Thonas C. Curran on sat 13 feb 99
Friend asked advice on keeping low fire and high fire clays apart in
classroom situation. (We were at Skidmore College using their toys the
other night and chatting in the glaze room...Skidmore uses only high
fire clays after past experiences where students had tried to fire
earthenware in the cone 10 firings, and she was wondering if she should
do this in her own studio where she has classes for kids and adults.)
She did use one earthenware which had different color from the high fire
stuff when bisqued or green, so she could tell before loading glaze
kiln. Now both her low fire and high fire look alike in bisqued and
moist state, and she doesn't want accidents. I suggested red
earthenware, but she doesn't like the mess and stains with the kids.
Any bright ideas from Clayarters? She would like to offer option of the
low fire glazes as well as higher fire glazes. Any high fire clay I've
used is really too fragile -like raku ware- for glaze firing at low
temps, and I don't know of any with long, long firing range. TIA
Carolyn
Vince Pitelka on sun 14 feb 99
>Friend asked advice on keeping low fire and high fire clays apart in
>classroom situation. (We were at Skidmore College using their toys the
>other night and chatting in the glaze room...Skidmore uses only high
>fire clays after past experiences where students had tried to fire
>earthenware in the cone 10 firings, and she was wondering if she should
>do this in her own studio where she has classes for kids and adults.)
Here at the Appalachian Center for Crafts we use quite a bit of terracotta
in the intro class, but it is the only earthenware clay we have around, so
there is no problem, because it is easy to recognize. Every once in a while
an intro student will glaze a terracotta piece and it will slip into the
high-fire, but it is John Stephenson's sculpture recipe, and contains enough
fireclay that it does not melt down at cone 10. So no problem. With a more
heavily fluxed functional terracotta body there would be more reason for
concern. If we were using such a body, we would be sure to check very
carefully to cull out any terracotta pieces on the high-fire shelf. Things
become a little more complex with whiteware low-fire bodies, but the idea
that Skidmore has eliminated low-fire clays from their ceramics program is
appalling.
- Vince
Vince Pitelka - vpitelka@DeKalb.net
Home 615/597-5376, work 615/597-6801, fax 615/597-6803
Appalachian Center for Crafts
Tennessee Technological University
1560 Craft Center Drive, Smithville TN 37166
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