Terra Cotta: My musings on...and resulting actions with.

sorce

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Bless you my friend! As you bring more joy to my life than any other!

Sorce
 

HorseloverFat

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Regarding Joy;

If you got it, share it.

Told to me by a German Chef named Caroline, while washing dishes at “the historic Karsten Inn”

Actually the HAUNTED Karsten Inn..

It’s a pretty twisted tale...

(HARD tangent, my apologies 🤣)

And NO... Bless YOU, Sorce

You actually CARE.... an extremely rare facet to find in a person these days.

🤓
 

HorseloverFat

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Yeah... they broke. 🤦🏽‍♂️🤦🏼‍♂️

Buuut i still kept firing..

I also “mud sealed” my lid and used ONLY driftwood hardwood.... drifthardwood... whatever..

Aaaaand my earthenware piece was glowing in about an hour... It shocked me as I had been doing 4-5 hours runs... but I guess I WAS overfiring a few pieces there. ;)
 

sorce

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Aaaaand my earthenware piece was glowing in about an hour... It shocked me as I had been doing 4-5 hours runs... but I guess I WAS overfiring a few pieces there. ;)

You should put those 6 cones in if you have them, they will glass and turn white at around a certain temp, which I'll verify as close as I can from notes.
This can help you get an idea of temps, I believe it's around 1500.

Anyway....of heat work.

Cones measure time and temperature. If you blast them to the temp, they won't melt without the time. So though your pot glows, it still needs time.

Your 5 hours, can be extended to 10, and your forms are becoming more deserving of the proper firing, so prepare! Get there!

Have a read on firing schedules. There is good info on all these googled links.

It takes a good while in a heavily oxygenated atmosphere to burn out carbons. This alone can be a 6-10 hour period.

Go slow, roast marshmallow!

Sorce
 

sorce

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Today, I tried to speed up a clay making process, clay was too wet inside, so it got all over.

New rule for me.

"Clay on the hands is a waste of time, clay in the hands is Art becoming."

Remember how I was like, "if it's sticking to stuff"?

I realized today just how detrimental that was to my time management, cleaning wet clay off hands is a giant waste of time and clay. And why did this happen to me? Trying to rush. Well, actually I still learning "too early", found it! Lol!

Anywho, they say nothing in clay can be rushed. Not the millions of years it took to get where it is, and certainly not one pot!

Sorce
 

HorseloverFat

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your forms are becoming more deserving of the proper firing

This made me blush.

🤓

Thank you.. I am trying to get my father to give me/lend me indefinitely his IR gun...

“I used it to temp track diesel exhaust headers”, he says.

“Well, you’re not doing too much off that these days”..I stated.

“We’ll see” was the response I got.
🤣

I will interface with you for my next fire date.
 

sorce

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Blush More! lol, I'm kidding, don't fucking blush! Ha!

But Your kiln design must be some kinda good if it is red hotting your pots in an hour, and your pots are not blowing up!

This is a recipe for success!

Basically, once you get passed steam expansion blow up, and are into red hottedness, you need only keep stoking and wait wait wait, stoke wait, wait, stoke.

A kiln that is fast to heat up is only poor if it is blowing up pots. of course, this says a lot of your ability to wait till things are bone dry before firing them as well, that's a dual kudos! Too, the clay body, and everything else that matters. So bloody nice!

Real potters fire on color alone. (modern real potters use cones). But we ain't modern. YOU KNOW!

1effb66b60fe16c9e345df61b5b3bd7f.jpg

After a while, you may want to investigate the rate at which different types of wood give their energy. Resiny wood like pine burns hot fast, hardwoods burn slower and give energy slow. At the wood fire kiln I fired at, we separated pine from Hardwood and used it accordingly. In a small kiln as yours, it would make sense to burn hardwoods till 200F, then pines to raise temps faster for a period where you are there attending, then hardwoods slow to burn out carbons for however long you can muster, then a mix to finish the firing while attending again. This is merely a seed for thought.

Bonsai was valuable to me when Sorting wood types at the kiln. This will work for you as well in the reverse, learning these woods to fire your kiln will help you with bonsai.

I believe this thing you and I share is changing people. The power of this is great, I am using it selfishly. Only with knowledge that there is plenty of this energy to go around.

Sorce
 

HorseloverFat

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This is VERY helpful.. I always “got scared” of the “Yellow”.. and pulled back when I knew it was occurring.


“Must not sleep, Must warn others..”

;) ;) ;)
 

HorseloverFat

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Speaking of holes...

I’ve been utilizing this little guy lately.
9C999EFE-3A17-4253-A5EF-94D717E1FD98.jpeg

It’s a tip from a whipped cream infuser/dispenser. From back when I ... uh....made a TON of.... hot fudge sundays.. for.... people at NOT-dancing parties. 😬

Anyways..it seems to work well.
485A9893-A2EF-4C08-A32B-EA49739D5653.jpeg58B89992-7EAE-42CF-9A38-AE749A7EE073.jpeg
 

HorseloverFat

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Two newest batches. I am just recording them here.. so I do not forget the mixtures, as they both are experimental for me for various reasons.

The ball on the left (good to go) is a mixture of kewaunee clay, fine grog from varying over/par-fired pieces, black, magnetic Door County sand and sifted wood ash (surprisingly cheap 🤣)
06982BCA-3FD0-40FC-81A0-36AA5AE591A5.jpeg
On the right (not quite ready) is a mixture of aqueous filtered kewaunee clay AND sand about 60/40... and sifted wood ash.
 
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