Longtin, Jeff on tue 14 may 02
Thanks Vince!
Ya know I've NEVER had luck with the scoring/slurry thing. Every time I did
it, the thing, handle or coil, would crack off. I learned instead just to
use a light brushing of water and no scoring. (I'm pressing down pretty
hard, of course,to get good contact.)
Works for me, may not work for others.
FYI #1: When I was working with a potter full time he was starting to make a
fortune off of clay coil baskets. As his assistant, I spent my days making
clay coil baskets. I made alot of baskets. I threw alot of clay coil
feet!(Made baskets almost exclusively for over a year or so.)
These baskets were made with extruded clay coils, of course, so that
eliminated the uniformity issue. And since I was making so many eliminating
the slurry thing just made my life easier.
Never had a coil fall off in all that time. But again that's just me.
FYI #2: The plates I'm working on now are made on molds that have texture
rim to rim. I'm struggling with throwing a coil foot on an uneven surface.
Talk about challenging!
Your suggestion to use big coils is a good idea. It is in fact what I'm
forced to do at the moment but it leaves alot of weight at the foot which
I'd like to eliminate.
I may be forced to slip-cast a form fitting foot so the plates can have
somewhat thin feet but that would be alot of work.
We'll see?
Take care
Jeff Longtin
-----Original Message-----
From: vince pitelka [mailto:vpitelka@DTCCOM.NET]
Sent: Monday, May 13, 2002 5:53 PM
To: CLAYART@LSV.CERAMICS.ORG
Subject: Re: THE PERFECT COIL - no such thing
> I'm working on some slab plates these days and having to throw feet from
> coils and I was reminded how much easier it is to throw a foot from a
fairly
> UNIFORM coil rather than a lumpy UNEVEN coil.
Jeff -
I used to do a lot of colored clay platters which were slumped face-down on
a big domed plaster bat. I put the bat on the wheel, added a coil and threw
the foot. I did not worry about getting the coil particularly even. I just
used a fairly thick coil, with the contact surface on the back of the
platter very well scored and slurried, apply the coil and smush (technical
terminology) into place, paddle lightly to make sure it is very well
attached, and then moisten with slurry and throw the coil to raise it into a
vertical ridge. With a coil that is thicker than necessary, you end up with
a foot which is uneven in height, but taller than you need, so it is a very
simple matter to cut off the excess with a needle tool, producing a
perfectly level foot. Then it doesn't matter at all if the coil is
initially a bit uneven in thickness.
Best wishes -
- Vince
Vince Pitelka
Appalachian Center for Crafts
Tennessee Technological University
1560 Craft Center Drive, Smithville TN 37166
Home - vpitelka@dtccom.net
615/597-5376
Work - wpitelka@tntech.edu
615/597-6801 ext. 111, fax 615/597-6803
http://www.craftcenter.tntech.edu/
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Snail Scott on wed 15 may 02
At 09:31 AM 5/14/02 -0500, Jeff wrote:
>Ya know I've NEVER had luck with the scoring/slurry thing. Every time I did
>it, the thing, handle or coil, would crack off. I learned instead just to
>use a light brushing of water and no scoring.
This depends very much on the nature of the
clay body. I also do no scoring/slipping,
except between the first coil of the day
and the last coil or yesterday. I fell
into this method many years ago, and find
it so convenient that I see no reason to
even use a clay that won't allow me to work
this way. Some clays want to crack at almost
every unscored joint, though.
In my experience, this seems more prevalent
with earthenwares than stonewares, though not
consistently so. My own unsubstantiated
theory is that clay bodies with a large
percentage of non-clay ingredients tend to
join more poorly than ones with a higher clay
content.
Also, I find that coarse clays often join
more readily than smooth ones. Perhaps a sort
of 'scoring' is occurring on the microscopic
level, as the rough clay scratches against
itself.
-Snail
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