Carole Fox on fri 26 may 00
Dear Clayart Friends,
I have decided to make the leap to functional pottery after many =
years of producing only raku. I am using a white stoneware clay that is =
rated cone 8. My problem is that I have no access to a test kiln that =
will go that temperature.
I have an L&L J230 electric kiln that is rated to cone 10 =
(heavy-duty elements) and this is a kiln that is composed of three =
separate units. I could remove the middle unit but am still left with a =
pretty large kiln space for firing only a shelf of test tiles. My =
questions are- Would it be worth it to remove this middle section to do =
the test firing? Should I fire slower or fire down at the end of the =
cycle to compensate for the quicker cooling of an almost empty kiln?=20
I know I can expect the glazes to look different than they will look =
in a regular firing. Still, this being my first adventure into glaze =
testing, I want to be as careful as I am able.
Thanks in advance.
Cheers!-=20
Carole - in Elkton, Maryland where my daughters and I watched a =
Snapping Turtle lays her eggs in a hole she dug on the side of our hill =
- awesome!!
Carole Fox
67 S. Edgewood Lane
Elkton, MD 21921
cfox@dca.net
Dale A. Neese on fri 26 may 00
No need to pull your kiln apart for testing. Along with your work in each
firing there should be room for lots of glaze tests on test tiles. Take a
bat and throw a bottomless wide cylinder with walls around 4 inches tall.
Thickness is the same as your regular pots. Leave enough of a base to the
walls so that the wall will stand up when cut. Leave fingermarks to see
how the glaze would perform over a regular pot. Brush on the cylinder bands
of colored oxides or slips. Cut down through the cylinder every 2 inches
around. You should have several 2"X 4" "tiles" to use for tests. Sometime a
small hole in the top of the tile will allow you to hang the tile on a glaze
bucket for identification. With red iron oxide paint the name of the glaze
test under the base. Dip base in hot wax. Mix 100grams of a test glaze in a
blender pour through a strainer into a small container. Take the test tile
and dip the side of the tile into the glaze 3/4 of the way. Then turn the
tile around and dip it into the glaze 3/4 of the way. You will have single
dip on the outsides and double the application in the center of the tile.
Place all of your tests around the pots in a regular glaze firing. Put
several tiles of the same glaze on different levels of the kiln. Record all
of your results in a notebook.
Usually I have dozens of tests in every kiln load. Then when a glaze looks
like it will be useful make a larger batch test it again on a pot before
mixing up a huge amount.
Dale Tex
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