mel jacobson on thu 2 nov 06
first and foremost...the type of clay you are using
will determine how you dry pots.
fine bodies, like porcelain or high talc mid range
and low fire are a bugger to dry. takes dedicated work.
as i have said on clayart about 1000 times.
you can compress til your hands bleed and
if you have bad clay, dry it fast...you will
have cracks...all kinds of cracks.
s/y/c and I.
the simplest of all systems (for me) is
drop cloth film. plastic.
some i have ripped small holes, just a few,
but it lets some moisture out. so, i can control
just how fast things dry.
i have a garage/overhead furnace in my studio...two overhead fans.
so, in winter, things can get out of hand very fast.
hot wind a blow'n.
i use a great deal of sand and grog in my work.
it is part of my `voice`...ruff, course clay
bodies...with bold surface/glaze. i have no fear
of color. (hmmm, seems like me. anyway..have
to write an artist statement...)
oh, here it is:
`i make pots, lots of them, people always know
what to do with them..no question. i do not fear beauty or
color...skill is what i have and i own it. i sell 90 percent
of what i make. so there, my loss rate is 1 percent..
(common sense would just tell us not to b.s. say it straight
up...get to the point.)
that sandy, grog filled clay will dry like a dream.
in a desert wind storm. no cracks.
so.
i do as david f. has told us.
move your pots around....tip them over, then back again.
cover for a time, uncover for an hour...you must be
aware of your work...you don't make 50 pots, then
go to a movie, stop at a bar, have six beers, come
home and fall into bed...next day. ruined /50 pots.
it is the best part of having your own studio...you
control everything that has to do with your work.
never left to chance.
this morning i did clayart at 6 a.m., then went out to
the studio and found about 40 pieces...just at perfect
leather hard...i trimmed them...right then. not an hour
later...right then. had tea and toast an hour later.
you do your work when the pots are ready, not when
you are ready...pots first, always.
there is so much to be said for perfect drying conditions.
in japan we had a damp room...big...hold maybe 400 pots.
and, we had a drying room. a big closet with steel racks.
boards of pots would be slid in. mr. uchida would lite
a long gas burner, set it at low.
a small fan pulled the moisture and air out of the room.
pots were bone dry the next morning. ready for the bisque kiln.
of course kyoto white stoneware clay loves to be pots. no cracks.
in industry they now use giant micro/waves...they suck all
the moisture from cast/ or dry pressed plates and pottery.
takes about three minutes. they are mounted on the
belts of work, traveling through the studio...and on to
the kiln. cone 6 in twelve minutes.
that is all it takes...the shuttle just keeps moving 24/7/365.
from dry, to warm, warmer, warmer, hot, hotter, then cool down.
the cars just keep on traveling.
we can learn something every day from industry.
they don't screw around. loss is money. no loss
is good.
mel
remember, in a pinch, that home kitchen oven is a great place
to dry those last pots before you bisque fire.
set it at 180F. stack the oven full. add a fork in the
door to hold it open a bit. leave it overnight.
sure as hell beats them blowd'n up.
it is called...`use whatever is available to get the job
done right.`
from: mel/minnetonka.mn.usa
website: http://www.visi.com/~melpots/
Clayart page link: http://www.visi.com/~melpots/clayart.html
Bonnie Staffel on sat 4 nov 06
When I was working at the Campbell Folk School, we had one week classes
(really only 5 days) so I had to come up with a system where the pots that
were made on Monday and Tuesday, had to get dry to bisque fire Wednesday
night, out Thursday to glaze, in the kiln for a glaze firing Thursday night
and then out on Friday. So did some research on drying pots and had a box
built with a heater and fan in the bottom and vents in the top side walls.
The shelves were slats with lots of open areas for air movement. The pots
dried beautifully, and the schedule worked most every time, at least when I
was teaching. I would then fill Wednesday and Thursday class time with
other demonstrations and discussion of glazes, etc.
Bonnie Staffel
http://webpages.charter.net/bstaffel/
http://vasefinder.com/bstaffelgallery1.html
DVD Throwing with Coils and Slabs
DVD Beginning Processes
Charter Member Potters Council
Janet Haugen on thu 9 nov 06
Bonnie, I took a ceramics class at Campbell Folk School in September, and we used that same heated cupboard to dry ware quickly. I'd never seen anything like that before. It worked great, and using it was the only way we could have quickly bisqued, then had time to high fire or raku or work in the 5 days available to us.
Janet
Bonnie Staffel wrote:
When I was working at the Campbell Folk School, we had one week classes
(really only 5 days) so I had to come up with a system where the pots that
were made on Monday and Tuesday, had to get dry to bisque fire Wednesday
night, out Thursday to glaze, in the kiln for a glaze firing Thursday night
and then out on Friday. So did some research on drying pots and had a box
built with a heater and fan in the bottom and vents in the top side walls.
The shelves were slats with lots of open areas for air movement. The pots
dried beautifully, and the schedule worked most every time, at least when I
was teaching. I would then fill Wednesday and Thursday class time with
other demonstrations and discussion of glazes, etc.
Bonnie Staffel
http://webpages.charter.net/bstaffel/
http://vasefinder.com/bstaffelgallery1.html
DVD Throwing with Coils and Slabs
DVD Beginning Processes
Charter Member Potters Council
______________________________________________________________________________
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Moderator of the list is Mel Jacobson who may be reached at melpots@pclink.com.
Lee Love on fri 10 nov 06
John Reeve speaks about how in England, he saw commercial porcelain
being dried in chambers under pressure and high humidity. Temp is
raised and then the humidity is slowly reduced.
--
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
Alistair Gillies on fri 10 nov 06
20 yrs ago when I worked at Laugharne Pottery in South Wales - Dylan Thomas
country - we used old wardrobes with holes cut in the bottom to poke a fan
heater in. Works for pots or slip casting moulds - we used the same moulds 3
or 4 times each day they were so dry each morning.
Alistair
Ironbridge Gorge, damp Island north of Europe
----- Original Message -----
From: "Janet Haugen"
we used that same heated cupboard to dry ware quickly.> Janet
>
> Bonnie Staffel wrote:
So did some research on drying pots and had a box
> built with a heater and fan in the bottom and vents in the top side walls.
> The shelves were slats with lots of open areas for air movement.
Marek & Pauline Drzazga-Donaldson on fri 10 nov 06
I used to have the excess heat (wet heat from propane gas) venting into =
my drying shed when I was making handmade roofing tiles. Moisture in the =
atmosphere with heat aids drying. It is like the water molecules in the =
air call to the water molecules in the clay to come and join them as =
theirs is the better party. Water comes out of the clay like osmosis. =
dried my tiles intact and well.
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
Assemble a dragon finial at www.dragonfinials.co.uk
Free Works and Mole Cottage DVD's and Video content on all the sites
curtis adkins on wed 15 nov 06
Hi Bonnie,
Do you mind if I ask what clay body you were using and if those were slab,coil, thrown or all of those types of ceramic pieces? I am considering changing my clay body so that I can fire with the single fire method and drying is always a concern. Another thing I would like to know is did your students make their own glazes or was it store bought? I am firing at ^5 or ^6 and am probably going to start using B-mix as opposed to the Flint Hills Buff I have been using.
Thanks,
Curtis "Monk" Adkins
Bonnie Staffel wrote:
When I was working at the Campbell Folk School, we had one week classes
(really only 5 days) so I had to come up with a system where the pots that
were made on Monday and Tuesday, had to get dry to bisque fire Wednesday
night, out Thursday to glaze, in the kiln for a glaze firing Thursday night
and then out on Friday. So did some research on drying pots and had a box
built with a heater and fan in the bottom and vents in the top side walls.
The shelves were slats with lots of open areas for air movement. The pots
dried beautifully, and the schedule worked most every time, at least when I
was teaching. I would then fill Wednesday and Thursday class time with
other demonstrations and discussion of glazes, etc.
Bonnie Staffel
http://webpages.charter.net/bstaffel/
http://vasefinder.com/bstaffelgallery1.html
DVD Throwing with Coils and Slabs
DVD Beginning Processes
Charter Member Potters Council
______________________________________________________________________________
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.
Bonnie Staffel on thu 16 nov 06
Hi Curtis,
When I was in charge of getting supplies for the ceramic studio at the =
J. C.
Campbell Folk School, I taught various processes to the students who =
came.
So there were pots made with the coil, slab, pinch, thrown, and whatever =
as
well as techniques taught by the visiting instructors. I believe that I
used Phoenix clay and fired to Cone 9. I mixed up the glazes from my =
own
recipes for my classes and visiting instructors either brought their own
supplies or mixed up their glazes after they arrived. The Phoenix was
purchased from Highwater Clay in Asheville. There were instructors who =
also
fired in the lower temperatures. Nothing was ever raw fired when I was
there. I still use Phoenix and am willing to pay for the freight to =
have it
shipped to northern Michigan now rather than go through the testing =
process
to find a clay from a supplier in Michigan.. =20
To get back to the drying box, most all things survived except those =
where
the pieces were not made properly. You should choose a clay that will =
fit
your firing needs. =20
When I developed the glaze I wanted as my base many years ago, I would =
try
different clays to make sure that glaze fit the body. I am still using =
that
white glaze as my base for most of the production ware. I even use the
Phoenix in the pit and smoke fire with good success. It suits all my =
firing
methods.
Bonnie Staffel
http://webpages.charter.net/bstaffel/
http://vasefinder.com/bstaffelgallery1.html
DVD Throwing with Coils and Slabs
DVD Beginning Processes
Charter Member Potters Council
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