Imbolchottie@AOL.COM on sat 5 jul 03
For a while there I thought having having the air conditioner on in the
studio was great, but I noticed several tall bottles, with lids, were cracking
during drying. Later I put some plates outside away from direct sunlight, and
heat. They were beauts too, nice level rims. Came back later to find the lips
curled UP and now I have, I guess, some attractive pasta bowls (I liked the
comment about turning dog turds into diamonds).
So where is the happy medium when working in the heat?
And what's with the air conditioner????
Jonathan in LA
warmer still, but beautiful blue skies.
John Rodgers on sat 5 jul 03
The problem is drying to fast, and drying uneven.
It may sound weird, but leave the AC turned on - but cover the the work
with a plastic bag with holes punched in it. this will slow but not stop
the drying porcess, as well as help in the uniformity of drying .
Basically there will be a vapor cloud inside the bag, thereby keeping
the moisture removal uniform, and the moisture will move from the bag to
the dried cooled air in the room. In spite of the fact that the
airconditioner is on, it may help as well to have oscillating fans
running stirring the air. Moving air is much more effective in removing
moisture than is still air.
Regards,
John Rodgers
Birmingham, AL
Imbolchottie@AOL.COM wrote:
>For a while there I thought having having the air conditioner on in the
>studio was great, but I noticed several tall bottles, with lids, were cracking
>during drying. Later I put some plates outside away from direct sunlight, and
>heat. They were beauts too, nice level rims. Came back later to find the lips
>curled UP and now I have, I guess, some attractive pasta bowls (I liked the
>comment about turning dog turds into diamonds).
>
>So where is the happy medium when working in the heat?
>And what's with the air conditioner????
>
>Jonathan in LA
>warmer still, but beautiful blue skies.
>
>______________________________________________________________________________
>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.
>
>
>
Miriam on sat 5 jul 03
--- In clayart@yahoogroups.com, Imbolchottie@A... wrote:
> For a while there I thought having having the air conditioner on in the
> studio was great, but I noticed several tall bottles, with lids, were cracking
> during drying. Later I put some plates outside away from direct sunlight, and
> heat. They were beauts too, nice level rims. Came back later to find the lips
> curled UP and now I have, I guess, some attractive pasta bowls (I liked the
> comment about turning dog turds into diamonds).
>
> So where is the happy medium when working in the heat?
> And what's with the air conditioner????
>
> Jonathan in LA
> warmer still, but beautiful blue skies.
>
Re: AC in studio... I've had mine AC'd here in Florida for the last several yrs. It's in the 90's during the summer months...& the humidity is a killer for me... no problems for me...
Offhand, I'd suggest putting a plastic bag over the top of your things to slow the drying process...
I never put things outside, nor in the sunlight that comes in thru the windows....nor in direct air from the AC unit......
I only run the window AC while I'm "IN" the studio...when I close up for the day, it gets shut off.....
I had problems with cracks galore, during the week or so I went "without" an AC !!!!!...
All's well here in Fla.!!!
Hope this helps.
Miriam
>
______________________________________________________________________________
> Send postings to clayart@l...
>
> 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@p...
Veena Raghavan on sat 5 jul 03
I keep my pots away from the air vents and loosely cover with plastic. S=
o
far, in three years, I have not had any problems.
Veena
Veena Raghavan
75124.2520@compuserve.com
Harry Crackpotter on sun 6 jul 03
Half the job of an air conditioner is to remove the moisture from the air.
Really is the most important job of the A/C.
75 degrees and 80% humidity does not feel very cool.
The advise you have received about the use of loose plastic is very sound
advice.
Harry Atlee the cranky crackpot potter
> > --- In clayart@yahoogroups.com, Imbolchottie@A... wrote:
> > > For a while there I thought having having the air conditioner on in
the
> > > studio was great, but I noticed several tall bottles, with lids, were
> cracking
> > > during drying. Later I put some plates outside away from direct
> sunlight, and
> > > heat. They were beauts too, nice level rims. Came back later to find
> the lips
> > > curled UP and now I have, I guess, some attractive pasta bowls (I
liked
> the
> > > comment about turning dog turds into diamonds).
> > >
> > > So where is the happy medium when working in the heat?
> > > And what's with the air conditioner????
> > >
> > > Jonathan in LA
> > > warmer still, but beautiful blue skies.
Michael Wendt on sun 6 jul 03
Air conditioning removes moisture from the air and speeds drying. Add in the
factor that air is in fast motion and you have a problem. Try covering the
pieces with old bed sheet. That still allows evaporation but restricts air
flow enough to make drying more uniform. In the worst case, you may need to
resort to a damp box to slow and even out the rate of drying to prevent some
kinds of warping and cracking.
Regards,
Michael Wendt
Wendt Pottery
2729 Clearwater Avenue
Lewiston, Idaho 83501
1-208-746-3724
wendtpottery.com
Home to Helmer
You wrote:
For a while there I thought having having the air conditioner on in the
studio was great, but I noticed several tall bottles, with lids, were
cracking
during drying. Later I put some plates outside away from direct sunlight,
and
heat. They were beauts too, nice level rims. Came back later to find the
lips
curled UP and now I have, I guess, some attractive pasta bowls (I liked the
comment about turning dog turds into diamonds).
So where is the happy medium when working in the heat?
And what's with the air conditioner????
Jonathan in LA
Ron Roy on sun 6 jul 03
Whenever dry air moves it plays hell with drying pots. Clay makers usually
start getting calls in the fall - when the hot air comes on - "help! - my
pots are cracking!"
RR
>For a while there I thought having having the air conditioner on in the
>studio was great, but I noticed several tall bottles, with lids, were cracking
>during drying. Later I put some plates outside away from direct sunlight, and
>heat. They were beauts too, nice level rims. Came back later to find the lips
>curled UP and now I have, I guess, some attractive pasta bowls (I liked the
>comment about turning dog turds into diamonds).
>
>So where is the happy medium when working in the heat?
>And what's with the air conditioner????
>
>Jonathan in LA
>warmer still, but beautiful blue skies.
Ron Roy
RR#4
15084 Little Lake Road
Brighton, Ontario
Canada
K0K 1H0
Phone: 613-475-9544
Fax: 613-475-3513
Culling on sun 6 jul 03
Air conditioners - unless they are evaporative types- remove the moisture
from the air - you need to wrap everything in plastic or atleast cover the
shelves with plastic fronts and put a bowl of water near your pots to slow
the drying down!! I live in an arid area but aircon sixes most of my work in
the summer as much as leaving it out in 45-50 degree temps witjout aircon!!
Steph
----- Original Message -----
From:
To:
Sent: Saturday, July 05, 2003 10:40 PM
Subject: air conditioning in the studio
> For a while there I thought having having the air conditioner on in the
> studio was great, but I noticed several tall bottles, with lids, were
cracking
> during drying. Later I put some plates outside away from direct sunlight,
and
> heat. They were beauts too, nice level rims. Came back later to find the
lips
> curled UP and now I have, I guess, some attractive pasta bowls (I liked
the
> comment about turning dog turds into diamonds).
>
> So where is the happy medium when working in the heat?
> And what's with the air conditioner????
>
> Jonathan in LA
> warmer still, but beautiful blue skies.
>
>
____________________________________________________________________________
__
> 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.
>
Earl Brunner on mon 7 jul 03
Coming from a place with extremely DRY heat, and lots of it, let me give
you some of my experience.
It's not so much air-conditioning killing the pots as drying too fast or
unevenly. My studio is in the garage and during much of the year here
(in Las Vegas) it's just too hot to throw out there in the middle of the
day. I have to resort to getting up at 3-4 in the morning and stopping
around 8 or 9 because of the temperature. If I was trying to make a
living at it I would have to do something else about the temperature.
We use a lot of plastic to cover pots here. The stuff they use in dry
cleaning to cover clothes with is great. We cover, uncover, rotate (to
even out drying when there is a draft from one direction) and otherwise
coddle the pots to dry them. It begins to be a kind of dance. Move the
pot, cover the pot, uncover the pot, rotate the pot, etc, etc. This is
always more critical with some shapes more than others, wide flat things
for example.
All of this becomes more critical when you add a draft, (breeze,
air-conditioning, etc. It's not the cool air, but the draft causing the
problems. Try using some plastic to cover critical pieces with while
you are working with the air on. You can uncover when you are out of
the studio or when the air is off.
--- In clayart@yahoogroups.com, Imbolchottie@A... wrote:
> For a while there I thought having having the air conditioner on in
the
> studio was great, but I noticed several tall bottles, with lids, were
cracking
> during drying. Later I put some plates outside away from direct
sunlight, and
> heat. They were beauts too, nice level rims. Came back later to find
the lips
> curled UP and now I have, I guess, some attractive pasta bowls (I
liked the
> comment about turning dog turds into diamonds).
>
> So where is the happy medium when working in the heat?
> And what's with the air conditioner????
>
> Jonathan in LA
> warmer still, but beautiful blue skies.
Earl Brunner on mon 7 jul 03
An interesting thing we had happening here a while back. On some large
platters we wanted them to dry slowly and with the desert air you have
to be careful with that. We used a good sized sheet of plastic and
punched a bunch of holes all over it so that the pot could "breath".
Made the holes as uniformly spaced as possible. As the platters began
to dry over several days, the moisture migrated to the holes and
evaporated, drying the pots.
We have very hard water here in Las Vegas, and what happened was that a
high percentage of soluble salts (of one kind or another) migrated with
the water leaving the clay and were deposited in neat round circles,
evenly spaced all over the pot. These circles of concentrated
(basically) flux material affected both the application and the melt of
the glaze.
Now at the time a pattern of evenly space circles spread over the
surface of our platters was not the desired affect, but I have always
wondered if it couldn't be controlled and used........
-----Original Message-----
From: Clayart [mailto:CLAYART@LSV.CERAMICS.ORG] On Behalf Of John
Rodgers
Sent: Saturday, July 05, 2003 4:05 PM
To: CLAYART@LSV.CERAMICS.ORG
Subject: Re: air conditioning in the studio
The problem is drying to fast, and drying uneven.
It may sound weird, but leave the AC turned on - but cover the the work
with a plastic bag with holes punched in it. this will slow but not stop
the drying porcess, as well as help in the uniformity of drying .
Basically there will be a vapor cloud inside the bag, thereby keeping
the moisture removal uniform, and the moisture will move from the bag to
the dried cooled air in the room. In spite of the fact that the
airconditioner is on, it may help as well to have oscillating fans
running stirring the air. Moving air is much more effective in removing
moisture than is still air.
Regards,
John Rodgers
Birmingham, AL
Susan Fox-Hirschmann on mon 7 jul 03
I designed my studio so that the work space has balanced vents from above,
far away from shelving, so that the pots would be unaffected by the
airconditioning. But with a 10 foot high ceiling, there are no drafts anyway, and in these
hot, humid days, this new air conditioning is struggling to keep the studio
ath 78 degrees, especially with at least 2 kilns firing all the time (tho they
are in another room).
Susan
Annandale, VA
Snail Scott on tue 8 jul 03
At 11:24 PM 7/5/03 -0400, you wrote:
> I keep my pots away from the air vents and loosely cover with plastic...
I prefer to cover with newspaper for drying. It slows down
the process, but allows more even evaporation than plastic
with holes, and no condensation inside. Just tape the paper
together to keep drafts out.
-Snail
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