Kenneth Dickerson on sun 29 oct 06
Could anyone share their experiences with Raku firing in the winter
in relation to problems one might have with the cold temperature?
Thanks Ken
William & Susan Schran User on sun 29 oct 06
On 10/29/06 8:21 AM, "Kenneth Dickerson" wrote:
> Could anyone share their experiences with Raku firing in the winter
> in relation to problems one might have with the cold temperature?
We usually have done raku during summer semester at school.
During fall & spring, ^10 reduction.
Decided to keep them totally separate to avoid any clay/glaze mix ups.
Several years ago a group of students convinced me to offer raku one spring
semester, that being January - May.
Firings took a little longer in the colder weather.
Nobody wanted to sit around outside waiting for glazes to melt, except
huddled around kiln.
Tanks (smaller ones) needed to be in a bath of warm water to keep from
freezing up.
The sand pile we used for reduction pit didn't thaw until March, so we went
back to using trash cans only for post firing reduction.
Now I only offer raku classes during summer semester, no matter how much
students may whine about it.
--
William "Bill" Schran
wschran@cox.net
wschran@nvcc.edu
http://www.creativecreekartisans.com
Marcia Selsor on sun 29 oct 06
On Oct 29, 2006, at 8:15 AM, William & Susan Schran User wrote:
> On 10/29/06 8:21 AM, "Kenneth Dickerson" wrote:
>
>> Could anyone share their experiences with Raku firing in the winter
>> in relation to problems one might have with the cold temperature?
Ken,
> I have raku fired in 20 below zero temperatures in Montana with
> natural gas.
I found that the colors were brighter probably due to a fast
oxidation from kiln to reducing can. The photos on a May 1997
Ceramics Monthly article
show me firing in 20 below temps. Since I fire raku slabs often all
year round, I can only say that the natural gas line was better for
all seasons than propane. If I were firing in cold weather with
propane, I'd use a tandem tank system to avoid tank freeze. That is
what I have for my portable kilns. Other than the tanks, I haven't
found any adverse effects from cold weather raku. I built a raku kiln
in the snow in 1968 with Paul Soldner. We wrapped our feet with
newspaper to reduce the chill. No problems. We used kerosene then.
Now that I moved to South Texas, I won't be worrying about that.
Marcia Selsor
http://marciaselsor.com
enjoying the arrival of flocks of water fowl in our back yard on a
beautiful morning. Migrations are happening.
Lee Love on sun 29 oct 06
On 10/29/06, Kenneth Dickerson wrote:
> Could anyone share their experiences with Raku firing in the winter
> in relation to problems one might have with the cold temperature?
Winter is the best time to fire raku. We always had winter Raku
parties in Minnesota. Big advantage is not getting hot standing
around the raku kiln. You just have to "rotate" to keep front and
back warm.
Fun to quench work in a snow bank instead of water.
Actually, I think it is less injurious to the clay body because only
one side of the pot is in the cool. For a red hot pot, there is not
much difference between 60*F and 15*F.
Work with full tanks to avoid freezing up.
--
Lee in Mashiko, Japan
http://potters.blogspot.com/
"Let the beauty we love be what we do." - Rumi
"When we all do better. We ALL do better." -Paul Wellstone
Craig Clark on sun 29 oct 06
Ken, I'll give all of the folks from the Great White North a good laugh
and say, sure, here in Houston I've done extensive cold weather firing
in mid January. The temp even got almost into the mid thirties one day
while I was firing and everything worked great. Just had to be a bit
quicker to get that reduction copper look. Seriously though, if Marcia
Selsor doesn't see thread and respond (I believe that she has gone to
Italy to teach a workshop) try contacting her. She has extensive
experience firing in the cold of Montanna Winters, which makes my Texas
blood stop flowing just thinking about it.....brrrrrr
Hope this helps
Craig Dunn Clark
619 East 11 1/2 St
Houston, Texas 77008
(713)861-2083
mudman@hal-pc.org
Kenneth Dickerson wrote:
> Could anyone share their experiences with Raku firing in the winter
> in relation to problems one might have with the cold temperature?
> Thanks Ken
>
> ______________________________________________________________________________
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>
Jeff Guin on wed 1 nov 06
Dear Kenneth,
Any time is "Good Time" for Raku. I live in Wisconsin and it can get pretty
dang cold, and windy as well. I haven't had any problems with the cold.
Sometimes the wind is bad but I make a safety judgement whether to fire or
not, and if the wind isn't too bad I"ll use broken kiln shelves to sheild my
burner. I have a couple pretty cool winter raku pictures on my blog site.
The winter pictures are in the Feb. Archives. The link is below. By the
way....How "wntery" are we talking? !0 below produces nice crackles. Good
Luck.
Jeff
Coon Valley, WI
http://mudwerks.blogspot.com
http://www.flickr.com/photos/mudhead99/
>From: Kenneth Dickerson
>Reply-To: Clayart
>To: CLAYART@LSV.CERAMICS.ORG
>Subject: Winter Raku Firing
>Date: Sun, 29 Oct 2006 08:21:21 -0500
>
>Could anyone share their experiences with Raku firing in the winter
>in relation to problems one might have with the cold temperature?
>Thanks Ken
>
>______________________________________________________________________________
>Send postings to clayart@lsv.ceramics.org
>
>You may look at the archives for the list or change your subscription
>settings from http://www.ceramics.org/clayart/
>
>Moderator of the list is Mel Jacobson who may be reached at
>melpots@pclink.com.
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