: oldlady - Viewing Profile

I've been around so long that i have seen trends come and go. when i started, i subscribed to ceramics monthly. it seemed that the articles were all about fuel firing and cone 10. any "real" potters worked at cone 10. all the colors were brown or dark something. the pictures back in 1972 were few and were only of work at cone 10. the advertisers included the sellers of cone 06 commercial products but were guaged toward the owners of the many "Ceramics" stores which were then enjoying a boom. (we saw them rise and become Paint Your Own shops in the recent past.) and fail again, recently.

the serious work was done by those potters you new folks know as historical figures, bernard leach, michael cardew, shoji hamada, harrison mcintosh, and many more. and glazes were dipped.

in my opinion, color in pots took off after the really beautiful work was able to be photographed in color. what was the name of the woman whose article showed how she made "crayons" and shredded them into her work? started with an H i think. the black background was speckled with all these amazing bright colors. she sold a line of dishes in some very high-class department store. this was probably concurrent with the energy crisis and the attendant outcry about going all the way to cone 10 using gas. such waste!

funny, then we began to see articles in CM about the possibility of using cone 6 and being considered real potters anyway. and now there are many of you using the tiny, little jars of underglaze.

cycles come and go. ain't life grand?

Nancy S., on 15 June 2013 - 09:15 PM, said:

NO! NO! NO! NO!

with lots of heat ( above cone 6) and time, a lllllooooonnnnnnggggg time, a shelf may warp a little out of level. IN THAT CASE>>>>>>>>you might turn the shelf over after scraping off, grinding off and totally removing any kiln wash. then use the bottom side as though it were a new shelf. NO NO NO NO not all the time and NO NO NONONO do NOT put kiln wash on the underside of shelves!!!!!

i can show you what happens when a small flake falls onto your best work!!!! NO NO NO!

i am not a technical person, just one who goes by experience. you seem to have an underlying lack of knowledge about the whole process if you originally thought something would explode if you covered it in a wash. a wash as i define it is simply wet oxide you apply by some means to a pot whether green or bisque. the oxide alone will become dust if you handle it after the application. these people trying to help you are suggesting some way of preventing that dusting off of the pot and the color staying more firmly fixed in place.

what is it you are trying to do? if you can formulate the question you may get better answers.

Marcia Selsor, on 14 June 2013 - 10:37 AM, said:

for some reason i cannot see the link. the page that comes up is form CAD saying i am not logged in. can't get around it. have been logged in almost all day trying to get these DA^%(*%^m pictures in.

thank you! throwing with a sponge is always easier when working with porcelain. keeps the messiness out of throwing.