Terra Cotta: My musings on...and resulting actions with.

TinyArt said:
Places to go, people to see? 😉

Meaning -- terraces, "rock" surfaces? That's something I've thought about, to save on moss & keep companion plants from getting out of hand. (For now, my serissas only look what they are by nature -- shrubs! -- but I envision a corner of tea-house garden...☺️)
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I actually meant I was pondering HOW they would “sit”.. or set in place.... the hole you mentioned is the same “place” that I’m speaking. Basically, “I JUST realized that leaving a hole is the best way.
 
Harewood Hobbyist said:
Very nice textures. I guess this is naturally has a lot of grog? Where I get stuff fired has been very clear that they will not allow their professional kilns to be ruined by experimental clays. I know potters use clay they dig up near me tho. I may yet try that
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Having your own or building your own kiln helps.... operating the “fire” is a beast all in itself... Important to learn and understand.. much like processing and mixing your own clay bodies... really “rounds out” UNDERSTANDING how it all ACTUALLY works..

Many of our local potters, here, will WAIT for “woodfired load”... which is a homemade woodfired kiln, chimney roughly three stories at tallest., just some couples.. built a kiln in their backyard.. same thing like a GREAT amount of wares are fired in a HUGE, walk-in chambered soda kiln... they don’t like the top-down electrics (professional kilns as you call them). Ever thought of firing stuff yourself? It demystifies MANY things about clay.
 
There is at least one big wood fired kiln that gets run in the winter here. Years ago, I looked at designs for building wood fire kilns but was not of the land owning class at that time. I am flaunting the legal limit of chickens permitted so maybe I can build a three story furnace out back too... By professional, I don't mean electric. I mean that if I bust it they will miss out on their income from their profession, coffee cups and what not. I am planning to start running my own kiln but I want it to be cheap and I don't know where I am going to put it so that limits me a little.

I notice your USDA zone is fairly chilly. How have your pots faired in the frost?
 
Harewood Hobbyist said:
There is at least one big wood fired kiln that gets run in the winter here. Years ago, I looked at designs for building wood fire kilns but was not of the land owning class at that time. I am flaunting the legal limit of chickens permitted so maybe I can build a three story furnace out back too... By professional, I don't mean electric. I mean that if I bust it they will miss out on their income from their profession, coffee cups and what not. I am planning to start running my own kiln but I want it to be cheap and I don't know where I am going to put it so that limits me a little.

I notice your USDA zone is fairly chilly. How have your pots faired in the frost?
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Yes! CHICKENS!.. lil’ velociraptors...

Do you raise them for sittin’.. or for “modified detergent container nailed to the wall upside-down”?... or both?

🤣

Low-fire fairs quite poorly... can only fire as hot as your hottest melting point.. with low-fire, half the time, it’s never enough.
 
@sorce ! I didn’t bring any of YOUR local diggy clay back up here with me.. it’s better quality than anything I can pull in wisco.. (Without an off-shore drillin’ rig 🤣)

@Harewood Hobbyist , it depends heavily on your area.. as far as the local clays go.. can’t argue with geology.
 
HorseloverFat said:
YOUR local diggy clay
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Those pots were from the best "river Clay" mix I've managed. It's pretty inconsistent. The bucket of yellow I remembered we forgot the next time I walked passed it is meh.

When you firing again?

Sorce
 
sorce said:
Those pots were from the best "river Clay" mix I've managed. It's pretty inconsistent. The bucket of yellow I remembered we forgot the next time I walked passed it is meh.

When you firing again?

Sorce
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Trying to make enough pieces to load a bisque fire...

Problem is.. when I’m making forms with this “big-boy clay” I end up.. “starting over“ on pieces that I’m not pleased with.. I have roughly 1/3 load of greenware. 🤣
 
HorseloverFat said:
Trying to make enough pieces to load a bisque fire...

Problem is.. when I’m making forms with this “big-boy clay” I end up.. “starting over“ on pieces that I’m not pleased with.. I have roughly 1/3 load of greenware. 🤣
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It's not worth starting over until you get the firing right I reckon.
It's better to eff 15 minutes than 1hour.

That whole....cart before the horse thing, except in reverse....the firing is the cart but it has to come before the horse, or the horse will just limp and shit and need a bigger dump bag, bigger blinders, more food and not even end up good enough to be dog food.

Sorce
 
Harewood Hobbyist said:
There is at least one big wood fired kiln that gets run in the winter here. Years ago, I looked at designs for building wood fire kilns but was not of the land owning class at that time. I am flaunting the legal limit of chickens permitted so maybe I can build a three story furnace out back too... By professional, I don't mean electric. I mean that if I bust it they will miss out on their income from their profession, coffee cups and what not. I am planning to start running my own kiln but I want it to be cheap and I don't know where I am going to put it so that limits me a little.

I notice your USDA zone is fairly chilly. How have your pots faired in the frost?
Click to expand...
FWIW -- used to know someone who'd been given a school's kaput electric -- the small, stacking sort of kiln -- and he'd cobbled it together with firebrick & a chimney to do woodfiring in his rural backyard. Don't know how high his chimney was, but I do remember him saying it made a heck of a spout of fire!
 
sorce said:
It's not worth starting over until you get the firing right I reckon.
It's better to eff 15 minutes than 1hour.

That whole....cart before the horse thing, except in reverse....the firing is the cart but it has to come before the horse, or the horse will just limp and shit and need a bigger dump bag, bigger blinders, more food and not even end up good enough to be dog food.

Sorce
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This kiln is SO easy to fire comparatively.. I ran it to almost 1900 before I pulled it.. fired 6.5 hours.. couldn’t even tell I TOUCHED the propane (barely).. maybe I’ll just fill it NON-tumble For bisque... in THAT case.. I’ve got about half a load.
🤓

But I DO understand... how pretty/perfect the cake is doesn’t matter if you don’t know how to bake. 🤓
 
TinyArt said:
THAT is awesome! I love seeing what you come up with -- the details & solid impression in so small a thing. Your landscapes are gonna be amazing!
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Thank you, again!

I watched this pottery video about striving to attain “professional quality work” which strongly reinforced my obsessiveness by explaining that the same amount of work and attention, should “pour” into EVERY detail...

I COULD make entire flat pieces that LOOK like they are boards/bricks/ whatever TOGETHER... buuuut making each log/brick/whatever separately, assembling them and THEN detailing each piece while it’s together.. well.. it SHOWS, at least I believe.

🤓
 
I wrote a reply in May that I cut but saved... One of my "I'm tired, have I not made sense???" moments...

[HorseloverFat wrote:

I tried both carving and fabricating those tiny structures..

My “preference” landed on..

Tiny fabrication with carved detail.]

[And I said:]
Your wood-grained “timbers” have reminded me of some AMAZING ceramic barns that I once saw — one of those times when I wanted to see an exhibit before it ended, but no one else had time — imagine old barns, big wooden ones falling into disrepair with the boards shrinking and the structure settling sideways, the daylight shining through all the gaps — and now see them, just that realistic, but 4-5’ wide, standing on top of tables, each one a complete and accurate freestanding unit in fired brown clay. THEY WERE SO AWESOME, AND I WAS ALONE WITH THEM. Nobody quite got it, when I went home & said YOU SHOULDA SEEN IT! Amazing... think of the time, the planning, the development... the giant-ass kiln! (I suspect that’s why some college profs teach: access to studios & kilns that would be otherwise far out of reach....)

*Phew* — pardon my reminiscence (sp?) — 😊

----your ruined barn has that feeling in miniature!!!
 
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