mel jacobson on wed 27 jun 07
nice to be home from a long stay at the farm.
hay creek was a huge success.
we rebuilt the salt kiln and it fires like a dream.
the big wood fired kiln fired perfectly.
the amazing thing was:
the salt kiln made of soft brick/covered with itc
was in much better shape than we ever imagined.
the salt had stopped at about a quarter inch.
most of the brick was almost perfect past the quarter
inch measure. only about 10 percent of the bricks
were lost.
we had to take the inside bricks out, as we needed to replace
the entire hard brick floor system. we did that, and put back in place
hard brick on the floor and inside walls. we sprayed a layer of
shino type glaze to the hard brick before firing and it looks
like it works too, plus the inside of the kiln is beautiful.
we have added about an hour to the firing cycle with hard brick,
so, no big deal.
the worked needed to be done, so we did it...tim frederich got
the bricks for us and he helped rebuild the kiln...
we stretched
out the wood firing to about 27 hours and could have added
another ten, but it was sure done...cone 11 down all over the kiln.
so...it got shut off. nice stuff.
kurt did about 25+ great ash glazes. mark issenberg's oatmeal was
the star of the show.
i think i have solved the `pigskin` glaze problem...i will take pix tomorrow
of the pots. we fired cone 11 oxy and got what i think is perfect pigskin.
but, i have never seen a pot with that glaze, so i may be miss/informed, but
it sure is a nice glaze. and, it looks like pigs. kevin caufield
fired it in the salt
kiln to cone 10 reduction and it turned into a great deep purple glaze.
mr. tick came home with a big bullseye mark on my arm, and lo and behold
it was a lyme bearing tick bite...so, i am on antibiotics for the
next two weeks.
i got it early so nothing to worry about.
i had a tech from qwest out to fix my dsl for the fifth time. it just
stops working for hours at a time....and we did a search together, went
around the neighborhood and found a junction box that was not on their
map...and, there was a cracked wire that led to my house, my line.
he got a great mug and he then added for me, a new/high tech modem, brand
new from the factory...with some added features. so, that is finally done..
don't have to fly wayne to minnesota to fix it...gail in indy is in
the first stages
of building me a new `super computer`....it is fun to have a hand
built computer
from an expert...and she is.
so, all in all i have been on a big high....got tons of old nagging
projects done
at the farm.....everything is working in proper order....and the gang
had a great time.
mel
from: mel/minnetonka.mn.usa
website: http://www.visi.com/~melpots/
Clayart page link: http://www.visi.com/~melpots/clayart.html
joyce on wed 27 jun 07
Thanks for sharing the pics of great glazes!! You sure do have that
chattering work down!! Inspirational.
Too, your comment about a glaze (was it the temoku pig skin?) being
John Britt's
idea lead me to
pull out his book from the stack of glaze books once again. Just as
thrilling as it was reading through it the first time. Between
John's book and your
work on ^10 oxidation glazes from last year I should have enough to
stay entertained
for life!!
I also am having a little fun sticking some ^06 glazes in with my
bisque firings .....
rewarding so far.... it's mostly the bronze/pewter/or crystal tones.
Exciting.
Joyce
In the Mojave desert of California U.S.A.
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