My Studio (continued)
This is a little test I completed a few years ago. I simply placed the raw materials that I use to formulate glazes on this half plate to see how they melted by themselves. It's interesting to note that not all melted like Georgia Kaolin. On the other hand, the pearl ash and the soda ash melted into puddles. That melting fluxed the clay body of the broken plate and melted it too, to make the whole mess "a simple glaze." This is how the first glazes were made way back in history. As I like to say, "we had the pot before the plow."
Here is a before firing picture.
Checking one of four burners for complete combustion before I close the door for 12 hours of heating to 2300°F.
Here's the after firing. The heating and melting process is extreme. It took humans thousands of years to achieve these
temperatures. It has a lot to do with the insulation and sustained heat.
Live action in the lab.
This laboratory notebook is open to the page when I was working on the half plate experiment.
It's important to know when to quit even if you are having a good time. Some friends just don't know when to quit. These two
lab rats stayed a little too long and got dried out... Rat mummies.
A display of some of my large pottery.
My front yard with the welcoming committee.
Back Yard.
A perfect spring day in my back field.
Back to Page 1