Tuesday, November 11, 2008
More of my dog--sorry, no pots
Ok, this has nothing to do with pottery, but I thought you might get a kick out of it anyway. My dog is so stubborn, but she still cracks me up!! I figure we got all of the spoiling out of the way with her so hopefully our kids won't talk back so much--she is completely rotten!
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That's funny. Did you put this video up from a camera? Like a regular camera, not a video camera? I tried once but don't know how.
ReplyDeleteI bet you'll have a little harder time with her "talking" once there's a sleeping baby in the house. Just remember how sorry we felt for Lady on Lady and the Tramp!
ReplyDeleteDeb--yeah, that was from my fancy smancy new camera :) It formats them as quicktime video. I think it matters what format the video is. When you hook up the camera to your computer you should be able to right click on the file and see what format the video is in. There are free converters online that will change the format to something that Blogger can recognize. Blogger takes FOREVER to upload videos though.
ReplyDeleteCameron--I'm going to miss her howling...sometimes :)
Too funny - one of my dogs jumped up when he heard Layla and started doing the whole head cocked to one side over and over. So confusing to have barking coming from a computer.
ReplyDeleteBen - I recall in an earlier post you talking about using Randy's Red glaze. I've been having some issues trying to get it to turn out like it should. I am using the following firing schedule:
ReplyDelete100 F/hr to 220 F, 0 min hold
350 F/hr to 2000 F, 0 min hold
108 F/hr to 2185 F, 20 min hold
-500 F/hr to 1900 F, 0 min hold
-125 F/hr to 1400 F, 0 min hold
Is this similar to yours? It's been coming out brown with very little to no red color. Any help is appreciated. Thanks!
Mike--Your firing schedule is pretty similar to mine. I do a slow cool of 150 deg. from temp down to 1500, but I don't think that is the difference. What consistency is the glaze in the bucket? This glaze needs to be really pretty thick. Judy Shreve was having a similar problem and she found the same thing--thicker is better with high Gertsley glazes (thanks Deborah!) I've found that this is a pretty stable glaze--I fire til cone six is bent and touching and it hasn't moved a bit--even when particularly thick.
ReplyDeleteOh yeah, and keep it mixed really well. Both of these cups are glazed in Randy's Red on the outside, but the second one was after the glaze sat for about 15 min. after stirring:
http://www.etsy.com/view_listing.php?listing_id=16903436
http://www.etsy.com/view_listing.php?listing_id=17364910
I also added some water with this last batch and it got darker.
Here is an earlier one that was thicker:
http://www.etsy.com/view_listing.php?listing_id=16904470
Anyway, I hope that helps!
Thanks for your quick reply. I did apply the Randy's Red thick and was very good about mixing it every five minutes or so. There were a few of the pots that had some areas where the glaze was starting to look like it should. This was mostly around the rim and near the foot of the pot.
ReplyDeleteI also had some pots glazed with Floating Blue. They came out mostly a pale green color. As with Randy's Red, some pots showed signs of a nice blue (that I wanted). This was, again, mostly near the bottom and rim of the pot.
I think my cooling schedule is good. If it's not the thickness, lack of mixing, or cooling schedule...perhaps it's the firing temperature. I had cones on each shelf. I had a cone 5, 6, and 7. The controller was set to fire up to 2185 degrees F. The final 185 degrees was at a rate of 108 degrees F/hour. On all shelves, all three cones were at 90 degrees. So, I got to cone 7 or above even though the controller was set to go no higher than 2185 degrees.
According to the Orton cone temperature equivalent chart, for large regular cones at 108 degrees F/hr, the equivalent temperature is 2228 degrees F at cone 6. Does this mean, perhaps, that I fired to too high a temperature?
Thanks for your comments!
I've learned to kind of abandon actual temperature. I only fire to 2145 in my kiln and get a full cone six and midway through cone seven with my soak. Thermocouples range a bunch and it took me a while to dial mine in. I really over-fired a couple of my first batches.
ReplyDeleteI think a lot of the actual temp has to do with how fast you ramp up as well. A cone measures the amount of heat energy over time. Temperature being just a measurement at one point in time doesn't account for that. Ceramic wares can't absorb heat as fast as the air around it and we use cones because they give a more realistic account of how much heat energy our wares have been absorbing. That's why when you soak at temp, the cones continue to fall even if the temperature doesn't change. Even when we have the last couple hundred degrees slowed down on our ramp, the clay is still probably lagging behind and heating up. But, that would mean that we would have to go to a higher temp--maybe our thermocouples are just really inaccurate. I don't really know :)
I still don't really think it is temperature. I had two mugs glazed on the same shelf with the same glaze in the same firing coming out differently. Oh! I just thought of something!! Do you rinse your pots before glazing? I had two mugs that I gracefully dropped into the glaze buckets and had to wash off. I reglazed them the next day and the darker may have been one of the dropped in mugs. I am thinking that it may not have been able to absorb as much moisture (because it was still somewhat damp even if it didn't feel like it), and therefore glaze because of the washing. Another thing I've noticed is that really thin wares won't hold as much glaze as a thicker pot. My thin bowls always had really poor glaze results, and I think it is because they could not absorb as much glaze. No matter how long I dipped, they just wouldn't get enough glaze. We can solve this--I think!
Thanks again for quickly responding. I did wash them after the bisque firing...but it was a week before i glazed them. If the cone 7 was melted than I know one thing - I'm probably too hot (agree?). Perhaps I should dial it down a little (not go all the way to 2185) and see what difference that makes. I'm just not sure, other than trial and error, how to make that temp adjustment on the controller get closer to an actual cone 6 temp.
ReplyDeleteI don't know that you are going to hot...cone seven will probably be melting a bit when you get a full cone six melt. But definitely try tweaking until you get the results you like! Sorry, no creative ways to figure on the right temp other than trial and error. On your next firing, I would put in a couple of tests with a double and maybe even triple dip on a some tiles with the red just to see what happens. That said, I would also put something under them in case it does run like hell with that much glaze ;) Good luck and keep me posted on the results!
ReplyDelete