Alisa og Claus Clausen on wed 20 jun 01
Dear Clayart,
To update on my failed bisque, I had a successful glaze firing.
The glazes were applied as usual. Dipped. Tom B. suggested I scratch
the surface to see who thick they went on, and they looked as they=20
normally do. I proceeded to glaze and fired as usual. Luckily, Claus =
man
could fix the kiln. It was a broken element that I did not see, because =
the
break was facing into the wall. We had a spare.
Glaze firing climbed well. When that old kiln breaks I think about =
taking
my Visa Card to the nearest kiln store..but then when it works again, I =
am so
glad, so glad, that I have her and I do not need to go into dept for a =
new kiln.
I could just kiss her. But I would burn my mouth. =20
All the pots came through well, excpet three made from recycled clay. =
On the down side, the only pot I needed in the load, cracked and split. =
The good news is really good. I know what the fault is. I mixed up the =
scrap clay, this time containing some of the new Hungarian body I am =
using. It apparently does not sit together with my usual light, flecked =
stoneware. I could not see any fault when the the pot came out of the =
bisque. But when I glazed it, small, lightening like cracks, appeared, =
mostly above the foot, where I I had trimmed and scrapped. I thought =
the entire pot would crack up, similar to some that I tried raw glazing. =
But it did not, and the cracks were not on the inside. It did not come =
through the glaze, big splits. But, the weather was on my side on =
Sunday and Monday. I threw the urn again on Sunday. On Monday I set it =
outside and watched it very carefully. The little sun we get is =
extremely strong. The pot was dry enough to trim in a half hour. It =
took a long time to sculpt a bear on the lid again, but it got done, and =
by same day, midnight, I had my bisque loaded. I had also of course to =
throw a lot of pots on Sunday, just to get something more than one urn =
into the kiln. =20
So, kiln is cooling, glaze is waiting, and hopefully I will have the urn =
with me to my friend's family on Tuesday, when I visit New York. The =
end.
I have sunk my bisque temp. from 1000c to 960c because it will just save =
my old kiln that much work. =20
Best regards, and thanks for all the help,
Alisa in Denmark
Still sunny.
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