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Re: The Official "Ask the Artisan" Community Topic

by Lerxst2112 » Jul 31st, '12, 18:40

Thought up another question for the artisans:

What is something that you're struggling with, but are working towards getting good at? Examples: making cups, getting good lid-fit on pots, getting glazing to be as you envision it, etc.

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Aug 2nd, '12, 10:48
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Re: The Official "Ask the Artisan" Community Topic

by paul haigh » Aug 2nd, '12, 10:48

Adam- I have a few of my early pieces, and my mom still has several. Its fun to look back on that stuff from 25 + years ago. A few pieces were actually not bad at all (that is - a few out of many :) )
Lerxst2112 wrote:What is something that you're struggling with, but are working towards getting good at? Examples: making cups, getting good lid-fit on pots, getting glazing to be as you envision it, etc.


I'm not sure that I'm "struggling" with any form or technique in particular (the term seems to imply excessive effort or frustration), but I do have areas where I'd like to grow (and am enjoying exploring). Certain aspects of hand-building and sculpture are good examples. I have had a couple of "aha" breakthrough moments recently in my firing methods, as well as glazing.

There's always learning and experimentation to be done! There are some potters with forms, processes, glazes, etc that are very predictable and that suits their style very well. It's also probably nice to have a predictable yield and product style from a business/marketing standpoint, but I would struggle with my own restlessness if that was my world.

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Re: The Official "Ask the Artisan" Community Topic

by bryan_drinks_tea » Sep 4th, '12, 11:32

I have a question:

Do ash glazes have any degree of porosity? I own a few cups from Jeff Brown of Seagrove, NC, and they seem to alter the flavour a touch when I drink from them.

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Re: The Official "Ask the Artisan" Community Topic

by JBaymore » Sep 4th, '12, 12:38

Bryan,

Unfortunately that question is sort of difficult to answer with any authority and certainty.

It is POSSIBLE that some particular glaze of ANY type (using ash as a source for fluxes or not) has an element of what might be called "porosity". Meaning that it is not a perfectly glassy-phase coating that totally seals the exterior surface from the underlying clay body.....or even from the "interior" of the glaze itself.

For example, a seriously underfired glaze that has not fully melted would exhibit some "porosity" because the glaze is not really melted into a glaze.... it is still more like a slip surface or a clay body surface. In this rather unique case the glaze would still RESEMBLE a dry slip of clay surface.

Generallly speaking, matt surfaces are more likely than glossy surfaces to have this possiblity present. But do not ALWAYS have to be like that. A matt surface can still be VERY impervious to water molecules penetration.

Wood ash is mainly a source of CaO in a fired glaze. That acts as a flux (melting point lowerer) on the main glass-former, silica -SiO2. Wood ash also sources some sodium and potassium oxide...as well as traces of LOTS of other things.

The "taste change" you might be noticing likely is coming from the clay body. The liquid might be getting to contact the claybody via small craze lines, via some pinholes in the glaze layer, because some of the clay is not actually glazed, or because the glaze is actually "porous" . The latter is the least likely case.

best,

.......................john

Sep 4th, '12, 15:45
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Re: The Official "Ask the Artisan" Community Topic

by bryan_drinks_tea » Sep 4th, '12, 15:45

JBaymore wrote:Bryan,



The "taste change" you might be noticing likely is coming from the clay body. The liquid might be getting to contact the claybody via small craze lines, via some pinholes in the glaze layer, because some of the clay is not actually glazed, or because the glaze is actually "porous" . The latter is the least likely case.

best,

.......................john


Understood.
I have two cups from Jeff Brown (which I should post pics of!) The first one is the white ash glaze gongfu cup, which has some crazing and even some pitting in the bottom where air/some gas/the glaze reacting may have caused it to do that - there's no effect on the teas on that one, from what I can tell -it's for aged puerh and yencha.
The second cup is a larger chamfered cup that holds 2-3 ounces. I use it for sencha only, and it seems to make the sencha more mellow - despite not having any noticeable crazing or pitting. It's a dark, almost metallic looking glaze on the inside. Thanks for the input, John.

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Re: The Official "Ask the Artisan" Community Topic

by Saladin » Sep 23rd, '12, 22:19

Bryan,

I've noticed some glazes, usually matte, make my beer taste funny! I just got a soda fired cup with yellow salt glaze inside, and I swear it makes my IPA taste different (almost metallic). It also creates an unusually foamy head (chemical reaction)?
I also had similar experiences in college with some of my ash glazes. I need to send my work to Corning for evaluation perhaps.

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Re: The Official "Ask the Artisan" Community Topic

by JBaymore » Sep 24th, '12, 00:32

Saladin,

Certain types of surfaces, usually rough, provide points on which the carbonization in stuff like beer begins to "foam". So those types of containers will cause the beer to "fizz" more than what you get used to in something like a smooth glass. I am ASSUMING that can change the taste a bit.

It is also certainly possible that something is leaching....... but to leach enough to change the taste would be highly unusual. It's have to be a high concentration... thefore the glaze would haveto be AMAZINGLY unstable.

With salt/soda fired stuff it is certainly POSSIBLE that there are some un-combined soda compounds (literally like cyrstallized salt) still sitting on the surface of the piece that is disolving into the liquid in the piefce was inm a REALLY highly salted area. But this should go away with a first washing.

best,

.................john

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Re: The Official "Ask the Artisan" Community Topic

by Saladin » Sep 24th, '12, 14:05

Hi John,

Thanks for this informative post. That's very interesting and I wonder if the Germans preferred salt-fired beer steins for this reason? I've heard they give a better head than glass. My cup has been through the dish washer a few times and it still does this.. Normally, this particular glaze gets semi glossy in the kiln, but this time it's more matte, so maybe it was in a cool spot or it didn't get enough soda? All I know is that handmade pottery is different than commercial wares and I don't assume every glaze out there is food safe etc..
I made some bowls a long time ago with a matte copper glaze which fired dark green of course, but turned white after being in the fridge a few days full of salad! I ditched that one. :shock:

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Re: The Official "Ask the Artisan" Community Topic

by JBaymore » Sep 25th, '12, 00:03

Saladin wrote:I made some bowls a long time ago with a matte copper glaze which fired dark green of course, but turned white after being in the fridge a few days full of salad! I ditched that one. :shock:
Was the glaze called "Rob's Green"?

best,

...................john

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Sep 25th, '12, 02:05
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Re: The Official "Ask the Artisan" Community Topic

by Saladin » Sep 25th, '12, 02:05

JBaymore wrote:
Saladin wrote:I made some bowls a long time ago with a matte copper glaze which fired dark green of course, but turned white after being in the fridge a few days full of salad! I ditched that one. :shock:
Was the glaze called "Rob's Green"?

best,

...................john

John, it was called "stony pickle" a studio glaze at Mass Art. A pretty typical matte copper glaze.

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Re: The Official "Ask the Artisan" Community Topic

by hopeofdawn » Oct 10th, '12, 16:54

I have kind of an oddball question--

Twice now I've bought ceramic pieces online where the glazes were primarily red in color--and both times, the pieces were *very* different from their Etsy pictures. The first was pictured as being a very deep, lavalike red, and turned out to be a lot more orange in color in real life--the second was pictured as a deep vivid berry red over blue, when in real life it was actually a much cooler magenta color.

Perhaps as an artist, I'm just overly sensitive to hues, but I can't help but wonder if red glazes are particularly hard to photograph accurately? Has anyone had a problem with that? Or have I just been unlucky? (I will note that I've had two other (non-red) pieces by the same vendor in the second case, and both the listing photos for those were reasonably accurate.)

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Re: The Official "Ask the Artisan" Community Topic

by JBaymore » Oct 11th, '12, 11:54

Hopeofdawn,

Simply sounds like the artist might not be color correcting the camera to the light source(s). That is one possibility.

But also remember that unless YOU are using a monitor that has been color corrected for something like commercial graphics work (to do this correctly requires about a $100 "kit" from graphics companies)...... you might not be seeing the color that is actually represented IN the real photograph.

So the color of the artists picture might be spot-on..... but your monitor is what is misleading you.

best,

..............john

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Re: The Official "Ask the Artisan" Community Topic

by hopeofdawn » Oct 11th, '12, 13:10

Hi John--

Thanks for the answer, but I don't think the problem is with my monitor--while I haven't sprung for the professional calibration packages, as a graphic artist I have my monitors calibrated pretty carefully using Colorsync, and haven't noticed this kind of color shift on either my own work or anything else I view. I also viewed both items on a number of computers, not just my home desktop, and found the color variation to be minimal at best--certainly nothing like the shift I found in real life!

It is possible that the ceramic artist simply wasn't color correcting properly--I know it can be tricky even under optimal circumstances. I just hadn't noticed that kind of dramatic color change in the other pieces I'd bought, which is why I was wondering if perhaps the color of the glaze was the culprit.

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Re: The Official "Ask the Artisan" Community Topic

by JBaymore » Oct 11th, '12, 13:39

I frequently use a more or less blood-red overglaze enamel, and I have not found issues with photographing it. For example, my avatar image is pretty darn close the the real object.

Light frequencies should be light frequencies, whether it is glaze or paint. Reflectivity and such can make things tough in shooting pots, but I've never seen dramatic color sifts in images if the source lighting color temperature is correctly set in the camera or in selecting the film...... (film.......what's that :lol: ).

Maybe it could also be the upload system of the particular sales site and how they "convert/process" an image file from the original submitted by the artist (if they do).

best,

............john

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Re: The Official "Ask the Artisan" Community Topic

by FiveStar » Mar 3rd, '13, 17:35

Hello artisans!

My lovely wife bought me beginner wheel lessons for Valentine's day, and I'm stoked! I've done tons of research, and I know that we will be firing at cone 6 reduction for the student kiln. So I was wondering if anyone had any glaze reccomendations for this firing. I am way into ash glazes, but even more would LOVE to get a recipe for a simple white, fat, crawling shino at that temp.

So do you have any recipes for cone 6 reduction crawling shino?

I've found a glaze called "Marilee's lava glaze" that looks really organic and tactile that I'm looking forward to putting on some yunomi. If you have any other faves for low-fired stuff, I'd appreciate it very much!

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