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slab bookends - warping

updated sat 1 jan 00

 

Veena Raghavan on fri 24 dec 99

Dear Clayarters,
One last request for advice and help before the year ends. I make
bookends for a client and have been having a problem with warping. The
bookends are two slaps joined at a right angle. One slab goes on the
bookshelf, the other against the books. The top one, that goes against the
books tends to warp. I weigh down the lower one, while drying, and have
tried propping the top one with bars of clay, but nothings seems to work.
Any advice or ideas would be oh so welcome!
Thank you in advance and all the best for a great holiday season.
Veena

Veena Raghavan
75124.2520@compuserve.com

Earl Brunner on sat 25 dec 99

What about making the bookends, (they come in pairs right?) and *lightly*
attaching the top edges together, like smear the soft clay, then after the
bisque you could caredfully separate them. Unless your warpage is occurring in
the glaze fire. fire them back to back.

Veena Raghavan wrote:

> ----------------------------Original message----------------------------
> Dear Clayarters,
> One last request for advice and help before the year ends. I make
> bookends for a client and have been having a problem with warping. The
> bookends are two slaps joined at a right angle. One slab goes on the
> bookshelf, the other against the books. The top one, that goes against the
> books tends to warp. I weigh down the lower one, while drying, and have
> tried propping the top one with bars of clay, but nothings seems to work.
> Any advice or ideas would be oh so welcome!
> Thank you in advance and all the best for a great holiday season.
> Veena
>
> Veena Raghavan
> 75124.2520@compuserve.com

--
Earl Brunner
http://coyote.accessnv.com/bruec
mailto:bruec@anv.net

Karen Shapiro on sat 25 dec 99

HiVeena,

Are you putting the two pieces together while still pretty wet? I have found
that by allowing the pieces to get leather hard (pressing between sheet rock
until that point) before joining helps with the warping.
Just a thought.
MERRY CHRISTMAS and HAPPY Y2K!

Karen in Sonoma

Lorraine Pierce on sat 25 dec 99

Veena, have you considered using a more open body and perhaps thicker slabs? A
sculpture body? Or a slab, to be constructed as a tile, could be later cemented
to a standard library style metal bookend. I'll probably dream of this tonight
instead of sugar plums!! Lori in New Port Richey, Fl.

Veena Raghavan wrote:

> ----------------------------Original message----------------------------
> Dear Clayarters,
> One last request for advice and help before the year ends. I make
> bookends for a client and have been having a problem with warping. The
> bookends are two slaps joined at a right angle. One slab goes on the
> bookshelf, the other against the books. The top one, that goes against the
> books tends to warp. I weigh down the lower one, while drying, and have
> tried propping the top one with bars of clay, but nothings seems to work.
> Any advice or ideas would be oh so welcome!
> Thank you in advance and all the best for a great holiday season.
> Veena
>
> Veena Raghavan
> 75124.2520@compuserve.com

Mark & Pauline Donaldson-Drzazga on sat 25 dec 99


----- Original Message -----
From: Veena Raghavan <75124.2520@compuserve.com>
To:
Sent: 24 December 1999 17:30
Subject: Slab bookends - warping


> ----------------------------Original message----------------------------
> Dear Clayarters,
> One last request for advice and help before the year ends. I make
> bookends for a client and have been having a problem with warping. The
> bookends are two slaps joined at a right angle. One slab goes on the
> bookshelf, the other against the books. The top one, that goes against
the
> books tends to warp. I weigh down the lower one, while drying, and have
> tried propping the top one with bars of clay, but nothings seems to work.
> Any advice or ideas would be oh so welcome!
> Thank you in advance and all the best for a great holiday season.
> Veena
>
> Veena Raghavan
> 75124.2520@compuserve.com
>

Happy Cristmas Clayarters and Veena,

put all your assembled book ends on edge, with a strip of newspaper on this
edge, and stack them into each other. Having a large volume of clay will
slow down the drying and the warping.

Happy potting Marek http://www.moley.uk.com

Marvin Flowerman on sat 25 dec 99

Hi Veena:

Try making yourself a right-angle jig; you can make this from wood (smooth
surface) preferably formica covered. The ppieces do not even have to be
joined with screws or nails if you also make a supporting frame which
establishes the angle. Using a very lightly vaseline impregnated cloth, you
can coat the formica surface, to minimize having the clay adhere too strongly.
Then, you can place your slabs inside the right angle, join them with slip
and an additional small coil at the seam, monitor them while drying and you
should get a good, non-warped right angle for your book ends.
I have made such a jig a long time ago and use it repeatedly if I'm making a
form that requires such angles; makes the whole thing easier to handle, and
warp free.

Using this idea, you can perhaps improvise using materials that are readily
available to you for making such a jig. If you try this method, please let
me know the results.

All the best.

Marvin Flowerman

Steve Dalton on tue 28 dec 99

Veena,
Back in school, my teacher always told us to make the slabs a little thicker
than 1/4" in all cases and in some closer to 1/2". Confused yet?
Example...
his slab dishes were a little thicker than 1/4", yet when I was working on a
slab sculpture he wanted me to work closer to 1/2". He also wanted us to
rotate
the slab as we used the roller...roll the top, flip...roll the bottom, flip.
Aside
from that another key factor is drying, do you attach the pieces just after
you roll them?
or do you let them get to leather hard? If you do the latter...the next
time you have
a bisque, place the slabs ontop of the kiln until leather hard. SOMETIMES,
it will
take only an hour.
Build the piece and let it dry extremely slowly...longer than any of your
other pieces.
Bag it inside of a damp box with a dish of water next to the bag. Here
comes the fun
part, firing.
Fire slowly. If you fire with electric put it in the middle of a ring of
larger pots,
never by the elements. The same goes with gas...but never close to the
burners.
If you're still having problems, let me know and I'll contact my now former
teacher.
Steve Dalton
Snohomish "It's cold, but sunny," WA
----------
> From: Veena Raghavan <75124.2520@compuserve.com>
> To: CLAYART@LSV.UKY.EDU
> Subject: Slab bookends - warping
> Date: Fri, 24 Dec 1999 12:30:48 EST
>
>----------------------------Original message----------------------------
>Dear Clayarters,
> One last request for advice and help before the year ends. I make
>bookends for a client and have been having a problem with warping. The
>bookends are two slaps joined at a right angle. One slab goes on the
>bookshelf, the other against the books. The top one, that goes against the
>books tends to warp. I weigh down the lower one, while drying, and have
>tried propping the top one with bars of clay, but nothings seems to work.
>Any advice or ideas would be oh so welcome!
> Thank you in advance and all the best for a great holiday season.
>Veena
>
>Veena Raghavan
>75124.2520@compuserve.com

Earl Brunner on wed 29 dec 99



Steve Dalton wrote:

> ----------------------------Original message----------------------------
> Veena,
> He also wanted us to
> rotate
> the slab as we used the roller...roll the top, flip...roll the bottom, flip.
>
> Steve Dalton
> Snohomish "It's cold, but sunny," WA

Steve, I think that this is more critical if you are rolling with a rolling pin,
or a slab roller that only has one roller. If you have a Northstar, (or I think
a Bailey is the same) which has both a top and a bottom roller, I think much of
the compression problems are eliminated. I know that I get very little warpage
with my Northstar if I take reasonable care in handling and drying.--
Earl Brunner
http://coyote.accessnv.com/bruec
mailto:bruec@anv.net

Steve Dalton on fri 31 dec 99

Earl,
At school we had a Brent...one roller. I'm currently looking to get one,
and I'm thinking of the Northstar. I've also heard the samething about the
rollers making a difference.
Steve Dalton
----------
> From: Earl Brunner
> To: CLAYART@LSV.UKY.EDU
> Subject: Re: Slab bookends - warping
> Date: Wed, 29 Dec 1999 12:52:20 EST
>
>----------------------------Original message----------------------------
>
>
>Steve Dalton wrote:
>
>> ----------------------------Original message----------------------------
>> Veena,
>> He also wanted us to
>> rotate
>> the slab as we used the roller...roll the top, flip...roll the bottom,
flip.
>>
>> Steve Dalton
>> Snohomish "It's cold, but sunny," WA
>
>Steve, I think that this is more critical if you are rolling with a rolling
pin,
>or a slab roller that only has one roller. If you have a Northstar, (or I
think
>a Bailey is the same) which has both a top and a bottom roller, I think
much of
>the compression problems are eliminated. I know that I get very little
warpage
>with my Northstar if I take reasonable care in handling and drying.--
>Earl Brunner
>http://coyote.accessnv.com/bruec
>mailto:bruec@anv.net