Carole Fox on sat 27 may 00
Dear Clayart Friends,
Let me clarify my situation a bit. I have never fired to cone 8 =
before. I have no kiln load to put my test tiles into - only a bunch of =
test tiles that will be my first attempts at glaze testing. I already =
have the test tiles made. My concern is how to go about firing this =
small load of test tiles in my big (L&L J230) kiln.
Sorry if I was unclear about this.
Bye for now,
- Carole, in Elkton, Md, who will be forever grateful to Ron Roy for =
suggesting the purchase of the Hamers' book. It is a great reference =
book and hard to put down.Once you look up one thing...well, you =
know...one thing leads to another...
Carole Fox
67 s. Edgewood Ln=20
Elkton MD 21921
cfox@dca.net
Cindy Strnad on tue 30 may 00
Carole,
I kind of thought that might be your situation, and therefore waited for
others to answer who might be able to give you better advice. I'm not sure
just how big your big kiln is. If it's truly huge, then maybe you need to
find someone else to fire the tiles to ^8 for you. Or you might consider
starting with commercial glazes you've seen results from. If the kiln is
maybe 10 cu ft., I believe I, personally, would just fire it with the
testers. It won't be the same as firing a full kiln load, but it will be
somewhere in the neighborhood. Seems a waste, I know, but it's better than
trashing a whole load on an untested glaze. Hint--do a *lot* of tests, and
preferably do them on actual small pots, not just on tiles. This will give
you a better idea of how the glazes will turn out. Testing glazes is a long
process, and probably you won't like at least 70% of the results.
Translation: do a *lot* of tests.
Cindy Strnad
earthenv@gwtc.net
Earthen Vessels Pottery
RR 1, Box 51
Custer, SD 57730
Evan Dresel on tue 30 may 00
Try this: Build a stack of empty shelves up to about your peep level.
Then fill that shelf with your test tiles and cones and any mediocre or
worse bisqued pots. Go ahead and glaze the pots -- if they work great,
if not you've learned something. Then stack empty shelves above. When
you fire, try to ramp up so that the firing takes about as long as a
full load. You don't have to be exact but it will probably be closer to
your final firing than any test kiln would be. Is it a waste of energy?
Some, but in some ways the producing the materials for a test kiln waste
energy, too. The shelves will help approximate the heat work cycle for
a full load firing.
-- Evan in W. Richland WA where it is rainy (by our standards) and
cool. Very weird for May in a place that gets less than 15 cm of
precipitation a year.
| |
|
