Connie Woodward on sun 26 oct 03
I was wondering what would happen if I took my scrap pots and bashed them
with a hammer and then tumbled the shards in a rock tumbler to get off the
rough edges - could I then use the shards for mosaic pieces? like for
stepping stones and such?
I tried to make mosaics with shards before and it was a painful proposition,
those little glaze edges are sharp! but would the rock tumbler stuff take
off the glaze surface also?
just wondering....
Connie
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Connie Woodward Karattopp Pottery www.karattopp.com
Navasota, TX 713-256-5907
Vince Pitelka on sun 26 oct 03
> I tried to make mosaics with shards before and it was a painful
proposition,
> those little glaze edges are sharp! but would the rock tumbler stuff take
> off the glaze surface also?
Connie -
This will work fine, and you can get good deals on rock tumblers on eBay.
If you use a fine polishing grit, you will not loose the shine of your
glazes, but it will take off the sharp edges. If you use a coarser grit,
you will get a beautiful overall satin finish and the edges will be nicely
rounded.
Years ago I found an old cement mixer in University surplus and grabbed it
for the clay program. It had thick accumulations of hardened concrete in
the barrel, and I beat most of it out with a sledge hammer. Then I gathered
up a bunch of abandoned high-fired pots, smashed them into shards, and put
them in the barrel with about 40 lbs. of sand and some water. I turned on
the mixer and left it going for a few days. It did a beautiful job of
cleaning out the remaining concrete residue, and when I dumped out the
debris, those shards were beautiful - silky smooth and so finely rounded, as
if they had been tossed in the surf for a few years.
Best wishes -
- Vince
Vince Pitelka
Appalachian Center for Craft
Tennessee Technological University
1560 Craft Center Drive, Smithville TN 37166
Home - vpitelka@dtccom.net
615/597-5376
Office - wpitelka@tntech.edu
615/597-6801 x111, FAX 615/597-6803
http://iweb.tntech.edu/wpitelka/
Lee Love on mon 27 oct 03
At 10:49 2003/10/27, you wrote:
>I was wondering what would happen if I took my scrap pots and bashed them
>with a hammer and then tumbled the shards in a rock tumbler to get off the
>rough edges - could I then use the shards for mosaic pieces? like for
>stepping stones and such?
I collected some pot shards of my teacher's work when I studied
there. I sometimes give them to visitors, as souvenirs. I take a
dremel and smooth the edges.
One of my friends (He sells mingei craft in Seattle now)
uses the shards I gave him for hashioki , chopstick rests. Because of
the wonderful surfaces on my teacher's work, I've thought about making some
into bolo ties. :^)
Today I made a stamp with the Kanji for Mashiko on it. Going to
stamp some coins from my Shigaraki clay as samples and fire them in my
woodkiln to share with folks I meet.
--
Lee In Mashiko, Japan
http://Mashiko.org
Web Log (click on recent date):
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