Thursday, March 18, 2010

They're back..................

PINHOLES! BACK! F.U.C.K.
One good thing is that the house/box above looks great with them. I couldn't have gotten this effect if I had tried. Peter, this is your white raku glaze and the copper, love it!
But just look at these pinholes, I have never seen anything like this. If I had been smart I would have written down the clay body I used, but no, I have some Starworks white clay, some Highwater Raku and White Sculpture clay. No idea which is which. So I don't know if it has anything to do with the clay. I slow bisqued, washed everything well, sieved the glaze, blah blah blah, I don't know, it's 50/50 every stinking time with this, WTF!
So, a dozen trays like this, shard pile...............and I have a bunch of stuff out of this bisque for a cone 6, just guess how that's going to go. Crap! Should I try to re bisque and burn out the nasty?
and then in the smoke firing, I got this beauty. This is the coil pot I made at Starworks with Hitomi. Very nice! I am just about to stick everything in a pit and fire it the old fashioned way. I must be reincarnated from some Native American potter, the more primitive the making, the better results I get. Go figure.................
This spring forward on the time is killing me, I cannot get my head together in the mornings, I am becoming more and more nocturnal. So, it's 6pm and I am just getting started, oh yeah....

14 comments:

Anonymous said...

That white crackle box is way cool Tracey. Sorry about having to add to your shard pile.

Trish said...

Welll, there you go.you win some and you lose some..too bad though, Tracey. I don't know much about raku, so can't comment on that glaze. The smoke firing is fabulous, as you said.. good goin'.
Ya, the time change thing does throw us 'out of wack'.!.
have a great weekend.. I am off to an Annie Chrietzberg workshop in Edmonton..yay! :)

Blaine M. Avery said...

Tracey I bet it's the clay...

Tracey Broome said...

Thanks guys. Blaine, you are probably right, I'm thinking it's the clay too. I have a feeling it is the white sculpture clay from Highwater, I usually use the WSC for slabs and I believe it was recycled. I'm going to learn to keep better notes one of these days.

DirtKicker Pottery said...

Oh no! Sorry about that Tracy. The house/box still looks really cool. Your smoke firing work turned out beautiful.

Linda Starr said...

wow, your work is beautiful, love the crackle box and the smoke fired piece, go primitive. Not knowing the clay, but the glaze was new too.

Judy Shreve said...

Tracey - that box is stunning - and you could not have gotten that cool effect if you tried. It's unfortunate that we can't control pinholing!! Bummer on the other pieces. I agree that it probably was the clay & would do some more tests with that glaze.

Love the big smoked coiled piece! You do rock at primitive firings!

Patricia Griffin Ceramics said...

Hey Night-Owl! The pinholes definitely add to the box, and the coiled pot is VERY nice.

cindy shake said...

The Raku box is FAB -I didn't think the pinholes on the box look like "normal" pinholes they look cool and organic. Thankfully it totally adds to the sculpture. Just another reason to stick with sculpture works -it would have killed me to see the trays with pinholes though I don't think they look bad -but what do I know -ha!.

Here was a link to "pinholes" on Potters.org
http://www.potters.org/subject110448.htm

and some more info:
"Pinholes
Perhaps the most common of all glaze defects, pinholes are tiny holes in the glaze surface which penetrate all the way through to the body. They are caused by gases escaping from the clay body during the firing cycle, after originating from tiny pieces of organic matter, such as charcoal, which is present in the clay. The most common remedy in low fire ceramics is to ensure that the piece is bisque fired 2 cones hotter than it is glaze fired (ie when glaze firing to cone 05, bisque fire to cone 03.) Other possible remedies include: a longer firing cycle with 15 minute soak at the peak temperature, changing the peak temperature, a slower cooling cycle, a thinner glaze coating, using a glaze with more flux, and decreasing the amount of zinc or rutile in the glaze if it is present."

Tracey Broome said...

Thanks everyone for the kind words. I do like the house a lot and sadly will probably not be able to duplicate the pinhole look consistently but I'll take what I get.Cindy, thanks for the link, I have read just about everything out there on pin holes since the last tragedy I had with them, but haven't heard the 15 minute soak at the end thing. I soak for 10 minutes at 1100f. I am pretty sure it has to do with the fact that I am firing bisque in a gas kiln and have a hard time controlling that soak. When I get it right, there are no pin holes but it's hard to be consistent with a manual gas kiln. Oh well, good with the bad!

Hollis Engley said...

The pinholes do look like something burned out during the firing, or out-gassed, I guess. Something in the clay, probably. How's that for a vague, indistinct answer? But everyone else is right, the box is lovely.

Anonymous said...

hello... hapi blogging... have a nice day! just visiting here....

ang design said...

looks great trace it's sculptural piece so no dramas with the pin holes...yep my 1st instinct was the clay body...

ladyofclay said...

Hi Tracey, I second all the positive comments on your primitive firing... WONderful pots ! they would cancel the crap in my universe. I have a ^6 volcanic ash glaze recipe that mottles the way your copper glaze is showing. When I use a blunger on a drill ( when the glaze has been sitting a long time ) and blunge the heck out of that glaze it seems to show it who is the boss and it behaves.
Colleen