Fonda Hancock on mon 20 dec 04
I was hoping to add african violet pots to my inventory and made one in
112 and one in 378 stoneware. The outer pot in glazed inside and out and
the inside hangs by a flange that is glazed but the rest of the insert pot
is not glazed. I fire bisque to 04 and glaze to cone 6. My insert is not
sufficiently porous and I don't know if there is anything I can do to
change my approach to make it so. Any ideas?
Fonda in Tennessee where it is crazy cole right now!
Michael Wendt on mon 20 dec 04
I use Helmer Kaolin soft bisque grog to increase the porosity.
Get a bag of Helmer, bisque some in jars and add varying amounts to your
current clay body. Start at 10% and work up or down as the porosity
dictates.
Helmer is so refractory that at cone 6 it still passes huge amounts of
water.
Regards,
Michael Wendt
Wendt Pottery
2729 Clearwater Ave
Lewiston, Idaho 83501
USA
wendtpot@lewiston.com
www.wendtpottery.com
Fonda wrote:
I was hoping to add african violet pots to my inventory and made one in
112 and one in 378 stoneware. The outer pot in glazed inside and out and
the inside hangs by a flange that is glazed but the rest of the insert pot
is not glazed. I fire bisque to 04 and glaze to cone 6. My insert is not
sufficiently porous and I don't know if there is anything I can do to
change my approach to make it so. Any ideas?
Fonda in Tennessee
Elizabeth Priddy on mon 20 dec 04
You will need to make the inside bisqued only, no glaze temp.
Glaze temperatures will seal the clay.
You will have to adjust the size as the final shrink happens in the glaze firing.
So you will need it slightly smaller if you are leaving the inside part bisqued.
Fonda Hancock wrote:
I was hoping to add african violet pots to my inventory and made one in
112 and one in 378 stoneware. The outer pot in glazed inside and out and
the inside hangs by a flange that is glazed but the rest of the insert pot
is not glazed. I fire bisque to 04 and glaze to cone 6. My insert is not
sufficiently porous and I don't know if there is anything I can do to
change my approach to make it so. Any ideas?
Fonda in Tennessee where it is crazy cole right now!
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Elizabeth Priddy
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Ellen Currans on tue 21 dec 04
Dear Fonda,
I don't know much about African Violets but I have about 15 of them that have
been growing in my studio and house for over 20 years. I understand that
you don't need to pot them into bigger pots, just repot them lower in the same
size pot. Mine like subdued skylight light and west facing windows. They have
never gotten sad enough to throw out, and bloom two or three times a year. I
forget to fertilize most of the time and just hold them under the faucet to
water and clean off the clay dust (even tho I understand you shouldn't get the
leaves wet.
My solution for pots many years ago was to just throw what I call slipcovers.
Pots that are glazed all over, with no holes in the bottom, and small feet to
leave air between the pot and the shelf it sits on. I glaze them in colors
that enhance the violets. Put a little bit of gravel in the bottom and just
put your plastic potted violets into the slipcovers. Take them out to water and
drain and put back in. I've done the same thing for orchids, keeping the
orchid in the original pot it comes in but with lots of room around the sides for
air.
I found out a long time ago that while people would love to have nicely
glazed small planters for pots in their windows, they do not want to pay very much
for them.
You can hardly compete with the import market, especially if you are making
two pots - an outer and an inner insert. Unless, of course, you have a
definite speciality market of violet lovers who only want the best for their plants.
Ellen Currans
In Dundee, where the African Violets are blooming right now!
Cindy on tue 21 dec 04
Dear Fonda,
I use locally produced clays, so I'm not sure what the clays are that you're
using. However, perhaps it would help to make the insert from a high fire
clay, or perhaps a raku clay.
If that doesn't work, you could try adding a filler, such as paper pulp.
Just soak toilet paper in a little bit of water and knead some into the
clay. This will smell bad when firing, and you should have your kiln vented
or protected with ITC if you're going to do a lot of it. I understand the
smoke can damage your elements.
Merry Christmas,
Cindy in SD
Rachel Campbell on tue 21 dec 04
Wow, something I actually know something about!
Like you, I usually fire cone 6, but when doing african violet pots this
year I used low-fire (cone 04) clay. That was something of a pain, b/c it
required me keeping the clay religiously separate and using a different
glaze than usual. But the results were good-- I glazed the outer pot
completely (which makes it hold the water well) but just glazed the flange
of the inner pot (which, since the clay is only fired to 04, leaves the
inner pot able to "wick up" the water to the plant).
Others have suggested adding other ingredients to the clay to make the
inside pot more porous. Just remember that the outer pot needs to be
water-tight, so you'll still have to keep the clay straight. And you could
also choose, as someone suggested, to just leave the inner pot in its
"bisqued" state, and only fire the outer pot to cone 6, but as noted, that
will require some adjustment in terms of size to allow the outer pot to
shrink more. Plus you may prefer to have the inner pot glazed for aesthetic
purposes.
FWIW, I chose to go with the low-fire clay primarily b/c all the examples I
could find of these pots appeared to be made of earthenware (they thud
instead of ring ;-).
Anyway, good luck and have fun!
--Rachel Campbell
(pt tech writer, ft mom of 4, and obsessive midnight potter wannabe)
----------Original Message---------
> Fonda wrote:
> I was hoping to add african violet pots to my inventory and made one in
> 112 and one in 378 stoneware. The outer pot in glazed inside and out and
> the inside hangs by a flange that is glazed but the rest of the insert pot
> is not glazed. I fire bisque to 04 and glaze to cone 6. My insert is not
> sufficiently porous and I don't know if there is anything I can do to
> change my approach to make it so. Any ideas?
> Fonda in Tennessee
Michael Wendt on tue 21 dec 04
One thing I forgot to mention about the African Violet liners: if you use
the high fire grogged clay, you can use the same glaze on the liner and the
pot and they really look nice. See them with the link:
http://www.wendtpottery.com/mom.htm
That's a really old violet and it is huge!
Regards,
Michael Wendt
Wendt Pottery
2729 Clearwater Ave
Lewiston, Idaho 83501
USA
wendtpot@lewiston.com
www.wendtpottery.com
Ilene Mahler on wed 22 dec 04
would you do the same thing for orchid pots...Ilene in Cold Conn
----- Original Message -----
From: "Michael Wendt"
To:
Sent: Tuesday, December 21, 2004 10:17 PM
Subject: Re: african violet pots
> One thing I forgot to mention about the African Violet liners: if you use
> the high fire grogged clay, you can use the same glaze on the liner and
the
> pot and they really look nice. See them with the link:
> http://www.wendtpottery.com/mom.htm
> That's a really old violet and it is huge!
> Regards,
> Michael Wendt
> Wendt Pottery
> 2729 Clearwater Ave
> Lewiston, Idaho 83501
> USA
> wendtpot@lewiston.com
> www.wendtpottery.com
>
>
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__
> Send postings to clayart@lsv.ceramics.org
>
> You may look at the archives for the list or change your subscription
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>
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