Craig Martell on wed 2 jul 97
Hi Carbon Trappers:
Do any of you remember the photo in CM of the wood fire potter with the
"Carbon Trapper" ball cap? I loved that shot!
I think I'm off on some kind of tangent but I wanted to pass on an approach
to effective carbon trapping that I heard from Warren MacKenzie.
Warren said that he was using some Shino type glazes and was trying to trap
carbon with little or no luck. Then he realized that after the initial low
temperature, or body reduction period that if he went into neutral or
oxidation to get a faster temperature rise, he trapped carbon. The idea is:
subject the ware to carbon and then seal it in by fusing the glaze quickly.
Most Shino's and Carbon Trap glazes are early fusers and come in all types
and varieties. While firing the .6 Limestone set of glazes for the Currie
group, 3 out of the 35 glazes trapped more carbon than I've ever seen.
These were early fusers.
I hope this is of some interest, and I would like to point out that not once
in this post did I say: In My #%$$&% Opinion, So there!!
Kind Regards, Craig Martell-Oregon
Mel Jacobson on mon 27 oct 97
i have used a technique for years, of adding wood to the closed up kiln
when the temp is coming down. i like to use the wood at about 1900
degress and down. i just add a few sticks to the closed up kiln.
it has sorta become a `good luck thing`, and it seems i cannot fire
a kiln anywhere, where i do not throw wood in.
i sure get carbon trapping...have been using dannon's shino that she
made for the farm, and have about one gallon left. thin coat, two dips,
and use a little of her technique of a light brush of soda ash on top.
i have one pot that i fired at the farm that is almost half jet black.
kurt wild mumbled something about `uncontrollable accidents, dumb shino`,
but i noticed that he had a bunch of shino tests the last time
we fired at the farm, and was over heard saying`mm, nice color, oh, that
one is nice`.
on a couple of occassions i have gotten carbon trapping on clear
white porcelain....i am sure it was the wood/re/reduction on the way down.....
but this is not pure science, and others may have stronger opinions...but i
do get nice carbon black streaks in that shino.
mel
http://www.pclink.com/melpots
Corinne P. Null on tue 28 oct 97
mel -
when you say adding a few sticks of wood - could you be more precise.
toothpicks, 2' lathe strips, 3" thick yard debris logs?
do the book - great idea. Put this one in it.
corinne
At 08:19 AM 10/27/97 -0500, you wrote:
>----------------------------Original message----------------------------
>i have used a technique for years, of adding wood to the closed up kiln
>when the temp is coming down. i like to use the wood at about 1900
>degress and down. i just add a few sticks to the closed up kiln.
>>it has sorta become a `good luck thing`, and it seems i cannot fire
>a kiln anywhere, where i do not throw wood in.
>
>i sure get carbon trapping...have been using dannon's shino that she
>made for the farm, and have about one gallon left. thin coat, two dips,
>and use a little of her technique of a light brush of soda ash on top.
>
>i have one pot that i fired at the farm that is almost half jet black.
>
>kurt wild mumbled something about `uncontrollable accidents, dumb shino`,
>but i noticed that he had a bunch of shino tests the last time
>we fired at the farm, and was over heard saying`mm, nice color, oh, that
>one is nice`.
>
>on a couple of occassions i have gotten carbon trapping on clear
>white porcelain....i am sure it was the wood/re/reduction on the way
down.....
>but this is not pure science, and others may have stronger opinions...but i
>do get nice carbon black streaks in that shino.
>mel
>http://www.pclink.com/melpots
>
Corinne Null
Bedford, NH
cnull@MCIONE.com (New e-mail address)
Mel Jacobson on fri 31 oct 97
At 07:48 AM 10/28/97 EST, you wrote:
depending on the firing, i might use 6 sticks the size of lath, about 10
inches long....three at a time.
http://www.pclink.com/melpots
mel jacobson on mon 11 dec 00
as many of you know i have spent almost three years
doing carbon trapping experiments. cm 12/2000.
i think it is important to read the work of tom buck in that article,
vetting all of malcolm davis' recipes...we had almost 50. (malcolm
was very generous.)
when done, tom concluded that there are about two glazes.
(i am not doing that math in a post.)
claybody, firing technique, thickness and the amount of
soda ash on the surface, has all to do with american shino and trapping.
iron amounts are critical to color. (hey, put some cobalt in a
shino, blue,blue...what a concept. the cops won't come for you.)
japanese shino has almost nothing to do with western shino.
totally different beasts.
the early japanese shino was almost pure feldspar with small additions
of wood ash as a flux.
it was a white glaze...meant to be a white glaze..all white glaze.
it was the iron patterns from the potter that gave it that classical
orange look. of the hundreds of shino tea bowls i have seen in
japan, non that i saw had carbon trapping. wood affects yes, but
typical carbon trapping i did not see. i spent time in seto, and
what they seemed to admire was the white frosting look...small
iron wash patterns.
the most interesting carbon trapping i have done was accomplished
about 20 years ago... took some mugs from a friend..porcelain, fired
them in a fibre kiln, (small one,out in the woods) the pots were glazed with
1234, thin. at about 1600 i fed a great deal of wood into the
kiln...just sticks, smoked the hell out of it for about an hour..
fired to cone 11. on the way down at 1700 smoked the kiln
again for about an hour with wood....the mugs had gray steaks
of carbon trapping. have one in my hand as we speak.....no
one believed it could be done...and most laughed...it is carbon
trapping. it does not wash off.
after all my work, i can tell you one thing.
i can make all black pots, shino. just takes a hell of
an amount of soda ash on the surface, and heavy early
reduction. the more iron you have in your claybody the darker
the shino will be..(duh) i did five claybodies and each gave a
completely different shino color. ochre slip painted inside of
teabowls would give almost a dark red brown shino.
it is all maverick, that is why potters love it. what you expect, often
does not happen, then wham, there it is. (when you do not expect it)
one has to learn to accept what the kiln gives, not be too anal and
want what you want.
the most interesting things i have done for me....is re/fired shino.
amazing things are happening. but that is for another day.
i have fired my kiln twice this month...not one shino pot in the
load...not one.
i cannot look shino in the face.
new experiments with good old rhodes 32. one never runs out
of things to do. never.
i want to be very clear with my friends on clayart. i am not a scientific
glaze researcher. i am a potter. i take ideas, make hundreds of pots,
fire them different ways, with different clay. i make observations.
fire more pots. make observations and conclusions.
i do not use the computer for glaze calc. i do not use insight. i make,
do, and observe. i take advice, listen to the scientific friends.
( i am totally in debt to tom for his work on 'black shino'...i felt that
it was very important to tie him with me...two ways to do research.)
it is very important to me, that potters that do not have the
background of let us say, craig martell or louis or ron roy, do not get
the feeling that `hey, i had better not mess with research, i am
not trained in science`. potters for centuries have dealt with clay
and glaze as i do.....make, try, observe, conclude. my pots are
my notes and records...just look at them. i do this for me...they are
my pots, i share what i know, then let those with more information
take it from me, and work some more. if they tell me that my glaze
needs two moles of silica, well so be it.....i do not have to know why
to the last detail. i take their word.
it is the joy of art, pots, life.
a place for all kinds of personalities. just don't expect you have to be
something you are not.
i have never made test tiles...i make pots, they are my tests.
you see, i do not have a precious bone in my body.....i can throw
away my pots, give them away, sell them, use them as land fill...
because, i know, new ones are on the way...and they, of course, will
be better than the last ones. tomorrow is very important to a potter.
if you focus on that last firing....`oh, i am so thrilled with myself,
oh, me, kiss my fingers, just look at my work. i can never let
anyone have them, not even my sister`. shit, get a front end loader
and take that crap to the land fill. then get to work. tomorrow is almost
here.
mel
i would sell my house to raise the money to get back about
twenty paintings i sold in the sixties and seventies...then burn them.
in fact i go so far as to say...`take all my work of the last 50 years
and pile it up...burn it, bury it....the art world will not collapse`.
remember, tomorrow i can start all over again. (and i have experience.)
FROM MINNETONKA, MINNESOTA, USA
http://www.pclink.com/melpots (website)
| |
|
