ian vonthaden on sun 11 mar 01
hello clayarters,
i am an american potter who has unfortunately been spoiled most of his
ceramics life. now i am living in Albania slowly discovering that when i
need something i cant just hop in my truck and drive to highwater clays and
say i need this, this and that...
so here is the situation. i have come into contact with the owner/ operator
of an old ceramics manufacturing facility... now they have no work. the
owner and his son still throw pots a couple of days a week. they make flower
pots and small water pitchers and fire in a small wood fire kiln. they use
no glazes at all, and i have the impression that they understand nothing of
glaze technology...
this is where i step in, what i would like to do is help this people find
some glazes that they can easily make here and begin to produce some more
functional pieces. also i would like to teach them how to make do some raku
for more decorative pieces...
what i need from you guys/gals are some simple glazes recipies that are food
safe, i have been told that they get there kiln up to about 800/900 degrees
farenheit. so i would need glazes that are stable in this temperature range,
but remember i will have to fire them by sight, because honestly they really
don't know the temp. also if anyone knows of any place in europe to order
materials from, this would help very much. for these glazes i am open to
almost any kind of color range, as long as it is can be produced
inexpensively, and the materials are redily available.
when you send me the glazes recipes if you could include the products
chemical name this would help in find the materials.
i would also like a couple of simple raku glazes, i can get some of the net
but, what i would really like are glazes that i can readily find the
materials for.
also someone in the town told me that a grrek jounalist came about fourty
years ago and wrote a story about thier town, Farka, Albania. if anyone has
heard of such a story pleasse let me know what you know...i know this is a
long shot, but what the hell. And if anyone on the list is an editor or
knows the editors of a ceramics magazine, i would be interseted in writeing
s story about this town; with the angle of ceramics in a post communist
country.
anyone who really helps me here is going to reciece a large bottle of the
best homemade raki (made from distilled grapevines) i have ever had the
pleasure of drinking.
thank you,
ian von thaden
respond on or of list:
vonthaden@hotmail.com
_________________________________________________________________
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Snail Scott on sun 11 mar 01
At 11:35 AM 3/11/01 -0000, you wrote:
they get there kiln up to about 800/900 degrees
>farenheit.
>ian von thaden
That's way below 'cone' temperatures, not even
red heat. I've seen 'native clay' earthenware
fired that low, I think, but no glazes.
-Snail
Martin Howard on mon 12 mar 01
Ian presents us with a very interesting problem.
How can one get a low cone glaze without buying in Borax in some form or
other.
Some other materials are listed in my web pages and he could experiment with
local clays to get one that melts at his firing temperature, but that seems
a long path of exploration.
It is good for us to imagine we are shipwrecked on a desert island. We want
to start making pots so good, that when one is found floating in the sea,
the whole world comes looking for us :-)
What a lovely chance to help pull Albania into the modern world, after all
the trouble it has gone through.
Martin Howard
Webb's Cottage Pottery
Woolpits Road, Great Saling
BRAINTREE, Essex CM7 5DZ
England
martin@webbscottage.co.uk
www.webbscottage.co.uk
Ababi on mon 12 mar 01
Hi!
I am not sure this letter pass, but I hope they fixed the system.
Near Albania there is a small country called Italy.
In that country they have at list two big companies that make frits.
If you find either Reimboild&Strick Or Hobby Colorobia, E mail me and I will
send you raku recipes to either of these manifectures's frits.The magazine
you wrote about is published in Greek. I have a nice book in Russian that
explain how to make glazes and firing in primitive situation, glazes I can
give you the details, perhaps they can order it from Russia. You would need
help it translation. I can tell you, can learn a lot, from the simple
pictures.
Ababi Sharon
ababisha@shoval.ardom.co.il
http://members4.clubphoto.com/ababi306910/
Joseph Herbert on tue 13 mar 01
My thought for a solution to the Albanian problem, the glaze one not that
other problem, is to formulate a glaze based on glass. Bottles, window
panes, cullet, etc. Southeastern American folk potters did well with this
kind of glaze. Perhaps just ground glass and local clay could make a
successful glaze. The most difficult part of this program is reducing the
glass to a fine enough powder to be used in a glaze slurry. This is a
mechanically simple but energy intensive process. The folk potters used
mule driven mills to accomplish this task. Similar smashing and grinding
tasks have been done by water powered trip hammer mills. In any event,
glass is a common material that can be turned to this use with some success.
Joseph Herbert
Reid Harvey on wed 14 mar 01
Ian,
I am a bit familiar with what's involved in your problem, having composed glazed
under similar circumstance in various parts of Africa. Please feel free to email
me for further details. One challenge I think you'll face is in the low fire
range you're talking about, 800 to 900, don't you mean C, not F? 900C is at the
low end of the earthenware range. In general it's a lot easier to put together
higher fire glazes, like for stoneware. The most typical problem at the lower
temperatures seems to be in getting hold of proper fluxing materials.
Of course, the feldspars are among the best, but it's not like you can just step
out the door and pick these up, then find a ball mill to grind them. If you can
somehow manage to get upto stoneware temperatures, say ^8, I've noticed an almost
universal recipe for a beautiful matt white glaze, provided you can get hold of
kaolin: 60% bottle glass, 20% white clay and 20% animal bone. But again, even if
you can do the higher temperatures you need to grind the glass to 60 mesh or so.
This can be done with glass cullet using an iron mortar and pestle, somewhat more
simple than milling. Or what about ash glazes?
It might be that your close proximity to other parts of Europe would make
importation a good option, but then I cannot imagine your logistics. What about
an imported frit combined with local materials? Please let me know and perhaps I
can help you a bit more.
Reid Harvey
Dhaka, Bangladesh
Eleanora Eden wrote:
> >hello clayarters,
> >
> >i am an american potter who has unfortunately been spoiled most of his
> >ceramics life. now i am living in Albania slowly discovering that when i
> >need something i cant just hop in my truck and drive to highwater clays and
> >say i need this, this and that...
> >
> >so here is the situation. i have come into contact with the owner/ operator
> >of an old ceramics manufacturing facility... now they have no work. the
> >owner and his son still throw pots a couple of days a week. they make flower
> >pots and small water pitchers and fire in a small wood fire kiln. they use
> >no glazes at all, and i have the impression that they understand nothing of
> >glaze technology...
> >
> >this is where i step in, what i would like to do is help this people find
> >some glazes that they can easily make here and begin to produce some more
> >functional pieces. also i would like to teach them how to make do some raku
> >for more decorative pieces...
> >
> >what i need from you guys/gals are some simple glazes recipies that are food
> >safe, i have been told that they get there kiln up to about 800/900 degrees
> >farenheit. so i would need glazes that are stable in this temperature range,
> >but remember i will have to fire them by sight, because honestly they really
> >don't know the temp. also if anyone knows of any place in europe to order
> >materials from, this would help very much. for these glazes i am open to
> >almost any kind of color range, as long as it is can be produced
> >inexpensively, and the materials are redily available.
> >when you send me the glazes recipes if you could include the products
> >chemical name this would help in find the materials.
> >
> >i would also like a couple of simple raku glazes, i can get some of the net
> >but, what i would really like are glazes that i can readily find the
> >materials for.
> >
> >also someone in the town told me that a grrek jounalist came about fourty
> >years ago and wrote a story about thier town, Farka, Albania. if anyone has
> >heard of such a story pleasse let me know what you know...i know this is a
> >long shot, but what the hell. And if anyone on the list is an editor or
> >knows the editors of a ceramics magazine, i would be interseted in writeing
> >s story about this town; with the angle of ceramics in a post communist
> >country.
> >
> >anyone who really helps me here is going to reciece a large bottle of the
> >best homemade raki (made from distilled grapevines) i have ever had the
> >pleasure of drinking.
> >
> >thank you,
> >ian von thaden
> >respond on or of list:
> >vonthaden@hotmail.com
> >_________________________________________________________________
> >Get your FREE download of MSN Explorer at http://explorer.msn.com
>
> >
> >___________________________________________________________________________
> ___
> >Send postings to clayart@lsv.ceramics.org
> >
> >You may look at the archives for the list or change your subscription
> >settings from http://www.ceramics.org/clayart/
> >
> >Moderator of the list is Mel Jacobson who may be reached at
> melpots@pclink.com.
> >
>
> Eleanora Eden 802 869-2003
> Paradise Hill eeden@vermontel.net
> Bellows Falls, VT 05101 www.eleanoraeden.com
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