Owen Kozlowski on wed 18 nov 98
Hi,
I was hoping someone could help me with some down and dirty saggar
info.
I'm a Ceramics student at Hamilton college, and though it's true everyone
has a different take on saggars, it seems they take that for granted and
overlook volunteering useful common knowledge.
Here's my questions, can anyone help? -
1. I have access to three Bailey gas kilns, one 150cf, one 50cf, and
another 20cf, and I'm firing bisqued slabs (approx. 1'-2' square, varying
shapes) so I have to build the saggar in the kiln. I was thinking of using
slip covered paper, can I pack everything in a cardboard box and then slip
cover it with more paper? And my Prof. said something about heavy-duty
aluminum foil, any comments or suggestions?
2. I'm also looking for a real list of ingredients. I know about salts,
sulfates, dogfood, seaweed, vermiculite, and food peelings, what else do
you have people? I've heard rumors of paint chips or raw paint? Anyone?
3. Lastly is there any way to preserve the colors of a saggar firing in
later firings without having it re-oxidize? I would like to use stains,
engobes, or a clear glaze later. Help!!
Thank you everyone, my final project owes you debts of gratitude.
Owen Kozlowski
198 College Hill Rd
Clinton NY, 13323
(315) 859-1223
June Perry on thu 19 nov 98
Dear Owen:
You can throw in some processed/dried chicken manure. Chicken manure is higher
in nitrogen than some of the other manures and I got orangy pink with it. You
could also test some of the other commercially available manures. I have a
friend who used to get elephant dung from another friend who volunteered at
the local zoo. I used the chicken manure because I just happened to have a
large flock of chickens at the time. :-)
Also, sprinkle some copper carb in the mix. A cheaper form of it is to use
Bordeau mix sold at garden centers.
You might want to use scraps of natural fabrics -- cotton, linen, rayon, wool.
I never heard of anyone doing that but it just came to mind as a possibility.
You could try spraying it with a salt solution or oxide solution, letting it
dry and draping it over a pot in the sagger. Same thing with salt soaked
straw. It can leave some interesting marks on higher fired pieces and may do
the same in saggar firing.
Have fun!
Warm regards,
June
Dannon Rhudy on thu 19 nov 98
---------------Original message----------------------------
>Hi,
> I was hoping someone could help me with some down and dirty saggar
>info.
I was thinking of using
>slip covered paper, can I pack everything in a cardboard box and then slip
>cover it with more paper? And my Prof. said something about heavy-duty
>aluminum foil, any comments or suggestions?...........
You can certainly use slip-covered paper. If you use sufficient layers,
and make sure that there are no gaps. Depending upon the size of
the piece, you do not need a cardboard box, either. You can use a
paper bag to hold the "ingredients" next to the piece, then wrap the
whole thing in slip-covered paper. Makes a great saggar, though
of course it is fragile and will crumble when you remove it from the
kiln. Easily swept up, however.
>
>2. I'm also looking for a real list of ingredients. I know about salts,
>sulfates, dogfood, seaweed, vermiculite, and food peelings,
That's more than enough stuff. But you can experiment with whatever
you like.
>3. Lastly is there any way to preserve the colors of a saggar firing in
>later firings without having it re-oxidize? I would like to use stains,
>engobes, or a clear glaze later. Help!!
If you want to use stains/engobes/clear glaze, do it FIRST. If you re-fire
your saggar fired work, you will lose the coloring from the saggar firing.
There is an article in the recent Pottery Making Illustrated on low-salt
firing that may be helpful to you. The glaze used in the article contains
lead, but there are others which do NOT; check around or make your
own.
Dannon Rhudy
potter@koyote.com
Lydia Norrell on thu 19 nov 98
I have had considerable experience firing saggars at cone 9,10 .
The insulation
of the object as a result of packing material will lower the temperature of
theobject.
If you have not read Chuck Hindes article in anancient copy of Studio
Potter,I
suggest you do so,vol.7no2.It containd many suggestions for materials.For alow
firing
range try to find an article in cm. Look at dec indices 95 or ffurther
back, the story
was about saggars, ising galvanized tubs.
Lydia Norrell
133 Ann Rustin Drive
Ormond Beach, FL.32176
b
Steve Casey on fri 20 nov 98
Owen,
Your email was not provided, so I cannot respond to you directly, so I will
have to post through here. I have conducted some saggar firings myself,
with pretty good success. I used a 12.5cf Geil gas kiln, and things went
quite well.
I had fired to ^10. I began with sturdy supports on the floor of the kiln,
then placed some old, heavy duty shelves on these supports. I covered the
shelves with approx 1" of sand (since I was also incorporating salt in the
saggar-you can probably mix in some alumina hydrate with it for additional
protection). I then built a saggar from refractory bricks---not the light
ones, the heavy duty bricks. I built the saggar so that there was about a
4" space around the entire saggar. As I was stacking the brick, I was
placing ware inside(bisqued), and covering the items with everything I could
find--seaweed, copper pipes, food peelings, had soaked some pots in cobalt
sulfate, iron sulfate, magnesium sulfate, salt water, etc....
I then placed a coil of wadding around the top layer of brick, and pressed
two additional old kiln shelves on top of the saggar. I sealed the crack
between the two shelves with additional wadding (aluminum hydrate, kaolin,
water)and SLOWLY brought the temperature up by candling for two days, then a
gradual increase to ^10 over 36 hours.
The results: the kiln shelves on the top were glazed by the fumes, and were
subsequently used in the raku kiln. The fire bricks were also glazed a nice
red-brown (from the salt in the seaweed and the salts on the ware), but were
not damaged. The pots ranged from toasty brown with a sodium silicate glaze
(much like a wood firing) to light yellow (from the seaweed), the textures
ranging from smooth to rough. At ^10, there wasn't much colorization in the
blues, or greens, but the metal I had placed in the kiln resulted in some
nice flashings. I have one piece left from the firing--the rest have been
sold. There did not seem to be any damage to the kiln walls from the fumes.
I did not have to preserve the colors as they were the result of a high
firing and full vitrification. (I used stoneware--^10 Buff)
I have also built paper kilns and fired them with great success. Hope this
helps...
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