Although ..... the pots, the kilns and my old body were not so sure that that was such a good idea 8(
I have been averaging about 3 - 4 raku loads a day.
Don't get too excited, each load only has 2 pots in it.
But I am quite happy with the results in general.
This will have to be my last raku week for the year.
Spring is here and I can't risk the high bush fire danger that we live with, here in the Blue Mountains.
So I have been up at dawn (most days) trying to get through all the raku pieces I have made.
Fire box in the little rocket
and reduction chambers (I do love a nice garbage bin ;)
I am so tired and ready to stop for a bit...
There is about 8 of them and they sing beautifully.
It adds to the theatricality of the firing.
'Sadhana and the Magpies' take the stage. Song ,dance and fire twirling.
( contains some strong language, may not be suitable for small children}
My big kiln, "Harry", has been powering too but something went wrong this week
and he fell short of the 1280 that my porcelain bowls needed to melt the glass I had in the bottoms of them.
He only reached 1170 before refusing to go higher, just short of a nice smooth surface on this very old glass.
Almost beautiful but not quite.
Thinking something was wrong with the program I did a reset and put it back on on to cook.
BAH!
Poor feller just did the same and I am now thinking it is an element... :( :(
No chance of getting my kiln man in before the exhibition so I guess that leaves that series out. boooooo hooooo :(
After a mega day yesterday of stoking the kiln from 7.30am to 8.45pm and pushing out 6 kiln loads of raku pots, I can now say all my work is made.
YaY!
I am sure the Mud Colony potters have been busy too.
Now I am off to photograph make the catalogue and display bits.
Less than 2 weeks before I MUST have every thing ready for our exhibition, in our blood.
Then I am off to NZ, on my own this time, to see my costume on the BIG stage at WOW.
Can't wait.
I haven't allowed myself to think too much about it until now as I have had too much to focus on for our exhibition.
But with everything made, I can start to think about the world out side ( well just a little. )
Here is a bit about WOW this year.
Oh noes! I really wanted to see how the glass turned out. Mostly because I have some old glass hanging around that I wanted to try something similar with. I thought glass would fuse at a lower temp. Or is it the specific type of glass?
ReplyDeleteHi Hancock,
ReplyDeleteGlass will slump at a lower temp but if you are wanting a really smooth melted surface it needs to be high 1280 -1300.It make sense if you think about an earthern ware glaze it has frit in it to help melt the silica(glass)in glaze at a lower temp.Stone ware glazes don't need the frit for that reason.Why don't you try some test pieces to see what you get.I have been using old broken crystal and cut glass bits .Nice when it gets to temp. Good Luck.
looking good, Sadhana and the Magpies, I like that, hope you get to take a break after all you've been doing. I melt some glass in my kiln at cone 5 but I don't think I cool slow enough since it gets a crackle but is still smooth. My kiln is so big I hesitate to fire a whole kiln load just for a few pieces with glass.
ReplyDeleteHey Sadhana, did u try crushing the glass? I took an enameling workshop the other day and they work with powdered glass.. the kiln didn't hav to be half as hot.. it melted easily with a beautiful smooth surface.. :)
ReplyDeleteGood thought Pooja,
ReplyDeletebut enameling is different to ceramics. Getting the glass to fuse with the clay is different to glass fusing with metal.
Did you use a flux?
In ceramics we use frits as the flux to lower the melting point of the glass but with out going to far into it.....the chemistry is different...love to you :)