Summer report #2

Here are the results of the triaxial blend. I'm pretty happy with it, as I suspected though there aren't any usable glazes(to my liking anyways.) There are several that I'll use as a base for further tests. I wasn't too surprised about what the results looked like, I am surprised about the raw materials alone. The red clay has what I guess is a very high shrinkage(useful for raw glazing!), the granite kinda looks like poorly fire malcolm davis shino on stoneware and the ash...



The ash is completely unmelted. It looks like velvet and I can easily dust it off the test piece. I use mesquite ash, which is a very hard wood and generally speaking the harder/denser the wood the more refractory the ash. I also wash my ash which according to Phil Rogers rinses away about 25% of the fluxes. I learned early on that mesquite ash used unwashed has a shelf life of about 3-4 weeks. My glossy green ash glaze will go matte mustard yellow over time, weird right? So I wash all of my ash. To keep it consistent I wash several batches, enough to last 2 or more years and then sort of dry mix it all which leaves me with one large source that will be consistent from one batch to the next. This means that I don't have to test my material before I mix each batch of glaze. I will do the same with the granite and red clay. Back to this ash...it behaves like other ashes when mixed in 50/50 of 4/4/2 blends which leaves me to believe that the ash is just lacking something on its own to melt and is in fact not too refractory.



I had to make a modification to my blunger by adding pulleys and a v-belt. The motor is 1725 rpms which is much too fast for mixing. These pulleys bring it down to about 400 rpm. I mixed up my first batch a few days ago and it works great. I'm excited to ease some of the strain from my back.

Cheers!

My summer report.

Not much happening around here. I haven't made any pots in a couple weeks but I did fire the salt kiln with a bunch of pots from my new clay body. I didn't snap a photo but the results were good. No cracking, before I was having all kinds of cracking with backfilled handles and inside footrings(not s-cracks,) and less warpage with plates. The pots also have a higher ring and feel more dense, though I'll have to fire a test in the redux kiln to confirm that.

Just for kicks I ran a triaxial blend with wood ash, local red clay and granite dust. These are 3 materials I can obtain in abundance for free so I thought I'd see what I can do with them. I've used wood ash regularly for years, I use a bit of red clay in one of my glazes and have never used the granite. I'm not expecting to obtain a usable glaze from this test(though that would be ok) but rather I want to see how these materials interact with each other. So we'll see what happens.


I've also spent some time building a blunging blung-o-matic blunger(patent pending.) It has a mounted motor with mixing shaft and a pump so I don't have to get the slip out by hand. It works well with water...the pump is going to be the weak link...I don't know how well it will handle the slip. I'll let you know in a couple of days.

Happy 4th!

Cheers!

Wine & Clay.

Will you be in or near Lubbock, Texas this weekend with nothing to do? Llano Estacado Wine & Clay Festival! Saturday 10-5, Sunday 12-5 at the Llano Estacado Winery. You can obtain directions from their website.

Cheers!

3rd place.

There are oodles of lists and sites out there that rank blogs, so many exist that even I've made it onto a few lists. I made it onto this list.

Their synopsis:

•Support Your Local Potter: One could potentially think of Texas as too arid to support authentic artistry. Don't let blogger Brandon Philips get word of your suspicions on the state; he's mined Lonestar country for true ceramics fertility. His blog chronicles his real, gritty, and often glorious experiences as a man of the ceramics craft. He does not refrain from sharing honest and heartfelt anecdotes about the trials and tribulations of a not-always-lucrative career in the art form.
•Why We Love It: A stellar and straightforward blog that makes it clear that the rough blows of everyday life can result in great work.
•Favorite Post: Invincible

My favorite part: "he's mined Lonestar country for true ceramics fertility." I may have to put that on my banner up top. Ha!

But seriously pottery folks, we're getting beat by the slipcasters on the "best blog list." The slipcasters!!! And they make crappy ass over-priced clay.

I've about milked all the fertility out of this piece of the lonestar state.

Cheers!

Bigger isn't better...

Here are the 3 big pots that I was working on. I'm moderately pleased with them. I think the bases are too narrow...if I could chop 6 inches off the bottom of that middle one I think it would be perfect. The termination of the textures are up for debate...it stops where it does because it became too stiff to impress, I'll have to take that into account in the future. It seems like you can get away with a lot more with big pots because of the impressive quality of the scale, so it's important to maintain a critical eye. I like to look at the pieces and imagine them in a smaller scale...would they still pass muster? I've heard my grad school prof say(over and over) bigger isn't better, bigger is just bigger, a good thing to keep in mind. The tallest is 36", the pot on the left has 85 pounds of clay in it...I lost track of the other 2.


I made some plates and a few yunomi with my new clay...I like the way it feels, a little sandy but not too gritty, perfect.


One of the important things to me is the texture of the clay when it's been tooled. I like it to have a consistent light gritty texture. I can't stand fine bodied clays with large grog...bleh! This clay is comprised of stoneware clays, kaolin and ball clay. It uses 60 mesh sand and 48 mesh grog. This looks pretty good to me.

I made this plate from the trimming chuck for the above plates...before I pulled the wall all the way out I pinched four corners(kinda like a pitcher spout) and then contined pulling and ribbing. I kinda like it, it has potential.

Cheers!

Coil & Throw

Grab a cup of coffee and pull up a chair, it may be a bit of a snooze.

Double click on the video and it will open in a new window.

Enjoy.



Cheers!

Big Uns.

I've been making some big pots...just because. Check out the sweet Mike Dodd via Batterham knock-off. The tallest is 27", certainly not the biggest I've made but good size. These are all made with the coil and throw method.


Here are 3 even bigger pots I'm working on. These will potentially be the biggest pots I've ever made, maybe 40-48" tall. 25# base + 15 coil so far. They are currently 23-24" wide.


Maybe I'll do a video tomorrow of adding a coil.

Cheers!