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Marian Williams Pottery
Marian Williams Pottery

Fire Me Up! The Second Firing of the Gas Kiln

FiringGas - ReductionGlazesResults
In preparation for my second firing of my fibre-lined gas kiln, I took the advice of Ray Cavill, an interim instructor at Tweed Unlimited Arts in Banora, NSW, and made heaps of cone packs.  Ray had looked at the results of my first firing and after an extended conversation, he recommended that I fire the kiln fully loaded, but also have cone packs at the front and back of each shelf so that I could determine where my hot spots and cooler spots were in the kiln.
When I purchased the gas kiln, one of the bonuses was getting all of the chemicals for mixing glazes from the former kiln owner.  The chemicals were a “throw in” and what a good deal!  I don’t have any idea how much they were worth, but it was a great bonus!  When I got the chemicals, they were in plastic containers of various sorts and poorly marked, so I repacked them in smaller containers provided by my husband’s work and labeled them for easy access.
I had done lots of research on glazes and made small batches of 36 different glazes to test.  I numbered and labeled each bucket with the name of the glaze and any particular chemicals added.  I was good to go and started glazing.  For many of the glazes, application was a combination of dipping, pouring and spraying (but more about that in another post).
 I stacked the kiln and placed cone packs in the front and back of the lower, middle, and highest shelf.  I made sure that each cone pack was fully visible from the bung holes in the front door.
The kiln was packed tight and I thought was packed well!
Samantha Scout, my pottery dog, thought so too!
So, we were good to go!  and 9 hours later we were done!
The firing records indicate the kiln’s progress.  We put the kiln in reduction later this time – @ 925 degrees celcius.  The kiln got to 1276, all cones appeared to have bent, so we turned the kiln off and closed it up after 9 hours – Not bad!  Although I thought I was taking really good notes and recording everything involving the firing and glazes, I have found that it is inadequate.  One cannot take TOO MANY notes, record too carefully, or document the process too much.  It is very important and I’m still working out the kinks in that process.
Upon opening the kiln, I was giddy with excitement!  I could see COLOURS and no major problems!
  Here is a second view of the kiln after opening.
It was immediately apparent that the lower shelf’s cones had not even bent!  Once again, I had placed the lower shelf too low to the bottom shelf, not allowing for enough air flow-when will I ever learn!  But….I did get some nice reds at that temp!
The middle of the kiln (the cones I could see from the peep hole) were all completely down.  So I definitely had some variation in the heat in the kiln – more work for the third firing!  I also had some stickage and runny glazes.  Great!  I love cleaning up kiln shelves!
One of the main purposes of this firing, was to see if the kiln would reach cone 10 temperatures and to also test 36 different glazes in various combinations.  I put in lots of test tiles and also some tiles like the one above to test the combination results of glazes.  I’m doing a post later on the lessons learned from these tiles, so stay tuned!
The results from the second kiln firing were exciting!  Lots of interesting colours!  The following pics are of various glazes and the results.  I MUST take better notes next time though.  For although I did record the glazes, I didn’t number the bowls and they all run together and are not individually distinguishable.  Next time.  Enjoy!

Setting Up A Pottery Studio: The Saga Continues: A Gas Kiln and An Electric Kiln!

Setting Up A StudioStudio and Equipment
Ebay…oh yeah!  I was looking for an electric kiln for firing my bisque ware, when another gas kiln appeared before me!  I couldn’t resist a bid and ended up with a gas and electric kiln – both in the New England area of Australia – a good 5 1/2 hour drive one way – but with a trailer, it turns into a marathon day of driving!  But we made it!
The gas kiln made the trip fine and was in awesome shape.  The kiln has a wonderful, hinged door – versus the other gas kiln which has to be closed with a clamp!
The electric kiln was in pretty good shape, but we unfortunately loaded it in the back of the trailer and it felt every bump in the road!
Although we had packed and wrapped the electric kiln, when we unwrapped it, it was not good!
The bumpy ride had rattled the electric kiln and loosened the brick, grinding them to dust and the bottom of the kiln was crumbling!  Although it can be fixed, it will take tons of work, so that is a project for another day.  I just bit the bullet and bought a nice, big, digital Paragon kiln (again, a referral from Brad at Picasso’s Ceramics!-Thanks!).  So now I’m set – I can bisque in the electric kiln and I’ve got the gas kilns for the second firing.  Cool!
One of the amazing perks of buying used kilns seems to be that you get all the peripheral equipment as a throw in.  So I’ve bought the kilns used and also got the kiln furniture, shelves, cones, pyrometer, gloves, and all kinds of bits and pieces.  I feel very fortunate and can’t wait to fully utilise these kilns to try to create the art I imagine in my head and heart.

PotterLove: Emmanuel Cooper

Amazing PottersGlazesRecipes

Emmanuel Cooper

Blog post by Musings About Mud

It is so sad to read of passings.  This blog post from Musings About Mud gives the details regarding two amazing potters.  Although I have never had the pleasure of meeting him or seeing him work, I am sadden by the loss of him to the world of pottery.  He will be missed.
I had just tested a glaze recipe from Emmanuel Cooper – a chun from Peter’s Pottery in NZ.
His book, The Potter’s Book of Glaze Recipes, is highly regarded and a wonderful addition to any potter’s bookshelf.

Emmanuel Cooper jug

I especially like this jug and the colour of it!

Rest in peace, dear sir.

Lusting After Lustre (Luster): Jan Cockrell Pottery, NZ

Luster/Lustres
Just gorgeous!
Jan Cockrell Pottery

Here is Jan’s Facebook post explaining how she gets this effect:
Jan Cockrell – “The mother of pearl and dark blue area are painted on first and fired. The gold is then floated on water and the pot immersed catching the patterns the lustre has formed on the surface and the piece fired again.”
 
 
Very cool!  On my list of things to try!

Gas Kiln: The First Firing

FiringFiring a Gas KilnGas - ReductionKilnsResults
This is a picture of my husband, Ronnie, and I with the gas kiln firing and in reduction!!!  It was our first effort firing a gas kiln, so we were pretty stoked that we could get it firing, into reduction and up to temperature!

To begin with, I decided to do a first firing of my fibre-lined gas kiln to cone 5 (mid-fire) as I have unfortunately used a variety of clays and due to my lack of record keeping can’t remember what types of clay I used (rats!).  As I knew that some of the clays are mid-fire, I didn’t want to chance taking them too high and the cone 5 will work for all the pieces.  Much of the clay that I “inherited” when I purchased the gas kiln was mid-fire, so it was good to see how it fires.

I decided to only mix up two mid-fire glazes, both Greg Daly glazes-MF 20 & MF 26.  So not much of a selection, but it is safe!  I decided to spray most of the pieces, as I was trying to make the glaze go as far as possible as I only mixed up 1000 grams of each.

My first job was to pack the kiln and although I’ve packed electric kilns, I had never packed “my own” gas kiln-very exciting!

The bottom shelf was huge – as wide and deep as the kiln – and I completely filled it with lots of small, short items.  This proved to be a mistake as the low shelf with another right on top of it, didn’t allow for enough air flow, thus resulting in under fired pieces on the bottom shelf.

So, the kiln is packed and I’m good to go!  I now know (hindsight) that I should have waited til I had a full kiln load, as firing half a kiln load is inefficient, but also the firing is not as good.  Also, I made the first shelf very low and that is a no-no!  I’m learning, ok!?

A funny, little clay kiln god came with the kiln, so I fed him some Twisties (Aussie Cheetos) and shut the door.

The set-up for the gas burners coming into the kiln is really inconvenient.  My wonderful husband, Ronnie, was such a help as you have to light the gas torches from under the kiln.  Both openings are on the bottom of the kiln, at the side, with the chimney at the back of the kiln -perhaps a poor design?

Lighting the kiln was easy – much like lighting the pilot light on a hot water heater or gas dryer-yes, I’m showing my age here!  The thermacoupler at the top of the gas torch must be in the flame and get hot enough to keep the flame going or it will go out.  So we were lit and cooking!

We had to be constantly crawling around on the floor to look at the burners!  Pretty much tortuous for me!  So….Ronnie came up with a genius idea!
By placing a mirror under the kiln, directly under the burners, we could see the flames and what was going on!  Brilliant!  Also, this is Samantha Scout, our wonderful pottery dog!
This pic shows the mirror and the view we had of the burners – which worked great!  I was afraid that the heat would be too intense for the mirror, but it was surprising cool under there.
As I wanted to try for reds in this firing, we started reduction at 850 degrees Celcius and maintained that til we turned it off.
The kiln got up to 1192 degrees which is about Cone 5, but we could never reach 1220, which I was going for.  After 11 hours of firing, I called off the firing and we turned off the gas and closed up the kiln.  All of this was done with lots of reading, but there is no good step-by-step manual for firing this kiln.  I did try to go by the firing schedule that came with the kiln when I bought it and also used the firing schedule in Oriental Glazes by Bailey (see page 17 & 18- Look inside for “A copper red glaze firing”).
The hardest part of any firing is NOT opening the door too early!  So the kiln is shut tight!  This kiln wouldn’t close tightly due to broken clasps, so my husband devised a clever clamp system to shut it and keep it closed tightly.  I managed to wait til the kiln cooled to 200 degrees C before opening it!
Here is the kiln as I opened the door.  Not bad!  Nothing blew up!
But…as I said, the bottom shelves were too close together, without enough air space between.  Another mistake was not using enough cones or enough cone packs.  I later learned that I should have them on each shelf, front and back, until I learned how my kiln fired.
Here are the results of the firing.  There were a variety of clays used, but only a couple of glazes.

I did get some reds!  Wahoo!  Reduction on the otherwise copper green glaze!

Many of the pieces could have used more glaze.  The results even looked a bit “wood-fired” as the clay got a nice toasting in the reduction!

Setting Up A Pottery Studio: Phase 2

Setting Up A StudioStudio and Equipment
  
The second phase of setting up my pottery studio involved adding more equipment.  I had settled into my “room”-decorated with Aboriginal art-chinese kites-tables, chairs and, of course, lots of inspirational photos of other people’s pottery that I admire.  I had my most eclectic menu of music on my iPod player, a sweet breeze, and a mini fridge filled with diet coke (of course) and water – no chocolate though as I can’t be trusted.  Out front, there were benches and fantastic hammock swings for relaxing and having those soul-searching moments.  It was awesome!
And…then..Brad at Picasso’s Ceramics told me about a fibre-lined gas kiln that was for sale!!! Exciting!!! I had always “wished” for a gas kiln (as I believe that only gas can give you the flow, colours, and depth of glazes that I coveted), but never dreamed I would be able to have one of my own, let alone learn how to use it.  That is when the evolution of my studio started.

Originally, my studio was completely housed in the lower part of this building (seen in the photo above) which was the offices for Griffith Tablecraft.

Behind the front office, there is a huge barn (or shed  in Aussie speak), where the furniture was made.  It is enormous!  In fact, according to the picture of the building of the pole barn, it is the largest one in the world!  But, I’ve heard since it is the largest in the Southern Hemisphere.
So when we bought the fibre-lined gas kiln from a lovely lady who was moving into assisted living, we also gained the remainder of her studio-all of her tools, equipment and  old clay.  Lucky me! but I needed more room, so my studio space then expanded into the big barn.
Moving the kiln, pug mill, wheel, and years of other equipment and tools was no easy task, but what a find!  My studio just moved from quite adequate to simply amazing!  I had no experience or knowledge of this type of kiln, so I was in for a learning curve-but a fun one!  It was in good nick and required only the attaching of some fibre around the door.
In addition to the kiln and pug mill, we also got a Venco wheel, all of her chemicals for glazing, tools, kiln furniture and shelves and heaps more!  Now the task to make pots is set!

Setting Up A Pottery Studio: The Beginning

Setting Up A StudioStudio and Equipment
Setting up a studio begins with a wheel (in my opinion), shelves, and a few tools.  All the rest will fall into place over time.  This space used to be a laundry room, so although small, it is cozy, with great light, and secure doors- snakes are a problem here!  I bought a used Venco wheel from Picasso Ceramics

So I began small and never could have believed the treasures that could be found in Australia!
The studio was pretty basic – no frills, but I didn’t really care – I could throw a pot on my own time, anytime I wanted!

Inspiration: Bulldog Pottery-turquoise on shino!

Glazes and Glazing
I like shino, but I often find it too monochromatic-even when it ranges from white to orange.  So I’m constantly looking for ways to make my glazes (and especially shino) more interesting, more colourful, and fluid.  I came upon these cups on the blog posting by Bulldog Pottery,

Around and About with Bulldog Pottery: Bulldog Pottery Holiday Weekend

I LOVE, LOVE, LOVE the addition of turquoise to the shino.  The combination really pops and adds life to the pots!  Can’t wait to try this combination!  Good turquoise glaze too-need that recipe.

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