Brad Sondahl on wed 17 feb 99
I think Dean makes some good points,as to history prejudicing against
electric firing.. I think there is also a strand of "guilt by
association." There has always been a gulf between ceramics hobby
people who paint cast mushrooms etc, and artist potters who create new
works continuously. One of the delineators has been the electric kiln
and lowfire are the traditional choice of the ceramics crowd, vs. fuel
fired and Cone 10 for the art elite. So anyway electric kilns suffer
association with the hobby side. And, asides from maintenance, they are
a lot simpler to deal with...
Which brings up the element part of this thread... I've tried both
ways: (replace all at once, or one at a time), and now do a hybrid.
It's possible that an element can burn out early due to impurity, a bit
of glaze on it, arcing against its buddy, etc. I make note of the date
when an element is replaced. When firing time begins to suffer, I'll
replace all the elements, except any which were stuck in a shorter while
ago.
Now back to the hobby ceramics/art split. While I detest the cutesy
figurines and little jars of premade glaze, I'm envious of the talent of
some of the china painters, and the palette of effects those little jars
give them...
--
Brad Sondahl
http://www.camasnet.com/~asondahl/bradindex.html
Sondahl homepage http://www.camasnet.com/~asondahl
Original literature, music, pottery, and art
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