mel jacobson on wed 6 feb 08
may i join john is saying....`get a wood fired kiln.`
build the kiln, get the wood, do the work. if that
is the look you want...get the kiln, the wood and do the
work to make your pots be `wood fired`.
far too many potters covet a certain look, often they
do not know why, just do. or, it is now the cool look, the
new look. so....`make my electric kiln pots look like a wood
fired kiln...does anyone know how? give me the recipe.`
i know...some will say.
`mel's being mean.`
no.
i am being honest, and a realist. why take a perfectly good
electric kiln, that has its own merits, its own function and
try to make it do something it was not intended to do.
we that fire gas kilns have heard it for years.
`whaaaa, i want my electric kiln to fire to cone 11 and
have that reduction look...it is unfair that i can't have that
look.` see, it is unfair. `i want it.`
well, build a fuel kiln. not that hard.
fake.
did i hear fake look. i hate fake look.
dannon has worked now for five years to get a variegated,
mulit glaze look to her electric fired pots. they are very nice.
in fact...terrific. but, they are not fake anything. she has done
the work, put in the time to create a quality of glaze that
she wants. it was not easy.
electric kilns are wonderful kilns. they make pots just as well
as gas, salt or wood. but, they are different...they have their
own quality. it is up to the potter to find a style and quality that
they love for their kiln....no matter what kind of kiln you have.
i have seen thousands of pots that have come from gas kilns that
are crap. yes, crap. it was the potter, not the kiln. sometimes it
was me.
mel
from minnetonka:
website http://www.visi.com/~melpots/
clayart site:
http://www.visi.com/~melpots/clayart.html
Lee on wed 6 feb 08
Only think that looks worse than fake wood fire out of an electric
kiln is fake wood fire from a wood kiln.
For example, some folks have to glaze all their work they fire in
their wood kiln.
I never trust a man who wears suspenders and a belt on the same pants.
--Clay Mudman.
Best way to do the woodfired inspired work in electric, is
not to tell anybody that is what you are trying to do. Think of the
look as just a goal.
--
Lee in Mashiko, Tochigi Japan
http://mashikopots.blogspot.com/
"Tea is nought but this: first you heat the water, then you make the
tea. Then you drink it properly. That is all you need to know."
--Sen No Rikyu
"Let the beauty we love be what we do." - Rumi
Dannon Rhudy on wed 6 feb 08
Mel said:
....... sometimes it was me........
That might seem like a "throw away" line. But it
would do us all good to remember that "sometimes
it was me" when we run into problems with whatever
we're trying to do. Indeed, to be honest, "sometimes"
in my own case, should be "most times" when I don't
achieve what I'm after. In terms of firing, glazing, or
anything else. Most times, it is me.
regards
Dannon Rhudy
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