Sandy Miller on sun 31 mar 02
Found one of the best burnishing tools at World Market or Cost Co. It =
is sold in the kitchen dept. It is a polished stainless steel hollow =
"thing". The sign said it would take unwanted odors off your hands??? =
Have no idea if it does but it is one of the best burnishing tools I =
have ever used!! Price $3.99. =20
Sandy Miller
Lynne Berman on fri 23 apr 04
Cat,
My favorite tool is a "Magic Slider", the rectangular one, from Home Depot. I
think they are made to place under your refrigerator so that you can slide it
out and clean behind it. Not in my repertoire! It's flexible and is said to
be made of Teflon.
Lynne Berman
William Lucius on sun 25 apr 04
My favorite is an oblong brown chert pebble that I liberated from the =
Mississippi River in the vicinity of Memphis, Tennessee in 1970 while =
stationed there as part of my Navy service. Many years later we noticed =
that similar stones were used to make concrete walkways in Nashville, =
Tennessee. It is a hard, convenient-sized stone (flat on one side and =
domed on the other) that was smoothed by tumbling down the river. =
Uncounted pot-polishings has further refined the polish to mirror-like. =
Although I have occasionally tried other rocks, spoons etc., I always =
reach for my old favorite. =20
When we teach our volunteers about prehistoric pottery, we always take =
them out into the landscape so that they can find their own polishing =
stones. This is not as easy as you might expect, since the geology of =
the Four Corners area of the Southwest is not rich in hard, =
stream-polished stones. Most of the time we find them weathering out of =
old Jurassic conglomerates. And only a few of them have sufficient =
polish needed for use - a sugary surface will drag and pick up the clay. =
Prehistoric potters were occasionally buried with their polishing =
stones, which is not surprising given that these lowly stones were hard =
to come by and undoubtedly were treasured.
We define polishing as the mechanical compaction of a clay surface. In =
prehistoric Southwestern pottery polishing is restricted to decorated =
ware, indicating that it served to prepare the surface for painting =
(sort of like gesso on a canvas). But polishing also serves to reduce =
porosity, which means food is less likely to stick or penetrate and =
water travels through the vessel wall at a slowed pace. Native clays =
are notoriously porous, especially at the relatively low (bisque) =
temperatures of firing.
I have it on good authority that Maria (the San Idelfonso potter who =
revived the polished black pottery and made it world famous) farmed out =
her pots to other women in the village for polishing. If you ever get a =
chance to inspect one of those pottery gems think of the unknown =
polisher who achieved the mirror finish with just a rock.
"The only good pot is a broken pot"
William A. Lucius
Institute for Archaeological Ceramic Research
845 Hartford Drive
Boulder, CO 80305
iacr@msn.com
=20
terryh on tue 27 apr 04
has anyone mentioned a burnishing tool in printmaking?
that is a polished steel blade in wooden handle, straight
or curved burnisher, available at art supply shops.
i use a curved burnisher on almost anything, except
for some concave surface on that i use agate/stone.
terry hagiwara
terryh@pdq.net
http://www.geocities.com/terry.hagiwara
pdp1@EARTHLINK.NET on tue 27 apr 04
Hi teryh,
I think these were ( are) triangular in section, tapering,
shortish, slightly curved, and made of hardened, a hi-cabon
Steel.
Similar in form to Babbit Scrapers...(used for fine
adjustments of Babbit Bearing shells for shafts to rotate in
and so on...)
One could make variations of this sort of form, from
suitable Files, as have been ( maybe annealed, worked, and
retempered) shaped, ground, polished...and or set into a
comfortable Handle...
Small disused Machinst's Lathe cutting Tools of the
non-Carbide kind (short things of usually rectangular
section) can be had free from any Machine Shop as has a
little good will. These could also be reformed to one's
likeing, as could a 'File'...if these being shorter should
have less of themselves for (and no tang, on which to)
fitting a Handle...
Phil
el ve
----- Original Message -----
From: "terryh"
> has anyone mentioned a burnishing tool in printmaking?
> that is a polished steel blade in wooden handle, straight
> or curved burnisher, available at art supply shops.
> i use a curved burnisher on almost anything, except
> for some concave surface on that i use agate/stone.
>
> terry hagiwara
> terryh@pdq.net
> http://www.geocities.com/terry.hagiwara
>
>
____________________________________________________________
__________________
> 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.
Fredrick Paget on tue 27 apr 04
No one has mentioned my favorite burnishing tools. They are little
flat paddles made out of solid teflon. Teflon is not very hard but is
very tough and has a remarkable low coefficient of friction. The tool
glides over the surface of wet clay leaving a nice smooth surface.
Not quite the same as using a stone on bone dry oiled clay, but it is
a very good start.
I found a source of scrap teflon sheets and rods at a nearby junk
yard and made myself a half dozen tools of various shapes such as are
usually for sale in wood form in the local pottery supply store.
A couple of ladies at the college class were borrowing them and
pestering me to make them some until I finally did.
Fred
--
From Fred Paget, Marin County, California, USA
fredrick@well.com
terryh on wed 28 apr 04
phil wrote:
>I think these were (are) triangular in section,
>tapering, shortish, slightly curved, and made
>of hardened, a hi-cabon Steel.
the one i referred and i use to burnish is
called/sold as etching burnisher. polished and
curved blade, an eye-shaped in section.
there are similar tools called scrapers,
triangular in section. though similar, this is
not suitable as a burnisher. its sharp (triangular)
edge tends to cut into the surface and scrape off
coated terra-sig. (no wonder it's called scraper.)
terry hagiwara
terryh@pdq.net
http://www.geocities.com/terry.hagiwara
Wesley Derrick - Derrick Pottery - Jackson, MS on thu 29 apr 04
My favorite is a small round stone polished to a glass like surface about
1000 years ago by the native indians of Mississippi.
I found it in a known indian camp deep in the woods along with shards of
pottery.....judging from the polishing, it was most likely passed down 10
generations from Mother to daughter ....only to end up in a potters hands
again....gives me chills.
I love this rock ! and I treat it with the utmost care and respect.
Interesting and informative thread....I'd like to hear more from others.
Wesley
Clinton, MS
verboten@netdoor.com
| |
|
