Buckingham Pottery

Buckingham Pottery http://buckinghampottery.com Paul Fricker posterous.com Fri, 06 Apr 2012 14:11:17 -0700 Potting news http://buckinghampottery.com/potting-news http://buckinghampottery.com/potting-news Reading this article has inspired me to make a post:

http://www.independent.co.uk/life-style/none-of-that-fancy-stuff-1582463.html

I suggest searching for Issac Button on youtube, some wonderful old black and white film of him throwing pots can be found.

For myself I have a few projects now in hand; a dinner service, beakers for a party and pots for painting. I've not been doing much potting over the winter, spending my time on other pursuits, but now that spring is here I'm hoping to be doing a lot more.

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]]> http://files.posterous.com/user_profile_pics/1524261/n658016847_1930339_3372352.jpg http://posterous.com/users/5AGp1gNsMg9j Paul Fricker PaulFricker Paul Fricker Fri, 28 Oct 2011 12:44:50 -0700 Underfiring perhaps http://buckinghampottery.com/underfiring-perhaps http://buckinghampottery.com/underfiring-perhaps My last two firings have been somewhat disappointing. There has been a lot of residual dry ash on and in the pots and it occurs to me that this problem might be solved if I had fired to a higher temperature to melt this ash. I looked at some of the remaining pots from my first firing again today and was really impressed with them. Whilst the first firing wasn't a resounding success by any measures, it did get up to temperature and those pots with an open top don't have that dusty dry ash sat in them.
I thought this thicker palette wood was effective, but now I am wondering if I would be better off with the thinner sweet chestnut strip-wood that predominated in the first firing. One good thing is that I've realised that I can fit longer lengths of wood in to the kiln than I thought at first, so less sawing. I don't know why I couldn't get up to temperature with the palette wood, perhaps I could have done if I'd stuck with it. In the end I had cone 10 bending in the front and cone 7 bending in the rear. That's not overly hot and about the same as the previous firing, whereas in the first firing I got cone 13 down in the front, so whilst I felt at the time that it was hard work achieving temperature it was clearly working.

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]]> http://files.posterous.com/user_profile_pics/1524261/n658016847_1930339_3372352.jpg http://posterous.com/users/5AGp1gNsMg9j Paul Fricker PaulFricker Paul Fricker Sat, 15 Oct 2011 13:23:54 -0700 Sieving in the sun http://buckinghampottery.com/sieving-in-the-sun http://buckinghampottery.com/sieving-in-the-sun Unexpectedly mild October weather allows me to sit in a T shirt and sieve my glazes and slips. I'm trying out a bunch of ball clays in combination with china clay - the different iron contents are supposed to yield varied results in a salt firing.These white buckets are great - what did we do before ebay?

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]]> http://files.posterous.com/user_profile_pics/1524261/n658016847_1930339_3372352.jpg http://posterous.com/users/5AGp1gNsMg9j Paul Fricker PaulFricker Paul Fricker Sun, 09 Oct 2011 14:39:31 -0700 Next firing - plans http://buckinghampottery.com/next-firing-plans http://buckinghampottery.com/next-firing-plans I plan to fire again within 2 weeks, Friday 21st to be exact. That's the day before half-term and all my tutoring will be finished for a couple of weeks.

I'm going to salt fire this time. I guess once I've done it I'll be salt firing for the next few times as the salt lines the kiln and effects the subsequent firings.

I'm looking at stacking the back of the kiln with my regular glazes, blue, blush, tenmoku and putting some other pieces nearer the front that will get more of the salt.
Also:

- Ash glaze - a combination of local clay and local wood ash.- A basic slip made up of china clay in combination with a variety of ball clays.
- A second slip as above plus nepheline syenite.

Need to order a big bag of china clay tomorrow, seems like I have most of the other stuff.
I'm thinking that I'll gain the effect of the salt and ash towards the front of the kiln near the firebox and that'll get really hot. Further back in the kiln where the temperatures are lower and the salt and ash less I'll rely on my usual glazes. This will mean getting the rear of the kiln up to at cone 9 (1257C) with the front hitting perhaps cone 11 (1293C). There is always some difference in the front and rear temperatures. I'm going to reposition the pyrometer to read at the top of the kiln which will free up two ports, rear and middle through which I can view cones and extract test rings.

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]]> http://files.posterous.com/user_profile_pics/1524261/n658016847_1930339_3372352.jpg http://posterous.com/users/5AGp1gNsMg9j Paul Fricker PaulFricker Paul Fricker Thu, 29 Sep 2011 06:43:16 -0700 Second firing http://buckinghampottery.com/second-firing http://buckinghampottery.com/second-firing

My second attempt at firing the wood kiln was both better and worse. Safe in the knowledge that I could reach temperature I allowed the process of firing to be far more relaxed. I got up early and began a small fire under the grate around 6am, stoking every 20 minutes or so. By 9ish I was firing on the grate. The pallet wood burned nicely. I closed the flue around 900C to get more pressure in the kiln and to attempt to achieve more reduction in the clay body. This causes more flame and smoke as the fire seeks oxygen from wherever it can be obtained, including the clay itself. Opening the flue at 1000C the temperature climbed rapidly. I soaked for a while at cone 9, trying to keep Orton cone 10 up. I'm not sure it was hot enough - there is a wide variation of temperature in this kiln and I'm happy to accommodate that, but I was measuring in the hottest place. I fired the kiln down to 950 with small sticks, finally getting to bed around 3am.

On opening the kiln a few days latter I found the work to be somewhat bland. The ash had been minimal, perhaps a product of pallet wood, which, good as a fuel is somewhat lacking in fly-ash I'm led to understand. The main concern however was the black dust that had settled on the pots. On a hunch that it was iron I tested it with a magnet and sure enough it was iron, either from the grate or from the nails in the pallet wood. Further research seems to indicate the latter. Not too big a problem - I'll just take care to avoid wood with nails in the future.

I'm not working on creating pots for another firing in October. I'm planning on using salt and wood in the next firing. I love the effects that some people get with their wood firing, but I just don't have the capacity to fire for the 3+ days that such a firing requires. I have done some salt and soda firing in the past and loved it, and I recall Mick Casson telling me that he thought the combination of wood and salt to be the ultimate ceramic surface, and if it was good enough for him then it should be more than enough for me.

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]]> http://files.posterous.com/user_profile_pics/1524261/n658016847_1930339_3372352.jpg http://posterous.com/users/5AGp1gNsMg9j Paul Fricker PaulFricker Paul Fricker Sat, 16 Jul 2011 03:28:00 -0700 Old Gaol Pots http://buckinghampottery.com/old-gaol-pots http://buckinghampottery.com/old-gaol-pots

Here are the pots that I took to Buckingham Old Gaol today.

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]]> http://files.posterous.com/user_profile_pics/1524261/n658016847_1930339_3372352.jpg http://posterous.com/users/5AGp1gNsMg9j Paul Fricker PaulFricker Paul Fricker Fri, 15 Jul 2011 03:04:29 -0700 Pots at Old Gaol http://buckinghampottery.com/pots-at-old-gaol http://buckinghampottery.com/pots-at-old-gaol I'm taking some pots along to Buckingham's Old Gaol today - more to follow.

BuckPot_Old_Gaol_promo.pdf Download this file

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]]> http://files.posterous.com/user_profile_pics/1524261/n658016847_1930339_3372352.jpg http://posterous.com/users/5AGp1gNsMg9j Paul Fricker PaulFricker Paul Fricker Tue, 08 Mar 2011 13:35:09 -0800 Unpacking the first firing http://buckinghampottery.com/unpacking-the-first-firing http://buckinghampottery.com/unpacking-the-first-firing

All the pots are in my living room at present. Its a big job sorting through them. Used to be I only had to think about clay and glaze with an electric kiln, now I have to think about the position the piece is placed within the kiln.

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That brown pot in the middle right, the one with the hole in, that hole was burned out in the firing, along with the eroded front. It's a mix of local clay and porcelain and didn't work out too well.

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Nice view along the top of the kiln here. The castable keystone (grey strip at top of kiln) shed a few bits of debris I reckon, hopefully that won't happen too much in future. See the blue cup, the ash really makes the blue run.

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One or two nice pieces above, The reddish flashing on the two bottom right I like. The nearest piece, bottom right, has a lovely velvety surface. Its one of my standard glazes which has come out really different. On porcelain if flushes to a purply yuck (lower floor, 3rd from left) but on white stoneware and the other stoneware clays it becomes a soft grey.

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Above: good view of the pyrometric cones here. Middle set are Orton 10, 11, 12 - hardly touched. The set to the left are some old stock, I can't remember the make, a symbol on them looks a bit like the infinity symbol or a looped knot. They were cones 7,8,9,10, and even 10 has gone over pretty well.

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Above: The blues come out better nearer the back of the kiln, requiring less ash. This is my standard blue glaze that you can see on other pots on this site, but comes out quite different in this kiln to the usual electric kiln.

The method of stacking bowls didn't work out too well for me. I only used 3 wads and this wasn't enough. The porcelain warped, but luckily I left the top rim unglazed and was able to separate these two - actually I quite like the shape they've ended up as, slightly triangular.

When I've sorted them out I'll try to take some better photos of the best pieces. Going to need the grinder to remove some of the wads.

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]]> http://files.posterous.com/user_profile_pics/1524261/n658016847_1930339_3372352.jpg http://posterous.com/users/5AGp1gNsMg9j Paul Fricker PaulFricker Paul Fricker Tue, 01 Mar 2011 13:46:37 -0800 Emptying the kiln http://buckinghampottery.com/emptying-the-kiln http://buckinghampottery.com/emptying-the-kiln

Emptied the kiln yesterday morning with the help of Frank. Its a mixed bag as I expected, but there are quite a number of nice pieces so overall I'm pleased with how it went. Its evident form the pyrometric cones that there was a big temperature difference from the front to the back. Orton cone 12 was flat at the front so that was around 1315C. At the rear 10 was just beginning to bend, perhaps 1265C. I don't really have a problem with that, I can use that to my advantage placing different clays and glazes in different parts of the kiln.

One thing I realise I did wrong is evident from the dry unmelted ash that has collected in some pieces which must have blown in to the cold pots. This has left some pieces with an unpleasant gritty surface in places. On the last stoke I should have closed up the air intakes under the grate - with these open and the kiln cooling, cool ash was sucked through on to the cooling work. Will know better next time.

Much of the work shows evidence of a strong kiln draft throughout the firing; a strong line of melted ash on one narrow face. Hopefully playing with the passive dampers will spread this a little more next time.

The silicon carbide shelves stood up well. The wadding isn't coming off too readily in places, but I think will come off with a little work.

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That place up the side definitely didn't like the heat and warped really badly.

I'm not sure how much reduction I achieved. I need to review the glazes. I just let the kiln do its thing and didn't try to 'do' anything apart from stoke it. I figured that if I tried things out on the first firing and the results were good I wouldn't know if it was because of things I'd done or not. So this firing presents a baseline against which to measure future changes.

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]]> http://files.posterous.com/user_profile_pics/1524261/n658016847_1930339_3372352.jpg http://posterous.com/users/5AGp1gNsMg9j Paul Fricker PaulFricker Paul Fricker Sat, 26 Feb 2011 06:07:57 -0800 First peek http://buckinghampottery.com/first-peek http://buckinghampottery.com/first-peek

Took a snapshot through the stokehole this morning - around 200C on the pyro. I'd made the dish on the right fairly thick, thinking it might help it take being stood on its side, but that didn't work out too well. I'm guessing the problem was cracking through being heated too fast early on. Same with that pair of dishes at the top there; I had one stacked upside down on the other. That little pot at the bottom front on its side, I don't know where that came from but it looks nice - hope I can get it out, probably stuck down fast.

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]]> http://files.posterous.com/user_profile_pics/1524261/n658016847_1930339_3372352.jpg http://posterous.com/users/5AGp1gNsMg9j Paul Fricker PaulFricker Paul Fricker Fri, 25 Feb 2011 11:53:03 -0800 First firing http://buckinghampottery.com/first-firing http://buckinghampottery.com/first-firing

The first firing is done. Cone 12 went down, indicating a temperature in excess of 1300C. From what I could see I think this was a bit much for some of the clays I'd used, which have warped and cracked. It was a full day, started at 6am and finished about 9pm, so 15 hours firing. Still at 500C today, so I'll see how it is tomorrow. Chances are I won't unpack it until Sunday.

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Smoky!

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A distant shot of the kiln taken by my daughter on a walk with her friends.

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Progress.

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Warming up. Door all bricked up.

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That's bright - the googles, they do something.

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Stoking.

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Evening action.

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Short fast flame.

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Yep, that's hot. A view into the kiln through the stoking hole. Around 1300C in there.

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Cooling down. Still pretty hot though!

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]]> http://files.posterous.com/user_profile_pics/1524261/n658016847_1930339_3372352.jpg http://posterous.com/users/5AGp1gNsMg9j Paul Fricker PaulFricker Paul Fricker Fri, 25 Feb 2011 11:32:08 -0800 Loading up the kiln http://buckinghampottery.com/loading-up-the-kiln http://buckinghampottery.com/loading-up-the-kiln So after much planning and building its finally time to fire the kiln. Wednesday sees me filling the kiln with pots, around 150 of them. Each one must be sat on three little balls of wadding to stop it sticking to the shelf. This process takes time and consideration.

When the pots are in the door is bricked up and a gas burner is lit to warm the kiln overnight.

Getting up this morning I find I was a little cautious with the gas, and its only reached about 40C. Still, its warmer than it would be without that.
At about 6.30 I'm lighting a small fire in the grate openings. This is the first time I've ever fired a wood kiln. Lets see if years of reading can be put in to practise.
Today, Thursday, I'm stoking every 8 minutes of so and watching the pyrometer rise and fall.

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]]> http://files.posterous.com/user_profile_pics/1524261/n658016847_1930339_3372352.jpg http://posterous.com/users/5AGp1gNsMg9j Paul Fricker PaulFricker Paul Fricker Sat, 08 Jan 2011 07:51:20 -0800 Shed stability? http://buckinghampottery.com/shed-stability http://buckinghampottery.com/shed-stability I'm concerned as to the stability of my kiln shelter. It wobbles when pushed. I fixed some wooden planks on today, diagonal braces, but it still wobbles.A really strong wind would be enough to bash the roof in to the chimney stack I'm sure.
I was wondering about fixing some metal bars in an X across each section. In some places they might need to be removed when the kiln was used, but if it makes it stable that would be worth it.
Anyone any ideas?

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]]> http://files.posterous.com/user_profile_pics/1524261/n658016847_1930339_3372352.jpg http://posterous.com/users/5AGp1gNsMg9j Paul Fricker PaulFricker Paul Fricker Sat, 18 Dec 2010 14:53:21 -0800 Winter Wonderland http://buckinghampottery.com/winter-wonderland http://buckinghampottery.com/winter-wonderland

Plans to fire the kiln have been put on hold. This was photo was taken a few days back. Today we've had 12cm of snow - and I was planning on filling the kiln today and firing tomorrow. Glad I decided to delay until after Christmas now!

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]]> http://files.posterous.com/user_profile_pics/1524261/n658016847_1930339_3372352.jpg http://posterous.com/users/5AGp1gNsMg9j Paul Fricker PaulFricker Paul Fricker Wed, 08 Dec 2010 07:59:55 -0800 Dog bowls http://buckinghampottery.com/dog-bowls http://buckinghampottery.com/dog-bowls

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Bowls for two dogs. These are small bowls, about 6" across, but I do them in a three sizes, small, medium and large.

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]]> http://files.posterous.com/user_profile_pics/1524261/n658016847_1930339_3372352.jpg http://posterous.com/users/5AGp1gNsMg9j Paul Fricker PaulFricker Paul Fricker Sun, 05 Dec 2010 14:14:19 -0800 Cup for a toddler http://buckinghampottery.com/cup-for-a-toddler http://buckinghampottery.com/cup-for-a-toddler

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This was a recent commission; a cup for a young child, hence the two handles. I've made a few 2-handled cups over the years, the others were for elderly persons whose grip was no longer reliable with a single handle.

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]]> http://files.posterous.com/user_profile_pics/1524261/n658016847_1930339_3372352.jpg http://posterous.com/users/5AGp1gNsMg9j Paul Fricker PaulFricker Paul Fricker Sat, 20 Nov 2010 07:23:02 -0800 Pot Sounds http://buckinghampottery.com/pot-sounds http://buckinghampottery.com/pot-sounds

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Thanks to eBay (and Jes Peake for pointing it out to me) here's the latest acquisition - a BBC sound effect record from 1984. I don't even have a record player any longer, though I still hold on to a bunch of vinyl LPs - for the nostalgia and love of gatefold covers. Part of me longs to buy a nice deck and couple it to a valve amplifier, but I succumb to the ease of MP3s like everyone else. Plus I've just figured how to remotely control my media centre from my laptop and have just set Frank Zappa (Zoot Allures) playing as I type - couldn't do that with vinyl.
So I guess this 7" piece of black plastic will sit unregarded on a shelf somewhere. Perhaps I'll mount it up around the house.
Here's what you're missing:

Front
1. Blunger, clay mixing machine - 2'
2. Semi-automatic flatware machine - 2'24"
3. Dipping in glaze, flatware machine in background 1'19"

Back
1. Kiln switched on, door opened - 1'42"
2. Kiln lit, door closed - 1'57"
3. General factory atmosphere - 2'27"

All recorded in binaural stereo.

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]]> http://files.posterous.com/user_profile_pics/1524261/n658016847_1930339_3372352.jpg http://posterous.com/users/5AGp1gNsMg9j Paul Fricker PaulFricker Paul Fricker Sat, 30 Oct 2010 09:48:22 -0700 Halloween http://buckinghampottery.com/halloween http://buckinghampottery.com/halloween

Here's a nice little halloween witch my daughter made. It's made from Fimo not clay, but as I don't have any other pictures to post I thought I'd post this one - hope you like it.

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The kiln is about to take another step forward as I've given the go ahead to get the metalwork done - maybe this coming week.

I've changed my pottery website now so that the domain points to my posterous blog. It seems to work fine and wasn't hard to do - I know this because I sorted it out this afternoon. Posterous seems pretty good, and once you have a domain name it will host for free and that's my favourite price.

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]]> http://files.posterous.com/user_profile_pics/1524261/n658016847_1930339_3372352.jpg http://posterous.com/users/5AGp1gNsMg9j Paul Fricker PaulFricker Paul Fricker Wed, 13 Oct 2010 03:05:24 -0700 A serious potter http://buckinghampottery.com/a-serious-potter http://buckinghampottery.com/a-serious-potter I've been listening to William Shatner reading his autobiography. He said back in the early days he knew he was a serious actor because he wasn't making any money at it. I guess that makes me a serious potter then.
I have an order for a dinner service, or at least various parts of one have been requested as gifts from a wedding list. Its nice making this but plates are a pain, big flat things have a tendency to crack and the rims tend to curl upward, both as the pot dries. Maybe a different clay would help.

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]]> http://files.posterous.com/user_profile_pics/1524261/n658016847_1930339_3372352.jpg http://posterous.com/users/5AGp1gNsMg9j Paul Fricker PaulFricker Paul Fricker Fri, 10 Sep 2010 10:12:26 -0700 The chimney rises http://buckinghampottery.com/the-chimney-rises http://buckinghampottery.com/the-chimney-rises

After a long break I'm back to kiln building. Summer has been busy with a trip to the Edinburgh festival then holiday in Scotland. I'd been putting off doing the chimney as it meant figuring a way to stand on the tin roof and ferry bricks up there. I settled on a making a hook on the end of long piece of wood that catches over the tin - see it there by the top of the ladder. That forms a platform which spreads my weight and allows me to stand on the roof. The hard part was taking the bricks up as they weigh in at 4-5 kilos a piece, combined with the fact that I'm not a great lover of climbing ladders.

Going up is fine, coming down wasn't so great. I settled on shuffling along to the lower roof, then lowering myself on to that green chair, the across to the smaller ladder and down.

I reckon I've added about 4 foot of chimney today. It needs just over another 2 foot to be finished. Phew. That's a job for Monday. Right now it's time to soak an aching back in a hot bath, and look forward to cider, curry and a film with Lucy later.

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Chimney rises.

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]]> http://files.posterous.com/user_profile_pics/1524261/n658016847_1930339_3372352.jpg http://posterous.com/users/5AGp1gNsMg9j Paul Fricker PaulFricker Paul Fricker