Gari Whelon on thu 25 may 06
Hi Wanda
Have you tried Laguna's WSO?
I have not done a lot of horsehair Raku but those I did with WSO were
wonderful.
I'm sure Seattle pottery carries it.
Gari Whelon
Proletariat Pots
Nanaimo B.C., Canada
whelon@island.net
-----Original Message-----
From: fireblaze [mailto:fireblaze@WAVECABLE.COM]
Sent: Thursday, May 25, 2006 1:34 PM
To: CLAYART@LSV.CERAMICS.ORG
Subject: FW: Clay for Horsehair Firing
I have been reading clayart for at least two years now. I often go to
the archives to research problems and find great answers. However,
after many months of trying different clays, I now concede and hope that
someone on clayart can help me with a workable solution.
I live in the Pacific Northwest.in a rather humid area. I fire my
pottery several different ways and my current problem is with my
horsehair pieces. I need a clay that will withstand the shock of the
temperature change, will accept terrasig and produce a nice surface, and
one that has enough tooth to allow me to make pieces that are medium
sized. I have tried several different cone 10 clays from my local
suppliers with results that are not, in my opinion, satisfactory. Here
is what I have found:
Clays without sand or grog have had a high loss rate to cracking. Clays
with sand seem to have an orange peel surface (which greatly decreases
the appeal of the surface) after the bisque and I have experienced pop
outs with white dots on at least one of the clays. I have tried two
different Raku Clays with grog which look great right out of the bisque
but within a few days have pop outs with black dots. This is a problem
on Raku fired pieces with areas that have no glaze also.
I researched the archives and the answers I found were to slake the clay
and sieve to about 35 mesh. This isn't a workable solution for me since
I don't have a pugmill and I have arthritis. There is obviously nothing
I can do about the humidity here. I store the pieces in my house
instead of the studio, the pop outs just take longer to appear. I have
talked to local clay suppliers, tried various clays, and have still not
found a clay that will work. The other day I saw that one of my pieces
in a gallery, which had looked great when I took it to the gallery, now
had several pops on the surface. Can anyone recommend a clay that is
available in my area that will work under these conditions or offer a
workable solution?
Many thanks in advance,
Wanda Garrity
Fireblaze Pottery
Port Orchard, WA
www.fireblazepottery.com
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Marcia Selsor on thu 25 may 06
I use a Piepenburg raku clay from Seattle Pottery with a ball clay
terra sig over it.
The clay is pretty smooth. I rib the surface with a thin metal rib so
the surface is smooth.
When dry I spray terra sig onto it.
When I was firing my pieces I was getting cracks. My rocket scientist
husband said..Cool
them upside down. I cool them on a blanket of kaowool. This item
alone saved a bunch of pots.
You can see them on my website
Marcia Selsor
http://marciaselsor.com
BIG SNIP
Can anyone recommend a clay that is
> available in my area that will work under these conditions or offer a
> workable solution?
>
> Many thanks in advance,
>
>
> Wanda Garrity
> Fireblaze Pottery
> Port Orchard, WA
> www.fireblazepottery.com
>
> ______________________________________________________________________
> ________
Bruce Girrell on fri 26 may 06
Wanda Garrity wrote:
>Clays without sand or grog have had a high loss rate to cracking.
That is not our experience. We use a smooth porcelain clay body and have low
a loss rate (average of maybe 1 in 10). We have used clays with grog, but
the grog makes burnishing more difficult (and the white of the porcelain
provides a nice canvas for the decoration).
I doubt that humidity is your problem. It sounds as though you have some
sort of a contamination problem.
To control your breakage during decoration, I suggest
1) throw (or trim) thin and uniform
2) bisque no higher than ^010
3) insulate your work surface and protect the work from breezes while
applying the hair
Bruce Girrell
in foggy northern Michigan
We had a neighbor take some pictures during our last horsehair firing so
I'll work on getting those posted after we get some shots of the resulting
pots
fireblaze on sat 27 may 06
As a follow-on to my request for help to find a good clay for horsehair,
I thought I would let everyone know what great inputs I received. So
far nine people responded on and off list. Of those, three folks live
or have lived in a humid environment and experienced the same problem
with their clays. I was given several recommendations for clays to try
and I hope to try about 6 of them in the coming weeks. I also got some
great recommendations that may help with the loss rate when using clays
without grog which I plan to try also.
Thanks to everyone - Clayart folks are great! I'll let you know the
results of my tests.
Wanda Garrity
Fireblaze Pottery
Port Orchard, WA
www.fireblazepottery.com
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