iandol on wed 29 may 02
Re-jig Corner C -""
I read Ian Currie's first book a couple of years ago, though from =
contact with other potters and suppliers in Australia I knew that he had =
a good teaching system for exploring the potential of materials at hand.
I think this is the strength of using his logical system, It is a good =
teaching tool, a Square Blend Style of glaze exploration which includes =
all of the elements, or glaze materials, in every sample. It counters =
the weakness of Line, Triaxial and Square blends published in many of =
the books about glazing in that the others do not address problems of =
inclusively.
For example, a 6*6 test tile, as illustrated in Cooper and Royle (p 26), =
has four samples with only two ingredients and sixteen with three, =
leaving only sixteen which employ all four ingredients. For all the =
effort of weighing and mixing to get a strike rate of 16 out of thirty =
six seems to be a poor reward. But this is easily corrected in several =
ways, one of which is to adopt Ian's system.
A second weakness of this commonly used elementary method is that it =
gives areas of the basic tile where mixtures are deficient in Silica. =
There is insufficient silica to form a glass regardless of the quantity =
or variety of fluxes used. So using the popular 6*6 tile may again be a =
waste of effort yielding unsatisfactory results
In addition, it is possible for three experimenters to get three totally =
different sets of results from the same four ingredients on a 6*6 tile, =
then become totally confused because some of their results do appear to =
be identical, though spatially transposed on the tiles.
Using a computer Glaze program will not address these problems unless =
their solutions are incorporated into the assumptions which underpin the =
extensions to the basic spreadsheet needed to do the Unity Calculations.
Now I must say that I never used an abacus to do glaze calculations, =
just an old "Guess Stick", "Slide Rule" to those brought up on hand =
calculators. Today, I spreadsheet my glaze tests in "Works" after the =
event of firing samples.
I agree with Ian. There are times when, whatever system you are using, =
you have to look within the gaps between mixtures to find a better =
alternative. You may, as Ian also points out, also have to go outside =
the confines of a strict regime of firing to a specific cone value to =
get the aesthetic effect you need, be it colour response, texture or =
optical effect. And without any doubt, computer programs are an ideal =
tool to support and record this type of work.
The Art of Glaze Invention demands Empiric Science.
Best regards to All.
Ivor Lewis. Redhill, South Australia.
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