Taylor, in Rockport TX on tue 21 feb 06
Okay,
Quite a bit of grr, ruff, ruff going on here regarding MC6 and beyone.
Much of it is understandable. Some of us are not it this for our major
life's work and so developing one's own glaze pallet is silly. Others have
worked darn hard for the results they are getting and for them to hesitate
with their generosity should NOT surprise us.
Finally someone has mentioned what both John and Ron have said time and
time again, repeated in their book and articles and probably their
presentations: MC6 is just a tool, a beginning. Do not fixate on the
glazes in the book. If you wish to make up a 10,000 gram batch of
Waterfall Brown, go for it. Use it as a bucket of learning, but when you
go to make that fourth batch of WFB better ask yourself if you GOT what R
and J were trying to say.
I realize this is a personal quirk with me, but the other day a very good
potter saw one of my pots and said, "Ah Waterfall Brown." I about
swallowed my tongue. 10 percent FeOx and some rutile, yes. A bit of boron
frit, yep. But WFB? NO NO NO. Now both King Ron and the Frog Prince
(sorry John) should know by now that I think they are the cat's meow, but I
just CAN'T get comfortable with the idea of using recognizable MC6 glazes.
It is going to get pathological with me, I know it is. A little charity,
please.
Listen to me newbies. I am one of we, so listen. Read that MC6 book at
least 3 times and be sure you understand the underlying SYSTEM that it maps
out (one of many viable ones). While you're reading it through the first
time, get as many books that discuss the common ceramic constituents and
learn the basics. What are the fluxes? What are the glass formers? Ball
clay? Kaoline? Get the basics cold. These are excellent fluxes for my
temperature. This will help my raw glaze thicken. Once you have gotten
half way through the book a second time, start stacking up your Segar
formulas. Build you a matty, build you 2 glossies. Make one high in one
flux, the other high in a different flux. DO IT. Quit crying about it.
Divy out the work among fellow mud buds. Make it a group project if it
helps you sleep at night, a guild project, a class project. Or...do it
YOURSELF.
Now you have your glazes. No one elses. Your very own glazes for better
or worse. Now you can strutt a little bit and hide them on your pots or
give them out at parties. Your glazes. Yours. You thunk 'em up. You
made them. You now get to name them. Send them out into the world and
have them make you money, or friends, or enemies. Whatever. You did it.
You. You. You.
Gawd, I can't wait to get into my very own skins. I may start firing to
cone 3 just to piss people off. "Dude, I've got some great glazes you can
have. Oh yeah, I fire to cone 2 and a half. Don't forget the chicken
feathers."
Thanks John for the quick turn around on my order. Dog already chewed up
the manual, but it won't slow me down.
Keep those pencils sharpened,
(BTW, absolutely NOTHING wrong with firing 'given' glazes. My favorite
potter does it. But she has made her work her own for many years now.
Meow.)
Taylor, in Rockport TX
http://wirerabbitpots.blogspot.com
Jacqui Kruzewski on thu 23 feb 06
I agree with this so much, and you say it all Taylor. But I would add one
thing.
I took an Ian Currie workshop a couple of years ago. This gives you the
tools to tests many glazes at one go. It's often the case that you may want
"that" glaze but matt- or "that" glaze doesn't come out qute as shiny/matt/
whatever as you think it should. Using "that" glaze recipe as a starting
point you can test 35 variables on one test tile. And of course in the
workshop you have test tiles made with different types of clay - so you can
see how the glaze behaves on different bodies.
If you can't get to an Ian Currie workshop I would recommend buying his
books. This is another tool for finding your own pallette of recipes. In
fact buy or borrow as many of the books we talk about as you can - then read
and inwardly digest.
I learnt a long time ago that it is wise to develop a smallish pallette of
recipes and get to know them well. That way they become integral to your
work.
Jacqui
North Wales
Counting down to nceca, looking forward to all the new things I'll be seeing
out there.
>Listen to me newbies. I am one of we, so listen. Read that MC6 book at
>least 3 times and be sure you understand the underlying SYSTEM that it maps
>out (one of many viable ones). While you're reading it through the first
>time, get as many books that discuss the common ceramic constituents and
>learn the basics. What are the fluxes? What are the glass formers? Ball
>clay? Kaoline? Get the basics cold. These are excellent fluxes for my
>temperature. This will help my raw glaze thicken. Once you have gotten
>half way through the book a second time, start stacking up your Segar
>formulas. Build you a matty, build you 2 glossies. Make one high in one
>flux, the other high in a different flux. DO IT. Quit crying about it.
>Divy out the work among fellow mud buds. Make it a group project if it
>helps you sleep at night, a guild project, a class project. Or...do it
>YOURSELF.
>
>Now you have your glazes. No one elses. Your very own glazes for better
>or worse.
_________________________________________________________________
Are you using the latest version of MSN Messenger? Download MSN Messenger
7.5 today! http://messenger.msn.co.uk
| |
|
