curtis adkins on fri 22 sep 06
Hi All,
I am frustrated with drying my slab built pieces...normally I throw a few pieces w/ a wall thickness of a 1/4 inch to about 3/8 inches and then I either make a slump/hump kind of form to use or I use a form that I already have to make the piece into whatever I want it to be. Then I dry it with a hair dryer long enough to get it to stand on its own. After that, I set it on a piece of wood (2x6 or particle board) inside a plastic wal*mart bag and continue to let it dry....often the feet crack out of these pieces....as usual I have been using amaco x15 with paper inclusion...what is the problem? How do I fix this...the forced drying, according to things I have read, may be suspect but p'clay has that ability the stoneware w/o it did not...I have more flexibility now but still am having copious drying problems that make little or no sense...I have noticed some warpage along w/ the cracking...can somebody help me make this right? Note; New Guy w/ next to no money and is
unable to go out and buy any fancy and/or pricey equipment!
Thanks in Advance,
Curtis "Monk" Adkins
Warren Heintz on fri 22 sep 06
Hi,
I've had problems in the past with pieces drying on wood. The wood drawing moisture from the clay probably faster than evaporation in the rest of the piece. Purely by accident I found a piece of scrap plywood that was sealed on one side,varnish, I cut up it up into smaller pieces to suit my needs, end of problem. So later instead of varnishing wood,I 'd slip them into these annoying plastic shopping bags from the grocery, duct taping them on the bottom to hold them in place. I them started to be on the look out for anything that wouldn't be so absorbent,sheets of plexiglass,metal. hope this helps.
Warren
curtis adkins wrote:
Hi All,
I am frustrated with drying my slab built pieces...normally I throw a few pieces w/ a wall thickness of a 1/4 inch to about 3/8 inches and then I either make a slump/hump kind of form to use or I use a form that I already have to make the piece into whatever I want it to be. Then I dry it with a hair dryer long enough to get it to stand on its own. After that, I set it on a piece of wood (2x6 or particle board) inside a plastic wal*mart bag and continue to let it dry....often the feet crack out of these pieces....as usual I have been using amaco x15 with paper inclusion...what is the problem? How do I fix this...the forced drying, according to things I have read, may be suspect but p'clay has that ability the stoneware w/o it did not...I have more flexibility now but still am having copious drying problems that make little or no sense...I have noticed some warpage along w/ the cracking...can somebody help me make this right? Note; New Guy w/ next to no money and is
unable to go out and buy any fancy and/or pricey equipment!
Thanks in Advance,
Curtis "Monk" Adkins
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Marek & Pauline Drzazga-Donaldson on sat 23 sep 06
Dear Curtis,
I use slab construction on my Chimney Pots, especially for the bases, =
with thrown parts assembled on top, I use an ordinary Terra Cotta Clay =
(Valentines in the UK) with extra kiln dried sand. I have not used =
paperclay - nor will I. I do not need to. I rapidly dry many of my =
pieces, some extremely complex (the Dragon Ridge tiles or Dragon Chimney =
Pots for example) assemblies, and how I "get away" from cracking, is I =
wrap with Newspaper, then if I want it to dry real slow I wrap it with =
binliner bags. The Newspaper takes out the tensions in the varying =
stages of dryness throughout the clay form. I have been using this =
method for over fifteen years, and reported on Clayart many many times. =
It is a method that works for me, and I have had many converts that =
report sucess also.
Happy potting Marek
Hand made Architectural Ceramics from No9 Studio UK www.no9uk.com
Fully Residential Pottery Courses and more at Mole Cottage =
www.moleys.com
"Tips and Time Travel from a Vernacular Potter" reviews on =
www.keramix.com
an irreverent point of view after 35 years in the game Marek =
Drzazga-Donaldson =20
Free Works and Mole Cottage DVD's and Video content on all the sites
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