James Freeman on fri 1 jul 11
I went to the scrap metal recycling yard on Tuesday with a sculptor friend,
in search of art-precursors, and there was a very large pile of what
appeared to be mill scale or cutting spatter, which I believe is just
possibly oily, somewhat dirty, rather coarse black iron oxide. I filled a
couple of coffee cans with the substance, and brought it home to play with.
Does anyone have any experience with mill scale as a glaze ingredient? Any
advice? I am thinking of calcining the material to rid it of any oils. I
am also thinking of leaving it coarse and unsieved.
Thanks.
...James
James Freeman
"...outsider artists, caught in the bog of their own consciousness, too
preciously idiosyncratic to be taken seriously."
"All I say is by way of discourse, and nothing by way of advice. I should
not speak so boldly if it were my due to be believed."
-Michel de Montaigne
http://www.jamesfreemanstudio.com
http://www.flickr.com/photos/jamesfreemanstudio/
http://www.jamesfreemanstudio.com/resources
David Hendley on sat 2 jul 11
I've tried using coarse iron from several sources through the years.
"Rust" is a good glaze and/or body ingredient. I guess it is red
iron oxide? That's what it looks like. I like it because it is easy to
sort the particle size with sieves and also easy to make smaller
by crushing it. With a ball mill, you can also make red iron oxide
comparable to what you would buy from a ceramic supplier.
Cutting splatter is not nearly as easy to use. The chunks are often
too big to use, they can have sharp edges, and it is hard to make
them smaller. Of course, "coarse" is relative, but I would not want
to use anything larger than about 30 or 40 mesh in either a
claybody or glaze. Larger particles just end up looking like nasty
burn outs.
Other good sources can come from places that have metal
lathes. Brake shops have the filings from turning the wheels of
cars when worn-out brakes have scarred the wheels.
For copper spots, get the filings from a key-making machine.
Added to your clay with the right glaze, you can get dark green
spots with red halos!
To me, these sort of additives are more effective in claybodies
than glazes. If added to a glaze, usually just a fraction of a per
cent is enough for a noticeable effort. 2 or 3% produces a severe
effect.
David Hendley
david@farmpots.com
http://www.farmpots.com
http://www.thewahooligans.com
----- Original Message -----
>I went to the scrap metal recycling yard on Tuesday with a sculptor friend=
,
> in search of art-precursors, and there was a very large pile of what
> appeared to be mill scale or cutting spatter, which I believe is just
> possibly oily, somewhat dirty, rather coarse black iron oxide. I filled =
a
> couple of coffee cans with the substance, and brought it home to play
> with.
>
> Does anyone have any experience with mill scale as a glaze ingredient?
> Any
> advice? I am thinking of calcining the material to rid it of any oils. =
I
> am also thinking of leaving it coarse and unsieved.
>
> Thanks.
>
> ...James
>
> James Freeman
>
>
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