Sylvia See on sat 11 oct 97
Hi all, I'm jumping in here on the thread about firing wet pots for Raku.
I'll stay out of the discussion of how or why it works, as I never heard of
it until we entertained the Greek potters here last year. Maria painted on
our pots all day long while Nikos threw on the wheel, altered pieces and
handbuilt. We were having a Raku party at a farm the next day so Nikos had
us fire the pieces he made that day, freshly made, in an electric kiln all
night. We opened the kiln in the morning, quickly cooled them, and took
them to the Raku. He then rubbed in a combination of oxides and glazes for
colorants. Then we Rakued them. He removed them from the hot kiln, dumped
them into straw and then rolled them in sawdust. He then dumped them all
into a tub of water. He removed them and examined them and many he wasn't
satisfied with, so he added oxides, and glazes to the soaking wet pieces, I
mean thoroughly soaked, and then replaced them in the hot kilns. We all
nearly died. He had such great pieces and we knew they were going to
explode in the kiln. He repeated this process on some of the pieces more
than once and never lost a single piece. I am fortunate to have 3 of his
pieces and I treasure them. They do not look at all like anything I have
ever Rakued, and I love them. I have no idea why it worked for him, but am
no longer afraid to try it myself. They are really different. Many of the
pieces he fired this way were what he called his boxes, or pots with lids.
Even they came through wonderfully. Shocked the heck out of everybody at
the Raku but a great lesson. I sometimes wonder how many of us that were
there have had the courage to refire our wet pots since. I have lost pieces
that I sprayed with water, or reglazed and fired right away, or pieces that
had sat on the damp floor of the garage. I think, but don't know for sure,
our problems of exploding pots has been because they were damp, for
example, just on the bottoms from sitting on the floor. His were thoroughly
soaked, right through the entire pot. Anyway, firing really wet works,
messing around with half wet or damp can cause some great explosions and we
have had the pleasure of experiencing many of them.
Sylvia See Claresholm, Alberta sylviac@telusplanet.net
I really like my bifocals
My dentures fit me fine
My hearing aid works perfect
But Lord I miss my mind!!!
Wendy Hampton on sun 12 oct 97
When he refired the wet pieces did you leave the lid off the kiln so the
steam could escape?
Wendy from Bainbridge Island WA
| |
|
