Catie Lowder on sat 30 may 98
aaaaaah! sorry sorry sorry about that blank e mail i just sent. Here's my
little inquiry: I will be introduced to mixing glazes this summer at
Horizons(art campish sort of thing for high schoolers), but the coming year i
am planning to build a raku kiln and hoping to mix my own glazes. i have to
write this proposal with SPECIFIC DETAILS galore and i am realizing i know
little of the world of glazes accept the little plastic amaco underglaze jars
and the soupy stuff in the buckets that I dip my pots in at CIA, but nothing
of the mysterious powdery chemicals. Obviously, I am very VERY new to glaze
chemistry and I expect it isn't just as easy as following the given
proportions in a recipe. If you don't want to read my specific
questions,(since this is a bit long and probably a little annoying to all you
real artists and art students out there to give such basic info to an
unknowing little teenager so a great BIG THANKS to the people taking the time
to read this...you'll get another if you keep reading...) I would appreciate
any description of the whole glaze mixing process: as in given a recipe, what
steps do you take? What do you use to measure the components of a glaze out?
a balance? will i need one of those big electric mixer sort of things that i
think they used when i went to summer camp? what intermediate steps are there
once the ingredients are together? how "in bulk" is it necesary to buy the
glaze components? any one have any cost estimates for these things? will i
have enough room in a little corner of an art room? will I be helpless if I
have very limited knowledge of glaze chemisrty? is anyone a big fan of those
glaze computer programs and would recommend that i use them? does anyone
recommend any good books on glaze chem? Besides my three week thing during the
summer, I will probably have to teach myself everything else, is this crazy?
from the lack of knowledge i am showing here, would i be better off going to
search for commercial raku glazes? are there commercial raku glazes? any reply
would be so very much appreciated. big giant wonderful thanks to the realm of
clay art!!! HOORAY FOR CLAY!
-catie (if you think this is not something anyone else cares about on clay
art, e mail me!--o6pixystix@aol.com, the o is a NOT a zero!)
Don Prey on sun 31 may 98
catie,
your questions may be elementary, but they are not stupid. It will take a few
years of study to start to understand glazes and glazing. my suggestion is:
get a couple of books that you can read and reread. opinions naturally differ
on the details of glazes and glazing, but the fundamentals stay pretty much
the same and one good introduction to the topic is in "The Craft of the
Potter", by Michael Casson.....it is in paperback and not to expensive.
At the moment I don't have time to get into an extensive message here, but
just want to say that, yes, you can do this.
Don Prey in Oregon
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