Robert Harris on tue 1 may 12
Well, I fire in an electric kiln to Cone 9 and a bit. So I am atypical
in that most people using an electric kiln in the US fire to cone 6,
in the UK Cone 8 or cone 9 is fairly common.
The "basic" books that are memorable are :
Daniel Rhodes - Clay and Glazes for the potter.
Emmanuel Cooper - Electric Kiln Firing.
Bernard Leach - A potters book - fascinating from a historical
perspective more than anything else, although there are tables in
there about analyses for various types of wood ash that are
interesting (don;t know how accurate they are to a modern eye).
These days my go to "reference" books that I pull out all the time are :
As a "cookbook" John Britt's "Guide to High Fire Glazes" is of course
excellent, although personally I would love to see the unity formula
printed below the recipes so I could do a visual comparison of how
they compare with regards to K+, Na+ Ca+ vs Al and Si. (Hear that
John?? Just in case you do a second (more technical?) edition). I am
gradually putting together a spreadsheet with exactly that
information. Not only can you see how the recipes in a group (say
Tenmokus) stick within particular limits (although John does often
graph this), you would be able to tell which recipes deviate the most
from the norm (which I would find as interesting to make up as the
ones slap bang in the middle of the norm).
I would also add that there is a lot of stuff about how to fire,
firing schedules, thicknesses, discussion on limits - all of the
extras a good "cookbook" needs to have (as we were discussing on
another thread) - that are absolutely applicable to cone 6 electric
firing. If I was to offer one piece of advice to any potential
electric firers (especially if they don't just want bright glossy
glazes), it would be, "Fire Down!". In other words program your kiln
to keep to a slow cooling schedule, mimicking the slow cool of a well
insulated gas kiln.John's book includes precisely these sort of
profiles.
A very difficult to find book, but invaluable for the technically minded is
Taylor and Bull :Ceramics Glaze Technology.
And finally for anyone who appreciates the old Chinese glazes,
Nigel Wood's : Oriental Glazes. I just made up a 'Northern Tenmoku'
from one of his analyses and amazingly it worked pretty perfectly
first time. I'm currently looking at where else it could go, but
frankly 5 years ago I would have been happy 'as is'.
Since I am actually typing this in the pottery, all of this is off the
top of my head. I'm sure there are others that I will remember being
useful at one time or another, but these are the "nearest and
dearest".
On Tue, May 1, 2012 at 2:43 PM, DJ Brewer wrote:
> For those who do electric kiln firing, what are your favorite books and
> tips for getting creative glaze results out of your electric kiln?
>
> thanks for your responses!
>
> DJ
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Robert Harris on tue 1 may 12
I said ....
>
> As a "cookbook" John Britt's "Guide to High Fire Glazes" is of course
> excellent, although personally I would love to see the unity formula
> printed below the recipes so I could do a visual comparison of how
> they compare with regards to K+, Na+ Ca+ vs Al and Si. (Hear that
> John?? Just in case you do a second (more technical?) edition). I am
> gradually putting together a spreadsheet with exactly that
> information.
Before John get's mad at me for calling his book a "cookbook", I ought
to add that there are very good discussions on what the constituents
of the glazes are up to. Unfortunately I've read the information there
and other places so many times, I sometimes forget what a good
resource it is for people just figuring out what does what.
(And admittedly even I come across information that I've forgotten
about every so often - for example that overfired tea-dusts are glossy
brown glazes with little bright speckles of Magnesium pyroxene
crystals). Now I know what one of my glazes actually is.
Unfortunately, while adding more Talc did indeed increase the size and
number of crystals, it merely looked gaudy!
John Britt on tue 1 may 12
Robert,
I won't get mad at you. I think everyone is entitled to their opinion and=
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should=3D20
express it. Bring it on!
I would loved to have put in UMF but wanted to keep it on the practical s=
=3D
ide with=3D20
Lark and all. A great book for that - and one of the best glaze books ar=
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ound is=3D20
Ian Currie's Stoneware glazes. Outstanding! As is David Green's Pottery G=
=3D
lazes.
John Britt Pottery
Johanna Demaine on tue 1 may 12
Richard Zakin's "Electric Kiln Ceramics" has been in my library since 198=
=3D
1.=3D20=3D20=3D20
Though not a dedicated electric kiln user, I was and still am very impres=
=3D
sed with=3D20
the holistic approach which forms the basis for developing extremely crea=
=3D
tive=3D20
INDIVIDUALIZED work in the electric kiln.
On Googling this book I learned that it is now in its 3rd edition and pub=
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lished by=3D20
Krause Publications. The link below
http://tinyurl.com/ckrwe2r
gives a look inside the book together with the itemised contents. I can=
=3D
highly=3D20
recommend this new edition.
Johanna
Johanna DeMaine
http://johanna.demaine.org
http://overglaze.info
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