Our house is on top of what was once a giant inland sea. The 'soil' in our back yard is just accumulated sediment from that lake. I discovered one day that our dirt makes competent earthenware at cone 06 and a serviceable glaze at cone 5. Nowadays all my ware is made from it. I add a smidge of Lincoln 60 to our dirt to make it more refractory. The glaze is just a smidge of Gerstley Borate added to our dirt to make it less refractory. Everything is fired to cone 1. The cone itself is just our dirt. I suppose you could call it pandemic-proof pottery.
This was very informative! I win a trophy for watching all the way through, right? Ha ha. So impressed at your ability to talk about this coherently and throw so exactly at the same time!
Thank you! I'm definitely getting better at talking and throwing at the same time, but there are definitely points where one of the two becomes too difficult to do the other properly!
Great tips, thank you! I'm thinking I only need a smallish top loader. I'm sure all the technical stuff will make sense when I get one and start using it. Could you give a demo using yours? So the complete process of making a something and the steps of firing, you're really good at explaining things, but it can be easier to understand when you see the process too.
Happy to share! Let me know if there anything you'd like to know that I didn't cover, it's always hard to know what to talk about in these broad topic videos and I know I missed a lot out
Thanks for the great insight into the firing process. Not boring at all :) I watched right to the end - yay me! I appreciate your videos very much, you are very clear on explanations and it is special watching you work. I will hopefully be purchasing a kiln in the near future and am leaning towards a Skutt. cheers J
Awesome! Thank you for this information, as I am researching kilns at the moment. I've learned that 65 liters is a good size, as confirmed by another ceramics artist, and hearing you talk about a Skutt with touchscreen controller assures me that it would be a great investment. I'm thinking about saving money for a Skutt 818, and I think it's a big plus you can view the firing on an app on your phone, as my studio would be at my parents'home. The information about the cones and the temperature ranges were new to me, thanks!
I'm glad your research agrees! I've only ever heard good things about Skutt wheels and kilns, and now I have a wheel I can vouch for the quality of those, so I'm optimistic about the kilns too
This was a very interesting chat! I've been doing pottery and firing electric kilns to cone 8 / 9 for over 30 years and never understood how pyrometric cones are formulated ....thank you for your explanation!
thanks so much for this video i was about to give up on my old cromartie workhorse but will now buy a pack of cones and test before buying a new temp controller. fingers crossed i get results. Shes too old to manually hold at temp etc Thanks again
I watched all the way through. 🏆 I didn't find it boring at all, in fact, I could have listened to more kiln talk. If you don't mind me asking, what clay do you use?
@@OldForgeCreations Oh no that's a shame, finding a clay you're happy with then have to search for another can be difficult. I also prefer to use white stoneware, I've been looking at Valentine Clays new KBJ stoneware.
Yeah, I looked into that when he announced it and it definitely seems interesting. Either something like that, or I might move to more of a porcelain stoneware, although I've yet to find an amazing one
