Hank Murrow on wed 24 sep 03
On Wednesday, September 24, 2003, at 07:14 PM, Liz Willoughby wrote:
> I am finally getting around to letting you folks know about my firing
> down experiment, so my next experiment is to put a couple of them in
> the
> electric kiln, put it up a little higher, soak a little longer, and
> see if the pinholing improves. Some I know wouldn't bother, just
> make more pots. Well, I am making more pots. But shino can be a
> heart breaker. I can't believe how much better these pots look.
>
> Thanks to Mel, Hank Murrow, and John Baymore for encouraging me on.
Well, if you can get a little air going through the kiln, it will help
get beyond the usual neutral firing that happens in most electrics. A
vent of some kind, tiny but effective. Even loosening the bottom and
top spys may help.
Cheers on the Shino Road, hank in Eugene
Liz Willoughby on wed 24 sep 03
I am finally getting around to letting you folks know about my firing
down experiment. Some of you may remember that Mel had put a post up
telling about his experiment with firing fast up to cone 10, in a gas
kiln, and then firing down. I was interested in the firing down
part, wanted to do some glaze tests with copper reds, celadons, and
more shinos. I am a shino addict, and I was afraid that I might lose
my luscious carbon trapping, halos, and spots, during that process.
I also wanted to see if I would get a deeper depth of color with my
shinos, which seemed to make sense, the iron intensifies in color if
the is fired down slowly, or slow cooled.
So I fired up to cone 10 as usual, going into reduction at cone 012,
and keeping it in good reduction to the end. No I don't have any
bells and whistles on my kiln. I crash cooled to 1850 F and held it
between 1800 to 1900 for one hour.
The copper reds were good, the celadons were good, the tenmoku had
some crystals which doesn't bother me, and the shino vases that I had
on top, which is the sweet spot for them had those wonderful crystals
underneath muddy black carbon. Haven't a clue whether that happened
when I was soaking or not. Didn't like them.
Two weeks later, I fired again. Put the vases back in the kiln along
with a lot of other shino pots, and fired as I usually do without
firing down. Could not really see much difference in anything,
except that the red tests that I had in were not as good. The vases
improved somewhat, some of the black was gone. I still did not
really like them.
So my studio tour was coming up, and I thought well, what have I got
to lose, so I put about 6 vases in my electric kiln, fired it up to
1950F and soaked it for 2 hours. I have tried this in the past, and
have been pleased with the results. The pots were redder, had a lot
more depth of color, had lustred, especially where the dark carbon
was trapped. I liked them. The only thing is that there is a lot of
very fine pinholing where the carbon was trapped. It doesn't bother
me, in fact, it feels nice to touch, and gives the pots a soft
texture. My next experiment is to put a couple of them in the
electric kiln, put it up a little higher, soak a little longer, and
see if the pinholing improves. Some I know wouldn't bother, just
make more pots. Well, I am making more pots. But shino can be a
heart breaker. I can't believe how much better these pots look.
Thanks to Mel, Hank Murrow, and John Baymore for encouraging me on.
Meticky Liz from Grafton
--
Liz Willoughby
RR #1
2903 Shelter Valley Rd.
Grafton, Ontario
Canada
K0K 2G0
905-349-3130
lizwill@phc.igs.net
Liz Willoughby on fri 26 sep 03
Thanks for the advice Hank, I did have the top peep open. Maybe next
time I will open both peeps.
Liz
>
>Well, if you can get a little air going through the kiln, it will help
>get beyond the usual neutral firing that happens in most electrics. A
>vent of some kind, tiny but effective. Even loosening the bottom and
>top spys may help.
>
Cheers on the Shino Road, hank in Eugene
--
Liz Willoughby
RR #1
2903 Shelter Valley Rd.
Grafton, Ontario
Canada
K0K 2G0
905-349-3130
lizwill@phc.igs.net
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