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help - still cracking!

updated thu 4 jun 98

 

Jeff Lawrence on wed 3 jun 98

JuliE in Michigan was writing about her frames cracking...

I missed the first part of this thread, chasing dollars in Las Vegas, so
don't know if my experience is redundant but I've had some bad cracking
nightmares, which I delight in whining about here.

I traced my problems to a combination of glaze characteristics. For one,
immature glazes break my slip-cast wall lights. I don't understand the
mechanism, but when the glaze doesn't smooth out completely, the pots break.
The other scenario where I get consistent cracking is glazing a piece with a
very low expansion glaze.

When my glazes break my pots (both scenarios), they do so on sharp cuts and
corners. If I glaze only on one side, this contributes a lot to the carnage.
If you have a glaze under a lot of compression, glazed on only one side of
the frame. I theorize that the glaze, seeking to be all that it can be,
bursts the shackles of the constricting frame to assume its rightful size in
the universe.

hoping this helps (said he, wiping away a tear at this ennobling thought).

Jeff
Jeff Lawrence
jml@sundagger.com
Sun Dagger Design
Rt 3 Box 220
Espanola, NM 87532
ph 505-753-5913