First Glaze Kiln - very excited

The results are in, and they worked out better than I could hope for. I opened the glaze kiln this morning praying to whatever goddess of pottery there is that nothing nothing disastrous occurred yesterday. Like over firing, under firing, spattering, drooling, pocking or crazing. Vigilance paid off, and our test tiles are complete. (finally)


We now know exactly how long to cut them to be the same size as the other tiles we have, (6 5/8") and how to apply the glaze for best results (double dip.) You can see the dark even colour of the third tile.
We like the results of the dipped tiles best because the brushed ones are streaky and even with 3 coats the colour is not dark as the dipped tiles.
The relief of the tiles means air pockets sometimes happen so dipping can be tricky, but the the final results are worth it.
Now we actually have to get on with it.

Still Experimenting With Tiles

When the garden isn't under snow, I often pour my first cup of coffee and wander about in my bathrobe pulling weeds. Sometimes I can get caught up for hours this way and I'm often late for appointments because of it.
The great thing about having a pottery studio in you house is that it takes the place of the garden in winter. This morning I found myself making cone plaques and doing glaze tests in my bathrobe with my first cup of coffee.
We fired a bisque kiln of test tiles on Friday, all went well. No cracking or explosions occurred and I was surprised at how much they didn't warp.
We decided on the middle relief for our tiles. We like the size as it doesn't over power the subway tile and it isn't as deeply cut as the one on the left.

On Sunday, I made up a batch of glaze, but first we had to make a fine sieve to push it through to remove any lumps. After some brainstorming Peter stretched a piece of formex fabric over a 20 gallon paint bucket and kept it in place with the rim of the lid. Yes, I know you can buy a fine sieve, but where is the fun in that? Plus we saved $50 because we already have the formex and the paint buckets.

This morning I made some glaze tests using the reject tiles. I experimented both dipping the tiles in the glaze and brushing the glaze on with a paintbrush, making notes on how many layers each piece got. We'll see which works best. The glaze is a blue grey at the moment but it should be a dark blue after it is fired.
I will kiln wash the shelves today and fire the glaze tests tomorrow. Keeping fingers crossed.

Happy Flag Day

OK, I missed Valentine's Day yesterday. I mean I didn't really miss it, I did remember to wish the big cuddly guy a happy one yesterday morning when I got up, but we don't do the cards, chocolates, flowers thing.
Although the big guy bought a 22" flat screen for the computer (with his birthday money from his Mom) and we did watch a Terry Pratchett movie on it last night as a treat for me, so I guess in our own non-romantic way we did do something special.
But, as I forgot about the rest of you, let me make it up now by saying Happy Flag Day. (And if your not in Canada reading this, too bad.)
And just to prove that Canadians aren't stuffy about what they do to their flag, check out this video on utube.
Jecht's New Hair

Pretty Nice

I've been surfing the blogosphere recently. You can really get lost in time and space that way. Many of the blogs I follow are about renovating or local Nova Scotia or both. And many have very pretty pictures on them. I'm so accustomed to how pretty it is that I forget to notice most days. Sometimes I do though, like at sunrise last month after a snowfall.


And one very frosty morning.

The Amazing P. D. Little Clay Extruder (Patent (de)Pending)

Peter always wanted a patent, maybe this is his big chance. This surprised him by actually working on the first try. He thought that the pressure on the clay would force the whole thing apart, I wasn't worried about that, but I suspected the little drill wouldn't have the umph to force the plunger into the tube. We were both wrong it works great. Double click on the pics to see a larger image.

The drill, turns the ready rod through two pieces of angle iron (to guide it level and straight) and a 6 inch pair of vice-grips (as a torque arrester). The ready rod pushes the disc into the tube and forces the clay out the other end. The die is held in place by the rim of the end cap, which is held in place by the hole in the plywood.
It cost <$15. We bought the white drain tube, the end cap and a couple nuts. (I know, I know, we already had a couple of nuts...) We already had the ready rod, the angle iron, the plywood, the plumbing strap, the screws, the vice grips, and the clamp that holds it to the table. We also already had the screw gun, the drill press, the circle cutter, the table saw, the jig saw, the scroll saw, the grinder and the lathe that was used to build it. So if you need to buy those it will cost more. I requested that this be a horizontal extruder, because that means your clay doesn't get curved coming out. But now I realize that it also means it is a two person job, because someone has to hold and operate the drill while someone else catches the noodle. This is an extruded tile from a test die that we cut to see if the contraption would work, but since it did, I'm using it for a shrinkage test.

How to Set Up A Studio:

First, spend years learning various skills like carpentry, masonry, small engine repair and electrical wiring. Instead of that, I studied mate selection and live with someone that fits that description.
We did grout the floor of the sun room last weekend. It took two sessions because we ran out of grout half way through. The second session went much easier, faster and cleaner after we applied what we learned from the first session. It is like Peter always says, "Once we are finished a job we know exactly what we are doing."
As a side adventure, not really tile related but clay related; we worked on getting one of the pottery wheels working. It confounded us in the garage, the motor would run but the belt drives would not. After some thought, we moved it into the house to warm up, and after some Armor All on the belts and some grease everywhere else it trundled along nicely, although it is less powerful than I am used to. Some structural reinforcement to stop the wobble and I have a wheel.
Then I found two pottery wheels and a kiln on Kijiji in Schubenacadie. I figured it had to be a sign so off we went on a road trip last weekend to buy them. They were all older than dirt and beat up but the price was right. They had lived in a guy's unheated shed for 10 years. They were meant to be a project, but his wife switched to painting shortly after they acquired them and the project never happened. He was selling them to make more room for the stuff he had been buying on Kijiji. (These people were really great, but the house was full of stuff - all of it great and they had many outbuildings full of more stuff. It was eerily disturbing; like looking into the future.)
The kiln is a larger version of the small test kiln we have already, it is 7 cubic feet of interior space, but it draws more power than the other and we will have to upgrade the wiring from the panel to the plug in the garage to be able to fire it. This project will be farther down the road as the small kiln will be big enough to fire the few tiles we need for the shower.
The new (old) wheels are both the stand up type and are what Peter calls third world engineering. Meaning whatever goes wrong, you can fix it with a paper clip and some bubble gum. We McGyvered one today. It looks like this but it is electric, and it is actually from England but dates from post WW2, which was sort of third worldy when you think about it. It only needed a new power cord and on/off switch to make it work, and then some silicone spray and steel wool to tart it up. At the moment it has only one speed, and although we can see that there is a potential for speed variability, we can't quite figure out how the mechanism should work as the treadle is missing. But even as a one speed wheel it might be useful for trimming and I'm definitely going to have a go at throwing just to see what it is like standing up.
All of this has taken us away from finishing the extruder. But until we get some clay, Peter won't be able to see where the problems are with the existing design. Clay is coming Monday!