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Experimental Project.- Low Cone Glazes On Various Animal Bones


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Hello all,

 

 

I got referred here from a new acquaintance. As you can tell from the title I'll shortly be starting a fun little art project of glazing antlers, skulls, shells, and other bones.

 

If anyone has a bit of info or a few links to toss my way, I'd greatly appreciate it. I'll be using an electric kiln and low cone glazes. I originally was going to slip the bones and bisque them before glazing but learned that bones don't incinerate so the shrinkage of the clay body would destroy itself around the bone. So, with that in mind I was brought to the direct glazing.

Thanks for whatever you toss my way...unless it's a brick. That might hurt. ;)

 

Tyler

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Hello all,

 

 

I got referred here from a new acquaintance. As you can tell from the title I'll shortly be starting a fun little art project of glazing antlers, skulls, shells, and other bones.

 

If anyone has a bit of info or a few links to toss my way, I'd greatly appreciate it. I'll be using an electric kiln and low cone glazes. I originally was going to slip the bones and bisque them before glazing but learned that bones don't incinerate so the shrinkage of the clay body would destroy itself around the bone. So, with that in mind I was brought to the direct glazing.

Thanks for whatever you toss my way...unless it's a brick. That might hurt. ;)

 

Tyler

 

 

I use to make bonelike objects with a porcelain and covered with terra sig, burnished fired to ^09-08. Or if you want the clay harder and fired hotter , you could wax the surface. This way you avoid dealing with bare clay spots and glaze.

Marcia

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I use to make bonelike objects with a porcelain and covered with terra sig, burnished fired to ^09-08. Or if you want the clay harder and fired hotter , you could wax the surface. This way you avoid dealing with bare clay spots and glaze.

Marcia

 

 

I'm not making bone-LIKE objects is all, I need information on using real bones and glazing them.

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Glazes also have a shrinkage factor, so they might not "fit" correctly on the non-shrinking bones either. This would result in crackled glazes but hey that might be cool.

 

To me, it sounds like your project will break new ground, not sure if you'll find anyone with experience to share. My answer is one that is often said by pottery teachers "there's only one way to find out." Pick out a few of your bones/shells/antlers that are not very important to your project, and use them as test tiles. Figure out what will happen before you fire anything that matters.

 

Mea

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As Mea wrote, the thing to do would be to try it.

In my opinion, the bones will not survive a glaze-temperature firing (even low-fire), intact. Even if they did so, you will have to stilt or hang them so they do not stick together or to the shelves.

Please keep in mind that I have NEVER, EVER been wrong before in my life!wink.gif

It's an intruiging idea, you should let us know what happens, and post any pics if possible.

Neat idea!

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There has to be info somewhere on the temperature that destroys these objects ... Crematorium sites?

Anyhow, your project sounds very interesting so please let us know how your tests go.

P.s.

I too would make sure I fired them on a throwaway base so if it melts you won't wreck a shelf.

 

 

 

 

Okay off to the mad-chem lab after reading up on crematorium sites first. Thanks to all who let me know.

I planned on either placing the bones on an unglazed tile and/or not glazing the entire bone(s)

I'll upload beautiful pics (I'm a photographer) if everything doesn't explode, melt, or incinerate. hehe

 

EDIT/COPY: WIKI

Contrary to popular belief, the cremated remains are not ashes in the usual sense. After the incineration is completed, the dry bone fragments are swept out of the retort and pulverized by a machine called a cremulator to process them into "ashes" or "cremated remains",[6] although pulverization may also be performed by hand. This leaves the bone with a fine sand like texture and color, able to be scattered without need for mixing with any foreign matter,[7] though the size of the grain varies depending on the cremulator used. Their weight is approximately 4 pounds (1.8 kg) for adult human females and 6 pounds (2.7 kg) for adult human males. There are various types of cremulators, including rotating devices, grinders, and older models using heavy metal balls.[8]

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I use to make bonelike objects with a porcelain and covered with terra sig, burnished fired to ^09-08. Or if you want the clay harder and fired hotter , you could wax the surface. This way you avoid dealing with bare clay spots and glaze.

Marcia

 

 

I'm not making bone-LIKE objects is all, I need information on using real bones and glazing them.

 

 

I think you'll end up with pure bone ash. ...a good flux. Last time I checked (1980s) crematoriums fired to about 1900 F.

Marcia

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Bone actually does shrink a bit. I pulled this out of my archives. It's by Angela Von Den Driesch, 1976. A Guide to the Measurement of Animal Bones From Archaeological Sites. They are results from an experiment done to determine the size of bones exposed to heat. The results concluded: Bones heated for 1 hour at 850 C., turned black and had a loss of 5% of their size (50% of their weight). Bones heated to 1000 C., for 1 hr 20min turned white and had an average loss of 15% in size (also 50% their weight). I don't know if this will help, but I have waited many years to share that tid bit. Ha! Good luck.

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Hmm - Can one add bone ash to a glaze recipe I wonder? I wanted to try it using my late mother-in-law's ashes but the family thought it was a gross idea. I thought it was rather special but there you go!

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There has to be info somewhere on the temperature that destroys these objects ... Crematorium sites?

Anyhow, your project sounds very interesting so please let us know how your tests go.

P.s.

I too would make sure I fired them on a throwaway base so if it melts you won't wreck a shelf.

 

 

 

 

Okay off to the mad-chem lab after reading up on crematorium sites first. Thanks to all who let me know.

I planned on either placing the bones on an unglazed tile and/or not glazing the entire bone(s)

I'll upload beautiful pics (I'm a photographer) if everything doesn't explode, melt, or incinerate. hehe

 

EDIT/COPY: WIKI

Contrary to popular belief, the cremated remains are not ashes in the usual sense. After the incineration is completed, the dry bone fragments are swept out of the retort and pulverized by a machine called a cremulator to process them into "ashes" or "cremated remains",[6] although pulverization may also be performed by hand. This leaves the bone with a fine sand like texture and color, able to be scattered without need for mixing with any foreign matter,[7] though the size of the grain varies depending on the cremulator used. Their weight is approximately 4 pounds (1.8 kg) for adult human females and 6 pounds (2.7 kg) for adult human males. There are various types of cremulators, including rotating devices, grinders, and older models using heavy metal balls.[8]

 

 

So that essentially means that using the kiln to dispose of a body might not work. This was the subject of another thread where the poster was writing a murder mystery with a pottery theme, So that's why I'm bringing it up not because I want to try it. :-) But I'm intrigued with the bone idea.

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