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carbon trapping: fast drying

updated mon 31 mar 03

 

Lee Love on mon 31 mar 03


----- Original Message -----
From: "Ingeborg Foco"

> I fire with propane in a downdraft kiln. So what is the real secret to
> getting carbon trapped pots?

Fast drying of the glaze once it is put on the pots.

If you put wax resist on shino, where the resist is, the glaze
dries slowly, mostly only from the inside waxless wall. No trapping appears
where there is resist, but you sometimes get more on the edges. I recognized
this at the UofMN, before I was aware of Malcom's work, when I did resist for
decoration with a second dip of "Shino" over the wax.

Another way I recognized this is when I glazed on a rainy and humid day
and the pots went into the gas kiln while they were still damp & then the kiln
was candled. Way too much carbon trapping!.

I think the fast drying gives more evaporating energy to the soluble
and more readily pulls them to the surface.

Three things you might try:

1.) put the pots immediately into a warm electric kiln for fast drying
after glazing.
2.) Wrap the pots after glazing to keep them damp & then
candle the kiln immediately when you put the pots in.
3.) (This can be used along with the above techniques) Wet the pots
with soda ash solution before you glaze them.

Frankly, I've not seen many carbon trapped pots I like, EXCEPT for
Malcom's. A little bit of CTing (like shadows on the lips of bowls) goes a
long way for me. I like the red "firemarked" shinos like Hank mentioned.

--
Lee In Mashiko Ikiru@hachiko.com
.
"With Humans it's what's here (he points to his heart) that makes the
difference.
If you don't have it in the heart, nothing you make will make a
difference."

~~Bernard Leach~~
(As told to Dean Schwarz)