mel jacobson on wed 28 jul 04
only otto got fortune.
if anything, joe koons and i will get a
few minutes in the sunshine...no fortune.
but, if we get this
thing working, on a consistent basis, many
potters will love working with this combination
of glazes and clay. it is going to be a good one.
joe has given a good share of his life to this research.
i have been training for 40 years to make the pots and
do the firing. this is a such a pleasure, i cannot express
to you all how thrilling it is. and, how nice it is to give the
time and research as a gift to the clay community at large.
susan karrasch fired 50 teabowls for us in her
large electric kiln. totally oxidizing/cone 11. she got
some wonderful color and slight hairsfur. she
is thrilled. (we are very lucky to have susan with
us on this project.) thursday i will fire 100 more with just
a bit more heat than last time...and a longer soak at 1900F.
and, a much longer cooling cycle.
it is interesting to note that joe and i discuss the exact
position of cone 11. last time we did 2 o'clock, this time
we want 3 o'clock. but, for sure, this time i am going
to even out the kiln at cone 11. i let the back top stay at
9-10 last time and those pots were not nearly as nice as those
at the front bottom at full cone 11. glazes have to move if we
want great oil spot/hairsfur. we can get that, it is the iron
color that must be right. red to deep brown/rust to orange.
we can get that too if all is in order.....
my flat top kiln is so efficient that it wants to slide into
reduction all by itself at about 2000F. i have to fight it
to stay in neutral. it also fires far too fast up to cone 5-6.
have to hold it back. so, everything i have worked 40 years
to achieve easily, is now the opposite. (and that is fun.)
1. hold off reduction.
2. slow down firing.
3. get above cone 10.
4. keep the kiln from having back pressure.
the great teaching with this project is the understanding
of the heat work. joe has done all the chemistry. it works.
now timing and heat work has to be just right. i have to think
like an old chinese potter. what would they do? what did their
kilns do? what was the atmosphere in that special chamber like?
did they use saggers? this is why the project has so much charm.
it is not just the chemical glaze science, it is the chemistry, the claybody,
the shapes of the pots, the throwing, trimming, and then the
bloody fire. it has to be right. if we ignore any one step, try
to rush past it....it all fails.
i found one of our pots at the minneapolis institute of art. it
was in the case on the second floor, long hall, chinese 12th century
bowls. it was one of our pots....same color, same shape, same
texture of glaze. they must have sent thieves in the night....
(now that is thrilling to see....in the museum, the same color.)
i have a fine young apprentice/helper this summer/ sharah coffin,
daughter of jenny coffin potter of the washington d.c. area. her grandmother
lives a few blocks from me. sarah has been a huge help. we throw
the teabowls in sets of 100. trim them, and get them out to dry.
each claybody has its own stamp. the stamps are not mine/or
my name/ we want the signature to represent all of us/ not just me.
each of us is making groups of our own work to fire the same
way, same glazes etc. we need those
pots as contrast to shape and size. i want to see the glazes in
other forms than teabowls.
we are making the teabowls much
taller now...more like the original chinese. we want to take them
up in slope gradually. we are careful not to make the pots look
like fakes...you know what i mean. they have to be my design,
i cannot fake the chinese...that would be too easy.
all of this work is going to be published next year.
we have talked to the folks at cm and they will be
willing and excited to publish it. but, like so many times
we have had to remind folks...this is not a recipe/easy to
match. it will be daunting for anyone wishing to use it. some
will rush and say. `oh, good, got the recipe, now i can do it...sell
it like mad.` sorry, it does not work that way. the amount
of information that we give out will be just a starting point. as
always...like every recipe in cm or claytimes, just a starting point.
it still makes me smile to think of all the recipes we inserted
into cm for the `black shino study`. man, people thought they
had the cat by the tail. a treasure trove of shino. what a joke.
they all have almost the same chemistry. that is what makes me
smile. the science tells us they are the same. never happens.
chemistry
science
claybody
heatwork
atmosphere
timing
cooling
crystal formation.
change anyone of these factors and the
pot is totally different. use a different
kaolin, use a different ball clay. fire
with too much reduction...the list is endless.
how much soda ash does malcolm use every time,
how does he apply it???? only he knows.
here is a test question.
what oxide did otto use to get chinese yellow? (million bucks worth)
my bet has always been IRON it has to be simple.
the chinese potters did not have a mac/and software.
they dug it from the ground. used a pick and shovel.
ground it by hand. it was just there for the taking.
it did not come from `Midwest Chemical and Snow Shovel Ltd.`
it came from their back yard. in the ground. under that last
batch of clay. or, you know, `over behind mr. chiang's outhouse.
in that hill, that yellow stuff..(hate that on my shoes, mrs. lee
hates that stuff too. all over the rugs)`
so, some of you are getting the picture.
it is never a simple recipe written on the
back of a scrap of paper. it is a complete `system`.
and, systems to not come easily to our view.
we have to kick and stomp. and then we only get the back view.
mel
i remember being at ken ferguson's studio with my
buddy dale eldred in 1968. ken had just fired his
backyard kiln. he said he fired to cone 10.
sure...and if you believe that here is your cigar/cuban.
i found his cone pats in the garbage. cone 11 melted.
six cone pats/all melted. cone 10 alright. i learned a
big lesson that day. (what is cone 10? right. all depends)
From:
Minnetonka, Minnesota, U.S.A.
web site: my.pclink.com/~melpots
or try: http://www.pclink.com/melpots
new/ http://www.rid-a-tick.com
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