Fredrick Paget on mon 5 may 03
We have a video at the College that shows Beatrice Wood doing her lustre
glazes. Her kiln was a big electric front loader and she was tossing in
small sticks.
They looked to me to be Georgia Fatwood which was sold by Orvis as
kindling to start fires in the fireplace. It is wood from the resinous
stumps of old southern pine trees and the supply seems to be exhausted
because Orvis as of a year or two ago had an imported fatwood from
Guatemala.
I bought a bag of it from them and it works pretty well. I use it in a
little gas test kiln to reduce copper to red in crystal glazes.
Real old fashion mothballs are hard to find now. In Beato's day they were
made of Napthalene. Now they are mostly a chlorinated hydrocarbon and I
have never tried them. I am afraid to.
Both kinds are very dangerous and should not be used nowadays. Napthalene
makes a lot of thick black soot and a terrible toxic smell. I expect the
chlorine bearing type would make an worse cloud of toxic gas including
hydrochloric acid.
There is a fairly clean burning white firestarter that is sold under the
Webber trade name. It is imported from Denmark and is clean burning. I
still would be cautious about using it indoors. I have used it in my gas
test kiln which is outdoors and it reduces very well.
I wish that we knew what Beatrice was doing. As far as I know it is still
secret. She had a couple of students who are making similar ware now but
they aren't saying.
If you reduce in an electric kiln you will reduce the oxide coating on the
elements and should do a good oxidation firing next to re-establish the
coating. This will wear out the elements faster.
The reduction is done on the cooldown around cone 015 -019. The elements
are off. When you put in the wood you can see the temperature climb using
a pyrometer. When it goes down 10 degrees below what it was before the wood
went in throw in some more. That way you sort of slow the cooling stepping
it down 10 or 20 degrees at a step.. Keep it up for an hour or so and then
let it cool naturally.
Fred
>2) I read that Beatrice Wood got her luster glazes from an electric
>kiln, by tossing in mothballs at some point to get a reduction
>atmosphere. I am interested in trying to get such glazes in my electric
>kiln, (except the toxicity aspect scares me),. Does anyone know of any
>techniques and/or recipes for electric? Commercial lusters are pricey
>and I'd like to get more variety, and more period, as it seemed she did.
>Centa
From Fred Paget, Marin County, California, USA
| |
|
