Recently in Ceramics Category

I have become bored and started playing with C# again. This time I designed a virtual kiln controller. It can calculate firing times based on a Bartlett controller's prescribed programs, or it can accept a custom firing program. It is my eventual goal to have the software be able to estimate temperatures during firing as well as during cooling, but for the moment it only does the firing temperatures. Cooling is much harder because of all of the factors involved (including kiln fullness). The application tries to mimic the Bartlett V6-CF displays for the temperature and status display. It is a fairly simple application that I designed last week and over the weekend. It works for those of us who would like to know what temperature our kiln might be at, without spending $900 on K.I.S.S.

If you are interested, you can grab a copy of VirtualKiln from http://www.pcfire.net/VirtualKiln/

My enthusiasm for Standard Ceramic Company's 563 clay body has been short lived. Upon going to get a fresh batch this morning I was informed that it has been discontinued. I am now in posession of Standard's 220 clay body. Supposed to be very similar, but I will determine that. I liked how well 563 vitrified, so I guess I will try 220 to see if it does the same.

I am a bit upset that I can no longer get the clay body that I prefer, but I guess things change and nothing stays the same.

Looking back on the last two weeks I feel more like a ceramic artist now than I have in a while. I like everything I have made and have been proud to send it through the kiln. I have also made more work and spent more time working on ceramics than I think I have in this period of time before. A lot of my throwing in the past, outside of an academic environment, has been very random and almost spastic. I have been making whatever came off the wheel, but in the last few weeks I have been declaring things that I was going to do, or at least attempt. I dared to try a rolled lip, it worked out. I tested the limits of "squared" bowls (bowls with a harsh angle and not a curve) and they fought back, but I still got some good examples from it. I held my breath and put my weakest bottle on its head to trim, they were resilient. I have had more kiln loads running in the last few weeks than I used to do in a month. Doing all of this makes me feel good, it makes me feel like a ceramic artist, or at the very least, a potter.

Picking a new clay body (Standard 563) was very important to this happening, it has made me feel like I am starting again with things, and taking off in a more positive direction. I am also working with a stoneware body again, not falling back to earthenware, so it is like I am growing up ceramically.

I feel like I am getting a lot done lately, but I look over at my bisque shelves and see lots of very white pieces that really need to be glazed. I really hate glazing, I must be a potter.

In several days I will start my first ceramics class without Tweedy. I have grown quite attached to Tweedy's ways of doing things, and the ways of the UNCC ceramics studio.  I  will be in a new studio and under a new instructor. I am terrified.

I have never trimmed a clay as smooth as 563. The clay shaves off with no disruption to the piece, and I don't get those nasty little grooves that some grogged stonewares do. I am liking more about it than I am hating about it. I will likely keep working with 563, maybe as a replacement to 105 as my normal throwing clay. I had no problems getting the wobbly bowl to trim to a beautiful foot.

My first throw in Standard's 563 was interesting. It centered fast, and threw smooth. The texture of the clay was great, but the particular batch this bag is from seems to be a little overly moist. The clay has no structure... it isn't good for throwing wide bowls at this point (but as with all clays, it will stiffen with some time). I threw one wide bowl in it, which had difficulties with staying even, it attempted to slump. In future wide throws I will spend some time giving the clay a serious wedging first. After the failing of the wide throw I tried for something I had problems with on 105G recently, bottles. 563 works beautifully for bottles. It is a very plastic clay that goes where I point it. It's properties are very similar to that of 105 in that it is a very smoothly workable clay, but 105 has never given me the type of finish that 563 has. Just a simple rubbing of the metal rib before running the wire under gave me a really beautiful, almost burnished appearance.

I am going to continue working  with 563. I feel that once I learn its properties I will be well on my way to throwing whatever I want in it.

My normal throwing clay for home is Standard Clay's 105 or 105G (with grog). Also I work with a red clay in the same series, 104. Recently my mother (who does a lot of glazing for me) asked if she could use mid-range stoneware glazes. This brought about a question in myself... can she? I know my 105 earthenware would never survive to those temperatures, but on the other hand, if I were to change clays, then it would be possible to fire higher without risk. In some ways, 105 is not a very versatile clay, but its easy to work with. I had previously used Standard's 551, VP Porcelain as my mid-range white clay. I had a love-hate relationship with it. It would throw thin, light and stretch easily, but it wasn't durable at all... many pieces in it broke before they were even fired. I was running low on clay the other day so I have obtained 100 pounds of a clay I have never worked with before... Standard's 563, a white mid-range stoneware that is completely vitreous at cone 6. I'm looking forward to trying it next week. The description I have read for it sounds a lot like 105, so I might be very happy with it, but no way to tell until its on the wheel.