Ellen Currans on sat 11 jun 05
Most of us won't do much glaze testing if our materials are all in bags under
tables around the studio. In the three studios I've had in the past 35
years, I have had a small section of shelves, floor to ceiling, just for glaze
chemicals. You can start out with boards and bricks to figure out what you want.
My glaze mixing area was 4 ft. wide and is now about 7 feet long to fit
between a wall and a spray booth. I used 15 inch wide, white shelving from Home
Depot with two metal tracks on each end wall. Since that shelving is not very
strong, I also have two supports (cut from the same shelving) and just above
each other, spaced between my containers to handle the load. I use plastic
gallon milk jugs with the tops cut out and the handle left on for a grip. I can
stack them two deep (with the less used materials behind the most used) and I
have room for almost every possible material or clay. I have 4 of the 15
inch shelves with 10 inches between them for the milk jugs. On the top shelf I
have room for my gram scale, recipe files, notebooks, etc. Since I am short,
this shelf is just the right height for me to easily read the gram scale
without bending over. Since there are no lids on the buckets (they fit fairly
snugly under the shelf and I find little contamination or any problem with
moisture) I can grab a milk jug with one hand, spoon out what is needed into the gram
scale and set it back all in one motion. The jugs hold enough that we even
mix our large 5,000 gram batches here, only it is necessary sometimes to refill
the jugs from the adjacent, unheated clay and chemical storage area where the
big bags are. My husband mixes the big batches so I don't have to deal with
the big bags.
Above these shelves are two more narrow shelves that hold plastic containers
for stains, oxides, additives, etc. These have lids on them (I have
nightmares about the next earthquake landing all my chemicals in a pile on the floor).
Above all this is a good light shining down on the mixing shelf and another
shelf which I use for display of some old crockery, metal sieves, portugese wine
bottles, etc.
My system for testing glazes is to make out a 3 x 5 file card for each
formula as I find it or think about a change to one I already have. It is given my
own number. I also note where I found the glaze and any notes about how to
fire, mix, etc. When I am ready to test glazes, I get out the cards and make up
100 gram dry samples and store them in labeled sandwich baggys. I keep a small
notebook which lists the consecutive numbers, the date, the name of the
glaze, the expected results, and later on the actual results. I enter the number
and name in the notebook as I mix it dry, and the date of firing when I mix it
wet. If you are a real glaze fanatic, you will want more information that
this, but I am simply looking for better glazes and to see what works in my kiln
firings on my clay. The "possibles but not quites" get tweaked a number of
times, and when I have something that looks like it will work, I mix 500 grams
and try it on a pot. I use baby food jars to store my 100 gram batches and
1/2 gallon yoghurt tubs for the 500. I use an old drink mixer with a plastic
bottle to mix the 100 gram batches well enough to test without sieving.
(doesn't work too well with ashes or cornish stone)
I think that having a place already set up, that is easy to use, without
dragging bags out from under tables or taking lids off each storage jar, makes
glaze testing and mixing much easier. Also, setting it up to do each process in
kind of an assembly line fashion. I gather recipes and think of changes as I
read magazines, books, unload the kiln, etc. and make out the cards. The dry
mixing and wet mixing can be done anything later and the tests might set on
the shelves for a month before I start a series of firings.
I don't think you need a bin table in a one potter studio. Just a simple,
compact, always available system for doing it quickly and easily.
Ellen Currans,
Where the weeds are as high as this potter's eye, and it is still raining.
Of course! It is Rose Festival Week.
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