Clay Tests

It's been a while since I posted.... been busy! One thing that always gets me about doing pottery is how much waiting is involved. Of course I kept busy by interleaving other tasks, but just making some tiles, firing them and then testing them for crazing, etc., seemed to take forever.

First I visited my trusty clay retailer. I was surprised to find that my favourite clay maker* had 5 or 6 white, cone 6, clays available. I had thought there were only 2 or 3. So I got a box of each of the un-grogged ones.

Then I made some 1/2" thick tiles, about 5" square of each clay, including the one I usually use. Then they had to dry. Then I fired them to cone 6, with witness cones right beside them to make sure of the temperature reached. Then I quickly weighed them while they were still warm.

Then I boiled the suckers. Over 2 hours in a huge pot of boiling water.

Then I weighed them all again.

Then I calculated how much moisture each had absorbed, and expressed it in a percentage. (For those who are interested, subtract dry weight from wet, then multiply the result by 100, then divide by the dry weight.)

Shock! Awe!

My 'usual' clay, the one I have been using for years now, had an absorbency of around 2.25%. This was almost the highest of the ones I tested! No wonder I am having trouble with delayed thermal shock. Luckily, one of the others came out to about 0.9 %.

Then I took all the tiles and put them in the freezer overnight and the next day dropped them into boiling water. This was scary, I almost felt like I should 'suit up' in some kind of protective gear, but in actual fact nothing happened.

None of them crazed. Of course, to test for delayed thermal shock, I'm going to have to keep doing it. Since I only like one of the new clays I tested, I'm only going to test it and my 'usual' one. Freezing and boiling every day or so for a month or two should separate the women from the kiddies....

All the glazes worked well with my two production glazes, in fact the clay that had the least absorbency also looks the best with my white glaze. Here's a picture of it with my clear glaze and some brush strokes of the main colours I use. You can see they all work pretty well. BTW, these brush strokes are on top of the unfired glaze, because that is how I work.

Can it really be this easy????


* I put a little 'star' here to explain that I am not going to mention which company's clays I am using. They are a terrific company and I am most grateful to them for keeping us supplied with excellent and dependable clays. They do not claim oven-proof-ness for any of their clays, and they point out (quite correctly) that it is up to us potters to regularly test our products. And no, I do not have any other connection with them than as a customer!

Changes

Looks like there may be a major change bearing down on my pottery life. For years I have used a procelain-type of clay called 6-50, made by Tucker's in Toronto. It fires very white and smooth, throws very well, hand-builds not too badly for my platters and flat dishes, and I have gradually worked out my problems with glazes and firing.

But I have had to avoid making ovenware.

Too many pie plates came back cracked.

The other on-going problem has been that occasionally someone will report that their teapot has cracked. I have had to replace a number of them. Last year I didn't hear from even one customer about that, so I was starting to think maybe I was homefree. Not so. Right after Christmas a young woman called and said her teapot had cracked..... she had only used it for one year.... she was conscientious about pre-warming.... Bad words ran through my head (but stopped before exiting) and a heavy growly feeling descended on me. Going into the Studio became a not altogether happy thing.

Co-incidentally, there was discussion on Clayart, a list I follow, about ovenware. I asked my question: "Is it possible to make ovenware at cone 6?"

Of course I got some of the expected answers: it was my glaze, it was the shape of the piece, nobody else ever had a problem, my customers were obviously dumb users, yada yada. In the middle of this I did get a useful response talking about thermal shock. That rang the bell.

I always did say it was the clay that cracked, not the glaze. And the cracks did not occur at 'edges' or 'corners', they occurred in the middles of flat surfaces or walls.

Apparently, thermal shock can happen after numerous small shocks.

The only answer: switch clays.

I'm going to test the other Tucker's white cone 6 clays but I am not optimistic. I've already tried them and both gave me other problems. But I'll try again, and if neither of them work for me, I'll have to try another company's clays. I want to support Tuckers' - they have helped me a lot in the past, but enough already. I need to make pie plates and casseroles.

I'm trying to see this as just another adventure! I'll keep you posted.

To-Do Lists

Most days, I start off with a pretty clear idea of what I intend to work on during the day. I may not write it down, but I usually have a list in my head of what I want to accomplish.

Unfortunately, it's generally straight downhill from there.

Now, if you were to go back and read my to-do list for today, not that you would, but supposing you did, what would you see? 'Vacuum and dust, wash kitchen floor, glaze new mugs to replace the ones that came out of the kiln yesterday which aren't good enough, balance the books for the business, practice recorder for 15 minutes, update daily journal, plan tomorrow, get to bed on time'. Not a bad list, right?

But what really happens?

Well, it's noon and I'm thinking of lunch. Boiled some eggs, am debating whether to have toast or salad with them. The vacuuming is about half done. Kitchen is a worse mess than before because I decided to turn out the dog food cupboard. Bits of stale dog chow all over, including one or two walked into the living room. Dog is lying on the carpet in the living room morosely eyeing them.. Both computers are running stuff other than accounting. In the Studio,the mugs are assembled near the glaze bucket but that is as far as I got. The ferns needed watering and I did some, but then I ran out of water so brought the pail into the house and got side-tracked into boiling eggs. Husband came home from his medical appointment and wanted lunch. Refused to eat eggs. I'm not doing well in the menu-planning department. Threw some laundry into the machine, including a huge navy-blue tablecloth.

...read a couple of chapters of Northanger Abbey by Jane Austin. Am re-reading her novels with particular attention to how she points out the unfairness of measuring people's, especially women's, worth, by how much wealth they do or do not have. We condemn Eastern cultures for de-valueing women except when well-dowered, but our own culture is not far removed from the same.

(Note to self: do not wash white underwear in the same load as large navy-blue tablecloths.)

Untied and ironed all the red cotton bows used for Christmas. This doesn't really need to be done as I won't need them again until next Christmas, but I'm feeling virtuous about doing it at least 11 months early. Plus it gets them out of the living room.

Need water to add to the glaze for the mugs; went back to the house to get some. Couldn't find the pail at first. Turns out I left it outside the door.

Courier company came and dropped off gift cards sent by my merchant credit card supplier. I didn't want them, but they were free and the company was very determined to send them to me. Seemed less trouble to take them than to keep on refusing them. Read over the accompanying blurb, and yup, I won't be using them.

Had an egg and a chocolate cupcake for lunch. We will not be telling the diet police about this.

Went out for a short snow-shoe after lunch. The sun came out for a little while and fooled me into thinking I wanted to do this. Actually,. I am planning a longer snow-shoeing trip soon and need to get into better shape. Plodded around for half an hour and was thankful to get home again, hot and out of breath. Kip (faithful pooch) seemed equally glad to get back. We both need to get back in shape. Amazing how much fitness you lose in only a month or so.  Mind you, the snow is deep and it was warm today so it was also wet and sticky. Good to have an excuse!

Can't do the kitchen floor. I got one of those electric floor washer dealies which uses a proprietory washing solution and it is empty. Also I can't figure out how to attach the scrubbing pads.... where are printed instructions when you need them.... oh, wait, I threw those out.

Fussed around about the mugs. I hate to fire only 6 mugs in the large kiln, but the small kiln is totally on its last legs. Do I risk one more firing or not.... would it even reach cone 6 in under three days..... I took the cover off the switch box and tried to see if the connectors were in good enough shape for me to change the elements one more time. Maybe. I'd also have to do something about the crumbling bricks in the centre ring. Probably wedges cut from a spare brick and carefully placed and pinned would work. Now I need to decide, would the cost of new elements be justified. In any case, it won't help for this set of mugs. So I either fire them in the large kiln, by themselves, or risk them in the small kiln and maybe have to do them a third time. I could make other stuff to fill the large kiln, but I need those mugs done now.

My accounts do not balance. They have no intention of ever balancing. I will never get my year-end done. I'm a disgrace to accounting. Blah. It's the program's fault. OK, I'll go over it all again. Must have put some item in the wrong account. I'm only out $43.01; maybe I'll make an entry called 'correction to expenses accounts'. I understand the really big companies do this all the time.

Eggs for supper.

It's amazing how much  you can accomplish in a day if you have a good to-do list.

New Year!

Just think, another whole new year coming, with, so far, no bad pots in it! No kiln disasters, no glaze floopies, no frowning customers, no sweaty all-nighters...... whoo hoo!

To properly celebrate this fact, Smartass and I put together an amazing little desk calendar.

It has a page for every month. All 12 of them! None missing! Not even July!

It has days for every month, hopefully the right number of them each time.

The numbers are written ever so neatly! OK, Microsoft Word gets some of the credit.

The cover.... exciting, huh?

Smartass got himself onto every page, but you knew that was going to happen. He points out that he was really quite restrained and only appears once per page.

Now, here's the deal: if you would like your very own copy of this unique aid to temporal organization (you can write on it), just send an email to Pine Ridge Studio. The first 3 emails will get a free (free!) Official 2013 Smartass Calendar. 

(Do not include your address - if you are one of the first 3 to respond and win a calendar, I will email you back and you can send your address then. I'll mail you the calendar once you send your addie. Easy? You bet. Worth doing? Of course. Fun? Natch.)

(What happens to your email if you don't win? Nothing!! I delete it! Promise.)

Oh, and Happy New Year to everyone!

Merry Christmas!

.....'twas the night before Christmas, and all the orders were done, all the clay was put away, the kilns were standing ready....

... a branch of green lay on the table, wafting scents of balsam and fir around the Studio....

... stars twinkled in the cold sky outside....

... eggnog and cookies were abroad in the House....

and the Tomtes came out to play:

Merry Christmas, Everyone!

'Leaves' Design

Here is the picture I promised of the pottery with the leaves:

Not a very good picture, but you get the idea.

The basic leaves are stenciled, then the details are added with brushwork. The only hard part is making the design random!

Gopher Guts?

It being Friday, which is no reason for anything, I decided to have a catch-up/clean-up day. I've been very busy getting things ready for my pottery sale, fireGifts, for quite a while now, and frankly, the local environment is a little the worse for wear.

In the Studio: pots in every stage on every possible horizontal surface. Drifts of dog fur under the tables. A couple of butter dishes still drying, they weren't dry enough to go into the last bisque load. The porcelain clay can go in a bit damp and never causes trouble, but the buff stoneware, if it has the least bit of moisture in it, kabloooie. They'll have to go in the small kiln tonight. Decorated ware with leaves design ready for the glaze kiln...... bisque waiting to be dipped in white glaze and similarly 'improved', finished pots waiting to have the bottoms seen to and then be packed. The only clear spots are the wheel heads.

In the office: little scrips of paper all over with maybe important info on them. I have an awful habit of scribbling important stuff on little scratches of paper (envelopes, shopping lists, receipts, bits of newspaper, all are apt to be pressed into unaccustomed service) and then losing them. Also invoices, paid and otherwise, drafts of ads for fireGifts, recorder music I am supposed to scan and re-size to fit on one page, a whole pile of pottery ideas...... and tiny dried-up leaves all over from the hanging plant I evicted the other day. Dead. Could be I didn't water it....

And the house itself, well, the less said the better. Let's just say, we've been having meals, sleeping comfortably is possible, and all residents are warm and dry. But now I have guests coming maybe on Sunday so action is required. Urgently.

Before I get started vacuuming, here is a collage of autumn leaves:

No, I haven't gone completely wahooo.... and you have not accidentally fallen into a photography blog, there is a connection. My latest pots have leaves stenciled and painted on. I'll try to get a photo to post when they come out of the kiln. Unless they are all awful, in which case I'll have to, well, I don't know what, take up knitting maybe.

Better get vacuuming. Now I'm humming the old silly thing my daughter used to sing: Great Green Gobs of Greasy, Grimy Gopher Guts. (She was about 6 at the time.) Hmm. Certainly suits the state of this place. Now, don't tell me I am going squirrely. It is too late.

fireGifts, by the way, is going to be terrific! Some 30 artists, mostly potters but two glass workers, all getting masses of new work ready. We open next Friday at 4pm. I'm not nervous! Oh, no, I'm quite confident, except when I'm shaking in my boots....  The ads in the papers look good, I've had several phone calls from people who have seen them.... everything on my to-do list is done except buying duct tape.... what can go wrong......

Nothing. Great Green Gobs......