Neon-Cat on tue 25 may 10
nich group
Here's a marvelous, short, easy-to-understand presentation of the
scientific study (complete with great photos) of field firing
experiments in a reducing atmosphere in the Bat=3DE1n Grande
Archaeological Park. Replica pottery was produced by Jos=3DE9 Sosa, a
local potter from Piura and documented and studied by The Munich
Archaeometry group of the Physics Department of the Technical
University of Munich.
It shows exactly how dull black soot penetration occurs and at what
temperature and how shiny black graphite deposition develops at higher
temperatures in a reducing atmosphere.
This a great example of the marriage of high tech science and
traditional pottery practices.
http://www.physik.tu-muenchen.de/lehrstuehle/E15b/research/arch/welcome.htm
(Scroll down just a little way down to "Special Projects", 'Bat=3DE1n
Grande' Archaeological Park and click the link. It is a safe program
and download. Right click takes you back, left click moves forward in
the presentation.)
Studies like these give me fresh ideas to try out in my own work. In
fact, almost any ceramic process we use and talk about, from high
temperature to low temperature, has been studied somewhere by someone
or some group. It is one way I keep up with science and one of the
ways I "work smart". Tried and true is always good but I like to know
how things work, from the thermal reactions that produce color changes
to the final product. It's like mind candy for me as I go about the
nitty-gritty work of being a clay worker.
Just think, if someone studies your work in the future they'll be able
to tell exactly at what temperature some of you fired your work and in
what type of atmosphere(s) and with what materials. Maybe. Some of you
all do some tricky things (so leave clues).
Marian
Neon-Cat
http://www.flickr.com/photos/neon-cat/sets/72157624110460598/
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