stephani stephenson on sun 25 feb 07
another additive is mineral oil.
fill a square electric frypan to 1/8-1/4 inch
(whatever depth you use on pot bottoms) with paraffin
then add a dollop of mineral oil
that's as fussy as i got with the ratio.
i also used an old electric fry pan.. not a teflon
one either..don't even know if you can still find
these things.
marked the low setting on the dial with a sharpie,
never turned it higher, never left it on, but it was
so low it could stay on for a long time.
would never use it in a basement studio or enclosed
studio a breezeway is better.
you don't want it so hot that the stuff smokes,
ever...also not so hot that it gets really really thin
fluid...you start to notice when it is just right.
perhaps because my clay had grog, the paintable
resists never quite did the job as well.
now days i don't wax bottoms i wash them.
in fact there's a nifty way you can wash tile
bottoms, maybe even pot bottoms even as you load them
into kiln (if you have bisque rather than raw tile)
find an old sturdy stool with a wooden top..cut off
legs if you need to to make it the right height for
the following procedure..
find a crappy old piece of short shag carpet...or
experiment with different carpets.
staple or nail that sucker onto the stool head.
wet it down. put the stool inside a plastic tub if you
need to.
what you do is, as you place tiles on the shelf, on
the tilesetters or in the kiln, you put the stool
between you and the shelf, the kiln, etc.
simply drag each tile or pot over the crappy carpeted
stool as you load .
it scrubs any glaze off the bottom.
you do it in the same smooth motion you use to load
the tiles anyway, so it isn't any extra effort...and
you kind of do a visual check on the upswing...
you use the same sort of mental image you use when
dip glazing a tile
"the plane is coming in for a landing the plane is on
the runway , the plane is going back into the air..."
and you know how much gunk a carpet can handle....
after you are done loading you hose off the stool,
and set it in the sun or the breeze or somewhere so
that you don't get a funky carpet stool OR a gunky
carpet stool....so no dust, no dry glaze dust on old
rags, etc.
and the carpet, sans carpet pad, is actually pretty
easily soaked and dried...just leave it on the stool
it will last for years before it is time to look for
another crappy piece of carpet to replace it.
p.s. the worst colors are the best for this!
ah i suppose ,resist the impulse to sit on
it...though i suppose you could invite selected guests
to park it there......
here's to clean happy bottoms, waxed or not....!
stephani stephenson
http://www.revivaltileworks.com
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Kathy Forer on sun 25 feb 07
Speaking as someone who only narrowly averted disaster after wax in a
covered double-boiler combusted after I removed the lid -- having
left it on when I abandoned the studio to attend to my sick dog who
had run off, -- an electric crockpot or cheap rice cooker with insert
substitutes nicely for a more flammable frying pan, or even a double-
boiler which can boil down. It maintains a constant temperature after
melting and is reasonably safe. I got big one on ebay that had been
de-accessioned by Quiznos (or perhaps stolen from them?).
Kathy Forer
-- on the jersey shore where it's just starting to snow
stephani stephenson on sun 25 feb 07
after posting that last one i remembered that we did
use the carpeted
stool for once-fired raw -glazed tiles too.
it worked pretty well for those.
waxing greenware was problematic.
sponging glaze off of greenware didn't work so well as
the sponge just tended to slick right over the glaze
and the clay both, often covering rather than removing
the glaze dip.
often i would just scrape off glaze drips with a trim
tool or a knife...
for awhile we used stiff green scrubbies, industruial
sized ones.
but the carpet seemed to be just stiff enough and
scrubby enough
to do a good job, and less time spent on the task.
and even with greenware , scrubbing prior to loading
in the kiln, the water from the scrub did not pose a
problem. these pieces were 5/8 to 3/4 inch thich
generally and pretty durable in the green stte.
also some one asked whether i thought the teflon pan
was a danger, as in added toxins, etc... no i don't
know about that...i just avoided them because the grit
and wear from the pots just destroyed the teflon...and
maybe i hate to look at peeling teflon! even if it
somehow interacted and fumed, the paraffin fumes are
probably worse for you...
Stephani Stephenson
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