Dr.Tom Roess on wed 3 jan 01
Charles Lakofsky, in an article in CM Nov '79 describes his attempts at =
reglazing. =
"I had taken a pot from the kiln, satisfactory in form but quite =
pedestrian in its ..glaze. Mr Harder (Charles M Harder of Alfred) suggest=
ed an
over spray of MG3 white matt....This I tried, but the glaze flowed from t=
he =
pot in waves beneath the spray gun's blast. =
"Try heating the pot first in an electric kiln " was the master's=
next
thought. The glaze steamed a bit when applied, set up and dried in place=
=
almost immediately, but when I picked the pot up the glaze dusted off. =
"Mr Harder's next advice was to add a binder such as sugar, corn =
syrup
or molasses, and in answer to my immediate question, "How much?" he just =
shrugged.
"Not wishing to be lax in following a suggestion I added about a =
quarter of a cup of B'rer Rabbit dark to a pint of glaze rather than the =
tablespoon or two I have since learned to be sufficient. It took the stic=
ky =
mess quite a while to dry, but when it did, if was like a sheet of petrif=
ied =
sandpaper, quite immune to removal by fingers.
"The peculiar smell of burning gingerbread permeated the kiln roo=
m =
during the initial stages of the cone 10 firing, but the pot which emerge=
d =
brought the comment from Mr Harder "I'll be darned - how did we do that?"=
It =
was my turn to shrug.
"Apparently the molasses had violently boiled, carrying the white=
=
glaze into a foam which then settled down and fused into a rich snakeskin=
=
pattern, with each white area on its black background surrounded by a gol=
d =
halo. =
"The jar was purchased by the Cleveland Museum of art from its 1=
946 =
May Show after having received an award. A critic reviewing the exhibitio=
n =
wrote: 'Special attention must be called to the Lakofsky covered jar. Th=
e =
artist's control over his glazes is incredible' ....despite many attempts=
, I =
have never been able to repeat my incredible control."
The article goes on to give quite a bit more of what the author has learn=
ed =
about reglazing, but is too long to quote here.
Regards. Lou in Snowmass
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