vince pitelka on sat 15 apr 00
> ----------------------------Original message----------------------------
> If you are firing with rice husks and dried cow manure then that is a
> primitive firing, and primitives did not bisque first. I think you get
> better colours not bisquing. And I burnish on the wheel with a piece of
> plastic over something soft, foam plastic etc. Should take less than a
> minute.
It is certainly OK to refer to the firing process as "primitive," but I
would draw the line at referring to the people as "primitives." That went
out a long time ago, and it does carry certain negative implications.
Tribal peoples make artwork as sophisticated as any the world has seen in
any time period. Nothing primitive there, except the firing.
And of course it would be silly to purposefully avoid using the technology
we have at hand, just because we are pit-firing or bonfiring. I have found
that the degree to which the wares take on color has to do with the
temperature of the bisque. The higher the temperature, the less color. I
bisque to cone 018, and I think that this work is just as receptive to the
effects of the firing as unfired work, and it is far less likely to break or
pop in the bonfiring. When you pre-bisque to 018, you can get the bonfire
up to temperature fast, and then hold it there for a while to get the
effects you want.
Best wishes -
- Vince
Vince Pitelka
Home - vpitelka@dekalb.net
615/597-5376
Work - wpitelka@tntech.edu
615/597-6801 ext. 111, fax 615/597-6803
Appalachian Center for Crafts
Tennessee Technological University
1560 Craft Center Drive, Smithville TN 37166
http://www.craftcenter.tntech.edu/
Helen Bates on tue 18 apr 00
Vince, and others;
If you can get a look at a copy of "Fusion" (Canadian Clay and Glass
Artists' publication), web page is at: http://www.clayandglass.on.ca/
(for Winter 1999, I think it is), there is an interesting article by
Robert Tetu about his experiences at the previous summer's week-long
workshop with the daughters of Lucy Lewis held in Hamilton, Ontario, on
a particularly wet and rainy week. They brought all their own hand-dug
clay, and their own manure! Each participant got to make one pot, and
decorate it. At the end of the week, the pots were fired (some potters
kept theirs as greenware). All the pots burst. The potters didn't
really care, though the daughters were rather upset for the
participants. What Robert and others surmised was that the wet weather
was something the pueblo potters were unused to, so the pots just
weren't able to dry enough.
So, it may be a matter of climate: if you make pots in Arizona or New
Mexico, they will dry quite fast and may not need bisquing. If you make
them in a damp climate, they probably will.
Helen
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Helen Bates
mailto:nell@reach.net
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