I made my first pot in high school art class. Mr Martinez was a great teacher and we all had a lot of fun. I was one of three people who actually learned to center and throw a pot in that 3week period. I am still proud of that and I guess I should have taken it as a bit of a hint as to what I should do with my self in college.
I started out to be some kind of engineer or something but I took my first pottery class and was hooked. It was encouraging that I seemed to have a natural ability at the wheel and man, I loved throwing. (Still do)
About this time, my pottery and my DIY hit head on. Now, The pottery world is full of DIYers and self reliant/creative problem solvers (probably due to being cash strapped alot of the time). In that spirit I decided to build my own pottery wheel. I had made some basic Electronics projects and felt I could easily make a knock off of my favorite electric potters wheel. Through many trials and tribulations (and about as much cash as it would have taken to just buy the thing new) I had my very own, homemade wheel!
I have collected pots down through the years and here are a few of my favorites.
I have done some clay body testing recently. I blended some clays trying to find a cone 6 claybody that is white, vitreous, and appealing to work with. Unfortunately my kiln crapped out at cone 4 so the first batch of results are probably only good as a sampling of color. The absorption rates are really bad as might be expected in an underfired claybody. As soon as I get my kiln fixed I'll be firing some tiles to cone six witness and doing another round of absorption tests. For now here are the test tiles.
The tiles are numbered from top to bottom, left to right. Number one is top left
This chart shows the clays and amounts used in each test tile. The test number refers to the test tile number and the amounts are percentages. I also added some flux in the form of custer feldspar and some silica to tests 1~12 as per the secand part of the chart.
|
Test# |
1 |
2 |
3 |
4 |
5 |
6 |
7 |
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
EPK |
50 |
50 |
50 |
75 |
75 |
75 |
30 |
|
|
FHC |
25 |
50 |
0 |
12.5 |
25 |
0 |
30 |
|
|
OM4 |
25 |
0 |
50 |
12.5 |
0 |
25 |
30 |
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
Test# |
8 |
9 |
10 |
11 |
12 |
13 |
14 |
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
EPK |
50 |
50 |
50 |
75 |
75 |
75 |
30 |
|
|
OM4 |
25 |
50 |
0 |
12.5 |
25 |
0 |
30 |
|
|
XX |
25 |
0 |
50 |
12.5 |
0 |
25 |
30 |
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
Test# |
15 |
16 |
17 |
18 |
|
|
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|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
EPK |
50 |
50 |
50 |
25 |
|
|
|
|
|
OM4 |
16.6 |
12.5 |
25 |
25 |
|
|
|
|
|
XX |
16.6 |
25 |
12.5 |
25 |
|
|
|
|
|
FHC |
16.6 |
12.5 |
12.5 |
25 |
|
|
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|
Test# |
1 |
2 |
3 |
4 |
|
|
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|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
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|
|
CUSTER |
15 |
20 |
25 |
30 |
|
|
|
|
|
Si |
10 |
10 |
10 |
10 |
|
|
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|
Test# |
5 |
6 |
7 |
8 |
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
CUSTER |
15 |
20 |
25 |
30 |
|
|
|
|
|
Si |
15 |
15 |
15 |
15 |
|
|
|
|
|
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|
|
|
|
|
Test# |
9 |
10 |
11 |
12 |
|
|
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|
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|
|
|
|
|
CUSTER |
15 |
20 |
25 |
30 |
|
|
|
|
|
Si |
20 |
20 |
20 |
20 |
|
|
|
|
Here is the shrinkage data so far. More to come when I fix my kiln
|
|
|
|
absorption |
|
test |
shrink @
^010 |
shrink @
^4.5 |
@ ^4.5 |
|
1 |
6.25 |
11.875 |
10.75268817 |
|
2 |
5.625 |
11.875 |
10.90225564 |
|
3 |
8.59375 |
14.0625 |
8.510638298 |
|
4 |
6.25 |
12.5 |
9.180327869 |
|
5 |
5 |
10.625 |
14.45783133 |
|
6 |
5.625 |
12.5 |
10.80139373 |
|
7 |
6.25 |
13.75 |
8.013937282 |
|
8 |
5 |
10.625 |
9.756097561 |
|
9 |
7.5 |
15 |
10.13986014 |
|
10 |
6.25 |
13.125 |
10.92150171 |
|
11 |
5 |
13.125 |
10.76923077 |
|
12 |
7.5 |
13.125 |
10.28806584 |
|
13 |
5 |
13.125 |
10.49180328 |
|
14 |
7.5 |
13.125 |
7.876712329 |
|
15 |
6.25 |
13.125 |
9.090909091 |
|
16 |
7.5 |
13.75 |
9.025270758 |
|
17 |
6.25 |
13.125 |
8.709677419 |
|
18 |
6.25 |
13.125 |
7.046979866 |
|
0.00121 |
|
7.5 |
9.221902017 |
|
0.00111 |
|
10 |
9.498207885 |
|
HUBBARD |
17.5 |
1.621621622 |
|
|
|
|
|
|
All values are given as percentages.
