George Chechopoulos on tue 2 aug 11
New video on Youtube of our 17th firing of the hot box kiln at Marrowstone
Pottery. Take a look at www.youtube.com/marrowstonepots for a display of
our new Flameware Pottery sold under the tradename, "Furnoware." Still nee=
d
to update our website with the latest pics.
George J. Chechopoulos (Tsitsas)
Marrowstone Pottery
292 Merry Road, Box 193
Nordland, WA 98358
www.marrowstonepottery.com
www.youtube.com/marrowstonepots
email: marrowstonepots@waypoint.com
Barro Cocido on wed 3 aug 11
On Tue, 2 Aug 2011 12:42:50 -0700, George Chechopoulos
wrote:
>New video on Youtube of our 17th firing of the hot box kiln at Marrowsto=
=3D
ne
>Pottery. Take a look at www.youtube.com/marrowstonepots for a display o=
=3D
f
>our new Flameware Pottery sold under the tradename, "Furnoware." Still =
=3D
need
>to update our website with the latest pics.
Impressive thermal shock testing!! What about food safety testing, have =
=3D
you
had any done to your clay and glazes? Not being originally from this
latitudes, I always asked myself why is that there are no flame ware clay=
=3D
s
being sold here in North America (that I know of), my guess is that there=
=3D
is
no demand for such clay because people here didn't grow up eating food
cooked in flame ware clay pots over actual flames or embers, therefore ar=
=3D
e
not missing the amazing results (real or imaginary!, but real to me) that=
=3D
cooking on clay over real fire are obtained. I normally purchase flame
ware made in Spain, it may not pass your thermal shock tests but they las=
=3D
t
until we accidentally drop them! and they are very cheap. I have been
eying an Emile Henry 12.5" diameter tagine $140 at amazon.com but the
"real" ones made in Morocco are a fraction of that and are readily availa=
=3D
ble
at my local North African stores. Now, I'd pay for fire-ware clay and=
=3D
suitable glazes so I can make it myself. Have you consider producing you=
=3D
r
clay and glazes and make them available through clay stores or directly
from you?.=3D20
Congrats on your success in producing flame ware clay and glazes with the=
=3D
characteristics displayed in your testings.
George Chechopoulos on thu 4 aug 11
On 3 August 2011 Barro Cocido wrote:
Impressive thermal shock testing!! What about food safety testing, have =
=3D
you had any done to your clay and glazes?
Hi Barro,
Yes, my glazes have been tested for acid resistance and leaching in
accordance with the testing procedures outlined by Ron Roy in his
co-authored book, "Mastering Cone 6 Glazes." The testing procedures would
be the same for any firing temperature. All of my Flameware pots are fired
to cone 10 and my kiln fires pretty evenly throughout.
I think that the reason that Flameware Pottery is not popular in North
America is partly cultural as you have pointed out and also because, as we
have seen through earlier comments on this site, most Potters have the wron=
g
assumptions about cooking with clay pots. All the pottery that I have seen
that is intended for cooking is basically earthenware and that includes you=
r
Moroccan Tagines. Most are not intended for stove top cooking and those
that say that they can be used that way come with special heating and
handling requirements. People have been using earthenware for cooking for
thousands of years and it works fine until you forget and do something that
you are not suppose to with it and it breaks. It's cheap so just buy
another one. Earthenware cooking pots also absorb cooking oils and odors
because of their porous nature so it is best to use one pot for one type of
dish. Then there is the sanitation issue and the liability issue associate=
d
with any product being sold but even more so with a pot used for cooking.
Stoneware pots used for cooking have many of the same issues and do not
handle thermal shock very well as we all know. Earthenware pots and
Stoneware Pots are not Flameware no matter what the advertising says. True
Flameware Pottery can withstand any cooking challenge that you can throw at
it due to the low thermal expansion rate of the clay body and glaze.
The Flameware produced by Emile Henry looks good but according to the
literature, their glazes will craze. Emile Henry says that this is natural
and proof that the cookware is working properly. What a bunch of bunk. So=
,
since the glaze crazes (higher expansion rate than the clay body) cooking
oils and odors will penetrate those cracks and you aren't going to get them
out.
I would love to see the test data from those few Potters, including Emile
Henry, out there that are producing what they say is Flameware but thus far
Marrowstone Pottery is the only one with published data. See the May 2011
issue of Ceramics Technical for that article. I have made more progress
since that article was written and I will shortly begin working on updating
the information.
Another reason why you don't see much Flameware being sold here is because
in order to produce true Flameware a lot of research has to be done up fron=
t
and I'm talking years not months. And then there's the cost of the
experimental equipment on top of that. Then when you finally get the
product to perform according to your specifications you find out that the
clay body and glazes are very expensive to produce. Clay suppliers aren't
use to dealing with the exacting demands necessary to produce this type of
product. Cross contamination with other clay products is a major issue.
They would have to have a pugmill strictly dedicated to Flameware and the
demand probably wouldn't be there. Yes, I could sell my clay and glaze to
other potters that want to try it. A 25# bag of Furnoware clay costs $52.0=
0
not including tax and shipping and a 10,000 gram dry bag of glaze costs
$58.00 not including tax and shipping. Based on my glazing results the cos=
t
of the glaze will be $2.23 per cu. ft. of ware. So, any takers out there?
Those costs should also give you a good idea as to what I charge for my
Furnoware Pottery. This is not the kind of stuff you sell at your local ar=
t
fairs.
Well, I can see that this email message has already rambled on too long so =
I
will leave it at that for now. Thanks for your comments, Barro. Where are
you located?
George J. Chechopoulos
Marrowstone Pottery
292 Merry Road, Box 193
Nordland, WA 98358
Website: www.marrowstonepottery.com
Youtube: www.youtube.com/marrowstonepots
Email: marrowstonepots@waypoint.com
Phone: 360-379-5169
Barro Cocido on sat 6 aug 11
On Thu, 4 Aug 2011 10:37:53 -0700, George Chechopoulos
wrote:
>All of my Flameware pots are fired
>to cone 10 and my kiln fires pretty evenly throughout.
I am a new comer to pottery, so far only have cone 6 and 8 firing facilit=
=3D
ies
available to me. I do have a beat up electric kiln I picked up for free
recently that I plan to convert to gas and fire it to cone 10. I will ke=
=3D
ep
your information handy and once I am able to fire to cone 10, I may conta=
=3D
ct
and get some of your clay to try it.
>Earthenware cooking pots also absorb cooking oils and odors
>because of their porous nature so it is best to use one pot for one type=
=3D
of
>dish. Then there is the sanitation issue and the liability issue associ=
=3D
ated
>with any product being sold but even more so with a pot used for cooking=
=3D
.
That is true, but then, may be that is the reason why food taste better! =
=3D
it
is being "seasoned" in part by all the stuff you cooked before :-) I co=
=3D
uld
equate it to Cast Iron fry pans, traditionally one never clean them down =
=3D
to
bare metal, doing that would remove the not only the "seasoning" as in th=
=3D
e
"non-stick" properties, but also the "seasoning" as in "flavor" accumulat=
=3D
ed
by all the previous cooking.
>I have made more progress
>since that article was written and I will shortly begin working on updat=
=3D
ing
>the information.
Keep me/us posted
>Thanks for your comments, Barro. Where are
>you located?
I am in Toronto, Canada, city home to 200,000 Hellenes!=3D20=3D20
George Chechopoulos on sun 7 aug 11
On Sat, 6 Aug 2011 Barro Cocido wrote: "I am a new
comer to pottery, so far only have cone 6 and 8 firing facilities available
to me. I do have a beat up electric kiln I picked up for free recently tha=
t
I plan to convert to gas and fire it to cone 10."
Hi Barro,
When you get around to converting that old electric kiln to gas send me a
copy of your plans with dimensions and details and I'll do a review of it
for you if you like. I converted an old electric to gas about a year ago
now and used it a few times for test pots. Don't expect to get much into
that kiln and the height of your ware will probably have to be under 4 to 5
inches. I also have a castable refractory formula for filling in the voids
left by the elements that works great up to cone 10. The biggest problem
with those kilns is that they fire unevenly from one shelf to the other
going up but that problem can be solved by using a couple of thermocouples
placed at key locations. Basically what you are making is a small round
updraft kiln. They can also get expensive when you start buying the proper
shelves, thermocouples, burners, gas hoses and fittings, bricks for the
chimney, insulating blanket for the outside of the kiln and a propane tank
if you don't have a direct connection to your house tank with a regulator.
It will be a lot easier, safer and less expensive taking a class at your
local college if they have a pottery program and using their gas kiln.
Say hi to those Helenes over there for me.
George J. Chechopoulos
Marrowstone Pottery
292 Merry Road, Box 193
Nordland, WA 98358
Website: www.marrowstonepottery.com
Youtube: www.youtube.com/marrowstonepots
Email: marrowstonepots@waypoint.com
Phone: 360-379-5169
Lee on sun 7 aug 11
I bought a Ward Raku burners set up, almost brand new for $140.00
An even kiln is highly over-rated. My kiln in Mashiko
got +13 at the fireface (Ko-shigaraki, unglazed pots) cone 11/10 in
the middle (Shinos and Ash Glaze), cone 8 at the bottom door (Mashiko
tradtional glazes) and cone 6 in the flue tunnel (Unglazed Bizen
clay.)
Uniformity can be one kind of ugly especially with bland glaze=
=3D
s.
Barro, I'd say Go For It! with the conversion. But If
you want to make flamerware, it is probably best fired in electric,
with a computer controller.
--
=3DA0Lee Love in Minneapolis
http://mingeisota.blogspot.com/
=3DA0"Ta tIr na n-=3DF3g ar chul an tI=3D97tIr dlainn trina ch=3DE9ile"=3D9=
7that is, =3D
"The
land of eternal youth is behind the house, a beautiful land fluent
within itself." -- John O'Donohue
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