It has been said that I am using up a lot of bandwidth. TRUE! 500 posts of Beastie Boys and piggies...at least I don't waste space on the web, at least I am showcasing that which is IMPORTANT.
I have moved soooo slowly on the red hippo pots for Maggie. OK, Maggie, they are cooking now, about 150 degrees and rising, 2200 degrees by this evening, unloaded and cool tomorrow afternoon. The bright red glaze I use varies in spots between purple to cranberry red to pink, mostly cranberry red, and I call it strawberry. Interestingly, the ingredients use an oxide mix which are GREEN together, but the chemical reaction of fire and temperature result in a red color. That sort of thing is COOL.
Dreamt I was counseling a young person who really wanted to go to the Naval Academy and study pottery. I doubted if the Naval Academy offered pottery....
4 comments:
I was thinking about the chemistry of pottery the other day, Gary. Well, wondering about it, actually. Fire/heat brings about some cool changes in things, that's for sure.
I envy you your strange dreams. I almost never remember my dreams when I wake up. To them point where I don't even remember having dreams at all.
Yeah, Gordo, there was a whole week's worth of dreams last night too. Not helped by the two am cat fight on my feet (the kitten won, as she usually does). Just odd bits and pieces. Typically, my dreams include:
1) people I have thought about recently, or not recenty
2) school, esp. college, sometimes anxiety over finishing up my final year's projects
3) WAITING. I guess I don't like to wait.
We had extensive study of glaze chemistry in my ceramics program. It is one of those things that I am very grateful for. My program emphasized 'here is the info, now get to work'. There was no hand holding, just guidance and the expectation that you would work hard. I am very independent in work habits, and that is part of the reason. As for glaze chemistry, my first attempts at mixing my own glazes, and experiments, started in 95. I had some suggested recipes, and through experiments developed my own glazes. It was quite cool, that first batch of 5 test tiles all with the same base but different additions: the samples with cobalt and zircopax each looked perfect, therefore all my glazes get zircopax!!!! (oops, secret's out...) Then in 2000 gerstley borate, the backbone of those glazes, became scarce, and through trial and error over 4 months I developed a whole different series of glazes, better than before. Through research, I learned that one thing makes a good alternative backbone for a glaze, and certain additions develop glossiness, other additions cause a speckly appearance. The last glaze recipe I developed was a celadon last spring, based on BOTH recipe series, from 1995 and 2000, and in January I have an idea for a simple recipe to develop, for a wild and speckly blue. You never kno how these things will turn out, though, as my first attempt at red turned up the awesome and useful piggy pink glaze.
A potter AND a mad scientist ... :-D
Mad potter? Let me post THAT story...
Post a Comment