apply an opaque white underglaze where you want the red of the lady bug. Then apply your red over it and it should really pop and stand out nicely. Conversely, if you have an opaque red underglaze it might work if you layer it up thickly enough. It will still probably come out a fairly dark red though. If you want a bright red against the black, do the same as above by laying down an opaque white base where you want the red to be, then layer the opaque red over it. This is handy though because you can easily make the white variable. Thicker where you want the brightest areas to pop, and thinner or absent where you want the red darkest for a more 3d lighting effect. Like laying in primatura for a chiaroscuro effect in an oil painting. I hope this helps - have fun with it! Oh, and then you can always clear glaze just the lady bug part to a high gloss against the matte black porcelain if you want it to really stand out. I frequently use different sheens in my glazes on the same piece when I work on my equine sculpture. Maybe a matte base with a satin horse with high glossed eyes and hooves for example.
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China Painting base recipes and starting points
Hyn Patty replied to Jeanette's topic in Clay and Glaze Chemistry
Not sure if I missed someone else already posting this link but this is one of the places I did find for some basic starter information: http://www.porcelainpainters.com/PPIOClass/classroom.htm I am not a member of this or any other china painting association since most of the techniques they use aren't very applicable to what I am doing. But it still may be useful to you. What I have found useful is contacting places like Dallas China or Maryland China and simply having a long chat with them about their products, how they are used, and throw my problems at them for advice. I think they are wonderful and under utilized resources. I never did find a 'matte' (or satin) flux though. I have various matting agents but they have to be mixed with colors. I haven't been able to formulate or locate a non-glossy clear flux to use as a final over all sheen adjuster. Adding tons of matting agents to a glossy flux so far has resulted in wasted matting agents. Adding matting agents to individual colors is difficult for me to get the final results uniform and also not dilute and lighten the colors. -
China Painting base recipes and starting points
Hyn Patty replied to Jeanette's topic in Clay and Glaze Chemistry
For example, I have been having a lot of issues with reds and red-browns. I get lovely golden browns but getting nice red tints on my equine pieces is a huge PITA. So I find out I was mixing incompatible pigments that cause each other to burn out the colors. This document I found online should aid me in future tests as I am working on a huge Cybis race horse piece that my client wants some rich reds up against pale pangare golden hues on an otherwise dark dappled horse. The reds keep burning out so I need to try something different. http://www.porcelainpainters.com/PPIOClass/colors/Colors.asp Maybe this link will be useful to someone else as well! -
China Painting base recipes and starting points
Hyn Patty replied to Jeanette's topic in Clay and Glaze Chemistry
Good info, thank you for sharing. Being relatively new to over glazes and having found so very little online to assist me, I've had to dive in and simply use trial and error. I've been doing under glazing for years but the past three years or so I have added china painting and enamels to my work for color adjustments. I find I'm using it more and more. But I have had to wing a lot of it and ask my fellow artists directly for tips who have used over glazes longer than I. Speaking recently with the owner of one of the two largest china painting companies in the USA, she sadly informed me that sales are way down and she was gladly giving people like me free samples to try. She predicted that china painting would be a dead art form in the USA within ten years or less. Our 'Baby Boomers' are dying off and no one is taking their place to continue with over glazes. Partly due to the fact that the techniques and information to get started is so closely guarded that new painters have a terrible time getting started. There are some workshops out there and a few books but as mentioned, they are far and few between and pricy. I need to make more blog posts of my own on the techniques and materials I am using. What little I know is still very useful for others to get started with and from there they can at least do a lot of test tiles and forge their own way if need be - as long as we can still get the materials in the coming years. How I am using china paints however is far from the more usual traditional methods, I imagine. Not having any instruction in their use I'm finding my own way and what works for me with horse sculpture rather than dishware.- 9 replies
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From the album: Hyn Patty LLC
Custom glazed bone china 'Maxixe da Barros' sculpted by Morgen Kilbourn and produced by Horsing Around of England. Client custom order to black & white sabino Criollo after photos the owner took of a real horse. Glazed by Hyn Patty, 2023 to satin finish. All work done in the kiln. Piece stands 6.5" x 9" x 3 inches wide. See more of my work at hynpatty.com© 2023
