biglou13 wrote:Beautiful!!!!!!
I can't wait get into some wood fire!
Can you please tell us about glazes, home many hours firing, what cone, what clay body, natural flash or slip, what part of kiln was each piece fired, what kind of wood, wading recipe?
How much time u spend firing?
What a treat!!!
This was part of a ceramics class at the Kalamazoo Institute of Art. All those pieces are one of three glazes: Oribe, Pearl Shino, and Devers Shino. ( I did not take good notes on which piece was which, and it is harder to tell the Pearl Shino, and Devers Shino apart than I thought based on where it was in the kiln). None* of the pieces are glazed on the outside, I only glazed the inside, and a few I did dip the rim in the glaze as well, but I did not apply glaze to the outside of the pieces. All the "glaze" on the exterior of the pieces is the wood ash build up, which really shows why it seems to be uneven and oddly applied.
The firing was done as part of the class, and the firing went from Wednesday early morning, to early morning Sunday, so about 4-5 days. I do not know exactly the temps reached ( I was not working at this time), but I did hear that the back of the kiln reached Cone 11, and the front has been known to reach Cone 13. Typically about 2600F degrees in the front.
The wadding was a mix ( I am not sure on the exact proportions) of clay and bran. Wood was all sorts of woods, but a mix of hard and soft woods. There was a good bit of pine which is good for quickly raising the heat, but the hard woods give much more ash and a far better coal bed and more prolonged heat. I can't get too much more specific on the wood, as it really was a mix of all sorts, the teacher has made connections with many local groups and they know to call her and let her know when they have cleared wood, so it can be carted away to the kiln site. ( One such place is a boyscout camp.)
I wish I could answer more about the clay body but I do not completely know the details, I may have been told but I think it went over my head. The clay was a clay specially prepared by the Institute of Arts to be able to handle the wood fire. If I recall correctly it is lower in iron compared to most clays because the iron can help cause cracks to happen during the firing.
I started snapping very detailed shots after cleaning up all of the pieces, but I do not have the cord to connect the camera to the PC so It will be a few more days till you see those. (After unloading the kiln I traveled home for Mothers day). But without much futher ado sneak peaks at my 8 pieces.
