bowls, charity, pottery, shaving, shaving brush

March firing

Almost all goes for charity.

Mugs

Some mugs are made from self composed clay in transparent and angobe.

Some others are cracked with sodium siliacate and then decorated with oxides (iron or cupper) and then glazed in transparent.

And regular mugs with mixed glazes.

Lathering sets and bowls

Sets of lathering bowls of different type plus brush handles or mugs.

Double-wall lathering set

Cofee cups

Trials for beads

Trial to achieve the crocodile skin effect with angobe. Failded. The bowl cracked and the angobe has been overfired. However the handle and the bottle are fully ok.

John’s Beads and John’s Beads 2, both failed to achieve the expected effects of drops or crockodile skin.

Paddled wase

My fist paddled piece .

bowls, pottery, shaving

TG (tege) miski czyli lathering bowls

Still under construction

Słyszałem, że mój dziadek golił się bez żadnego mydła, samą wodą. Mnie trudno wyobrazić sobie TG be porządnie wyrobionej piany, nie takiej z areozolu, lecz świeżej, pachnącej, tłuściutkiej, naniesionej porządnym pędzlem. Taką pianę można wyrobić bezpośrednio na twarzy lub w odpowiednim naczyniu. Ten tekst jest o naczyniu do wyrabiana piany, choć pierwszy sposób czasami wystarcza. I od razu mówię – nie ma jednego wspaniałego przepisu na idealne naczynie – tyle cm głębokości, tyle średnicy i określony kształt. Wszystko zależy……

Materiał

Nie ma materiału idealnego. Trzeba wybrać co dla nas jest ważne: wygląd, trwałość, cena, waga, izolacyjność. A tak naprawdę to chodzi o odpowiedni balans tych właśnie cech. Można mieć naczynie z pięknego drewna, ale nie moczyć za długo; można mieć z porcelany, ale nim nie rzucać, można z trwałego metalu, ale golić na zimno, można mieć leciutkie z plastiku, ale sztuczne itd. Każdy materiał może być dobry, ładny i funkcjonalny. Ja opieram się na ceramice, bo taką mogę sam zrobić. Nie zmniejsza to mojego podziwu dla niektórych pięknych misek z drewna albo hybryd drewna z żywicami, imitacji kości słoniowej albo żywicy z … klockami lego.

Niezależnie od materiału, przy wyborze naczynia kluczowe będzie określenie kształtu, uchwytu i powierzchni.

Kształt

Z grubsza naczynia do wyrabiana piany można podzielić wg kształtu na: fragment kuli (dolna lewa), tuba (dolna prawa), wklęsłe (górna prawa) i chińskie (górna lewa). Stosuje nazwy umowne wymyślone na poczekaniu.

Najczęściej stosowane są naczynia typu kula i tuba. Proste jest piękne. Ale, jednak … warto szukać elementów, które poprawią właściwości TG. Chodzi o to by się nie upaprać pianą. Dzieje się tak, gdy piana nie ma się gdzie gromadzić oraz gdy ucina się na brzegu naczynia. Dlatego stosuję wygięcia krawędzi u góry, a czasami takę na dole. W ten sposób, stosując oba wygięcia, powstaje model wklęsły. W wielu przypadkach wystarczy jedynie wywinięcie albo zawinięcie krawędzi górnej. Model, który nazwałem chińskim (tradycyjna ceramika z Chin i Japonii, bardzo często ma właśnie ten kształt) jest połączeniem różnych cech i doskonale pasuje do uchwytu z roundem dolnym (patrz niżej).

Osobnym zagadnieniem są naczynia, które krawędź górną mają skierowaną do osi środka naczynia. W moim przekonaniu może mieć to jedynie sens w naczyniach na bazie kuli trzymanych od dołu jeśli ma się w zwyczaju kręcić panię balansując miską w powietrzu. W innym przypadku będziemy stukać w round.

A co z naczyniami w kształcie kubka? To tylko kwestia proporcji. W dalszym ciągu taki kubek powstaje w kombinacji powyższych profili.

Uchwyt

Uchwyty do naczyń TG podzieliłbym następująco: bez uchwytu, ze zwykłym uchem filiżankowym, z uchem asymetrycznym, z uchwytem garnkowym oraz roundem dolnym. PS – jak przypomnieli koledzy z TG jest jeszcze uchwyt gałkowy, który widać na zdjęciu kubeczka powyżej.

I znów trzeba się zastanowić nad całościową koncepcją naczynia. Na początek odrzuciłbym uchwyt filiżankowy – mnie w praktyce nie pasuje, jest niewygodny do zastosowania TG i jednocześnie dość delikatny. Jeśli ktoś ma dużą dłoń i nie potrzebuje miski bardzo dużej, to można uchwytu w ogóle nie robić. Jeśli jednak ktoś preferuje trzymanie od dołu, a jednocześnie ma mniejszą dłoń lub dużą miskę, to bardzo dobrym rozwiązaniem jest round dolny (uwaga musi być wystarczająco duży, obły i z wklęsłym wcięciem na palce). Ucho niesymetryczne jest genialnym rozwiązaniem – trzeba spróbować by się przekonać. Łączy funkcje uchwytu od dołu oraz uchwytu uszkiem. Natomiast uchwyt, który niewdzięcznie nazywam garnkowym, jest wyjątkowo praktyczny dla naczyń cięższych. W pierwszym momencie gdy wpadło mi do głowy zrobić takie trzymanie, potraktowałem to jako dowcip (a może była to intuicja), a wyszło coś bardzo praktycznego.

Powierzchnia

Szukamy naczynia, które pomoże w szybkim wyrobieniu piany. Stąd powstają pomysły na różne dodatkowe elementy na wewnętrznej powierzchni naczynia zwiększające tarcie lub ubijanie. Rożne materiały dają podobne możliwości. Osobiście skupiam się na ceramice, ale podobne efekty można uzyskać na wszystkich materiałach. Stosuje się różnego rodzaju spirale, okręgi , wybrzuszenia lub wcięcia poprzeczne, powierzchnie matową, wypustki (równomierne lub nieregularne).

Osobiście uważam, że nie potrzeba wiele. Jeśli powierzchnia jest matowa to wystarczy. Jeśli z połyskiem to drobne elementy. A więc można kombinować w tę i tamtą stronę, jak komu pasuje. Inna kategoria to smocza skóra (szkliwo barankowe). Piękny patent na to ma Reko Gary. Próbuje skomponować takie szkliwo bazując na dużej ilości węglanu magnezu. Jednak jest zbyt wcześnie bym pokazał rezultaty. Warto zwrócić się do wytwórcy, który tę technikę już opanował.

Ostatni pomysł na powierzchnię czerpie z ceramiki … afrykańskiej. Oni robią głównie uklejając naczynie z wałeczków, a potem formują je ubijając rożnymi deseczkami. Brzmi prymitywnie, ale efekty są genialne. Murzyni mają niesamowite wyczucie formy i estetykę. W takiej technice, z punktu widzenie TG, powstaje powierzchnia nierówna, a taką właśnie chodzi. Ten efekt można uzyskać w metalu w tradycyjnej metodzie klepania garnków oraz w drewnie dłutując.

Czyli wygląda jakby do TG pasowały raczej tradycyjne metody wytwarzania. Obok pokazuję jedyne naczynie które jak dotąd zrobiłem wyklepując glinę, a nie tocząc.

Naczynia specjalne

Shaving Bell

Tego typu naczynie opisywałem dokładniej w innym artykule. Pomysł zaczerpnąłem z tradycyjnego sposobu przechowywania…. masła. Takie naczynie tradycyjnie nazywa się butter bell, więc pozwoliłem sobie nazwać jej pochodną – shaving bell. Jest to bardzo praktyczne połączenie naczynia do przechowywania mydła twardego oraz naczynia do wyrabiania piany. Oszczędność miejsca i praktyczność to jego główne zalety.

Naczynie z podwójnymi ściankami

Naczynie do golenia z podwójnymi ściankami i dnem to chyba szczyt wyrafinowania. Po co taki zabieg? Jak ktoś spróbował golenia z rana zimną wodą albo ostygłą piana na 2. lub 3. przebiegu oraz miał możliwość skosztować golenia ciepłą pianą to wie dlaczego. No właśnie dlatego!

Miałem duże opory przed wykonaniem takiego naczynia. Odpychała mnie potencjalnie jego wielkość i cały ten kram z nalewaniem wody. Ale jeśli takie naczynie zrobi się nie za duże a wlew będzie prosty (wprost z kranu) to czemu nie. No i zrobiłem.

Próba w Niedzielę Palmową wypadła świetnie. Ale przyniosła też wnioski. Piana wytwarza się wyjątkowo szybko i łatwo. Przy gorącym naczyniu nie są potrzebne dodatkowe szykany na powierzchni. Może być gładko.

Poza tym tak nieduża miska wewnętrzna jak w moim wystarcza. Po prostu, gdy nie trzeba kręcić długo to i piana nie wędruję na zewnątrz. Inna sprawa – wrzątek to za dużo. Naczynie parzy. Po zakorkowaniu cała konstrukcja trzeszczy. Wystarczy gorąca kranówka.

Jak wybrać?

Użytkownik musi być zadowolony. Wiec wybór jest dość … empiryczny. To co sprawdza się w Twoim osobistym przypadku jest dobre. Może bardziej zależy Ci na wyglądzie naczynia (przecież całe TG to tak naprawdę taka fanaberia), a może ważniejsze jest miejsce na półce (kubek, mała miska plastikowa), a może masz alergię na plastik (to lepiej porcelanę lub drewno), albo chcesz coś co trzyma ciepło (drewno, naczynie z podwójnym dnem), albo zależy Ci na czymś lekkim (blacha), albo często upuszczasz miskę (to może plastik) itd.

Nawet kształt i wielkość miski nie są uniwersalne. Dużo zależy od gryfu pędzla i wysokości włosia. Ale i wielkość dłoni ma znaczenie. Ehh, trudno doradzić…

charity, pottery, shaving

December firing

Shortly saying, these are the latest firing results.

various shapes with 65dkg of clay
variations of tankards
impressed ball-shape mugs
Lila shaving bowl
Lila brush handle
seledongrun bowl
another grune-aue bowl
shaving bell in black and bit of red
porcelain container
it is not out of this firing but is still available (handle is gone)
bottle correction
in front: porcelain box, behind: selecod bottle
porcelain set
porcelain green coffee plates
clearance 2019 – if you wish something for charity give me a shout
clearance 2019 – if you wish something for charity give me a shout
clearance 2019 – if you wish something for charity give me a shout
clearance 2019 – if you wish something for charity give me a shout

 

pottery

Deeply impressed mugs

Something for the autumn. Mugs for hot tea. Impressed texture when still wet and then continued throwing on the wheel.

and some other pieces from the same firing:

pottery, shaving, shaving brush

Rubberset brush

The history of the rubberset brushes starts in 1831 in New York and continues until now. There is an excellent website about its history, versions and related forum. I will be not repeating the story. You can see all the pictures of how the shape and material has been evolving along time. Nice source of inspiration.

The shape of this brush is well and widely recognized in the wet-shaving community. They are being produced out of wood or metal. I wondered if this can be followed but made of ceramics.

I tried to do it from stoneware clay. The handle fits for 28 diameter brush. I admit, I’m satisfied with the result.

rubberset brush

The other approach, from the same firing, is made from marbled porcelain. Here the attempt was a bit different – to follow the modern design of rubberset. The difference is visible at the top (smaller diameter of the top than the base) and in number of flutings in the handle. It fits to 26mm knot.

At the end I would redirect you to other attempts to follow the rubberset design. Here is nice design of charcoal. There are also other very nice sources of pictures and reviews.

failures, pottery, shaving

Porcelain scales for razor

In the beginning of December 2018 I published a short story about my attempts to make scales for razor from marbled porcelain. See the article here describing all the challenges and difficulties for making the scales plain and at the exact dimensions regardless the double firing and shrinking. Most likely, it is more fascinating for potters than razor makers. This part is more for the latter group.

Finaly, I have finished with that razor, so I can present complete set (there is another member – marbled mug but I do not use it for shaving).

porcelain set (shaving bowl, AS bottle, razor and brush)

I admit, there are thousands of nicer razors and more practical, and less expensive (if someone would try to estimate costs for commercial quotations). My motivation was different. First, I wanted to have nice private set for shaving. This is obvious. But the leading motif is about the challenge and experimentation. I consider traditional shaving as extravagance itself. So why not to get into development of something which is made against rules and gives fun.

So, what is so special about this razor? What is against the rules? “Normal” typical razor scales are flexible, they bend and lean while moving the blade in the pivot. It is a simple mechanism to centre the blade while putting it safely in between scales and also to block it “half-open” to not flap accidentally and unintentionally. Here, the porcelain scales are stiff and not flexible at all. This fact pushed me to the idea to transfer flexibility into other elements of the razor. I decided to make the wedge elastic and mount the pivot pin with spring washer (self made). That also resulted in lack of bottom pin, which would make the whole construction again not flexible at all. The result is very satisfying. The blade centres nicely, the wedge keeps both scales integrated, the balance between smooth movement of blade and resistance is “regular”, the blade can stop steady in half-way, the blade can be opened at any angle.

Another positive surprise is that, regardless the depth of the scales, it is not heavy. The sales do not overweight the blade when manoeuvring in open.
I must admit that in the beginning I was afraid of the risk of breaking the scales. So, I kept the depth dimension of the sales quite big. It is that smooth-thin as in many plastic scales. I watched carefully when hammering the pin (it is not any prefabricated pin but a regular steel rod with washers). But then later overlooked my son who wanted to follow me in pinning and was hammering the scales, not the pin. It survived with no damages. Now I can regret that I did not flatten the scales more. Maybe, some time later….in future.

starting point – old japanese frameback razor
old japanese frameback razor
old japanese frameback razor dismounted
razor dismounted
matching
cleaning and polishing
reading newspapers
assemplign toghether, glueing the silicon and transparent wedge to assure flexibility of the construction
using it on daily basis, shelf in the bathroom
failures, lessons learned, pottery

Agateware lessons learned

After several trials with agateware I can share some lessons learned and sum up the experience until now. There are other sources from more experienced potters. Here is my way and what worked for beginner.

What is agateware? I just wanted to get an effect of colored body with traces of other color to match to other objects (in this case to handle scales). Other look for marbled effect.  But sometimes people want to have full spectrum of colors in a single piece. That all is about the same – mixing colors in the clay body. Trying the same with glazes does not give any decent results. Depending on the actual need, it may be agateware (when the colors are mixed in wedging) or nerikomi (when the colors are layered manually). All the terms  refer to natural objects – agate stone and marble stone.

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Selection of colorants

First, I started experimenting with common metallic oxides: red iron for brown and cobalt oxides for blue. These are the most common components for any potter. Being pleased by results, especially with cobalt, I started looking for more specific colors, deep black and pure red. This led me to the selection of row pigments. They are widely available from ceremic suppliers. The results were nice but what turned my attention to the fact that red pigment was not really offered. When I found it at on the stock, I discovered a caveat lable “contains cadmium”. In meantime, I used chromium oxide to prepare green colored clay. But fortunately have never made use of it. Not because of the color but because of its poisonous characteristics. Not being sure how chromium behaves and why cadmium requires a warning message, I asked people in ceramic forums how this may affect firing atmosphere in the kiln or change colors of other pieces. I learned from forum colleagues a lot.

Yes, this is something for consideration. Cadmium is “bad” for people’s health and difficult to get rid from organism once contaminated. This turn my research, towards other pigments and study of their safety and technical specs. They also contain heavy metals and fractions of chemistry, which is poisonous. This was neglected by me at the beginning. My simple assumption was that my contact with them is very limited. Additionally I still had in mind how many traditional potters were making their own lead-based glazes. It took a bit of time to realize that the direct contact with them is not limited to some specific phases, but remains almost all the times in studio. Direct contact takes place while mixing and throwing, even when wedging, but also in trimming, drying, cleaning. In fact it spreads out as a dust all around. Watching carefully, after some weeks, I could see the dust everywhere. When cleaning shelves, floor and seats, everywhere. It is not merely the bad fraction. But if regular dust spread out so much, the bad components go togheter with the rest. Obviously it does not stay on the shelves only but comes into lungs when briefing. I haven’t noticed that before. In my case the enhanced due to circulation of air, I have main house heating installation in the studio.

So, that attracted my interests to modern pigment with the heavy metallic parts encapsulated in cirxonim cristals. Maissons Stains (well known on US market) defines it as more advanced product of synthetize e.g. for yellow “reaction product of high temperature calcination in which Zirconium (IV) Oxide, Silicon (IV) Oxide, and Praseodymium (III, IV) Oxide (Pr6O11) in varying amounts are homogeneously and ionically interdiffused to form a crystalline matrix of zircon”.

The most important is the fact that it it human safe. For more you can read safety sheets for each of colorants.

I decided to use Terra Color “farbens” which are well known locally. I had to order them for Germany, but it comes much cheaper than importing Masson Stains from UK or US. They are at the same level of technological excellence. See their catalog in Terra Color catalogue.

Mixing pigments

There are various methods of mixing pigments with the body. As can be discovered from youtube, some people add colorants as dry powder when wedging the clay. There are very educative and inspiring videos from Ceramic Jim. Others, like Karans, disolve stains in water with dry pieces of porcelain (my hint – add there a bit of vinegar), mix it with porcelain and then dry to get final moisture. There is very nice video from her on preparing the material for marble effect. See another approach to marbelize clay in this video.

I found other approach (named by me a “dumpling technique”) from Joey Agcopera as best for my purpose. Joey makes a dumpling of clay filled with dumped colorant powder and mix them at hand. You can see Joey doing that in his video. It worked for me because I wanted to make many small pieces of different colors, not just a single color in large volume. It is a quick and sufficiently effective method. I haven’t noticed any inconsistencies in saturation or moisture when following this approach.

In my experience, proportions of the pigment and clay is not that critical. Strange, but I tried with 1:13 and 1:8 with the same results. Many depends on the colorants itself. The above applies to red and black which are highly saturated by default. Maybe it matters more for more subtle colors. For yellow I applied Ochra pigment with 1:10 proportions. Experimentation is the key (I hate this slogan, but it is true).

Body material

No surprise and no doubts – white porcelain is the best material for coloring. Its white color is the starting point to get predictable colored bodies. I tried with some other clays, e.g. Witgert 011 Mont Blank. From the color perspective it was more than fine. But coloring is just  a part of the equation. Then, it comes to shrinking ratio and fire temperatures. The most important is to have the body and colored clay from the same material. Otherwise difference in shrinking and firing temperature destroys the form.  I decided to stay with just porcelain.

However, colorants themselves change the clay characteristics a bit. Here is an example of a colored piece made of the same porcelain used for all the colors, thrown and the nicely trimmed to get smooth surface. What happened in firing – the layers shrank differently changing the smooth surface into irregular. It cannot be seen easily from picture (unless zoomed in), but if you touch it you can feel every layer with distinctive borders in between.

Wedging and throwing

Wedging is needed as usual, but shall be rather conservative.  However, I try to roll the clay by hand to all of 2-4cm in diameterl and add colored clay as another thin spaghetti of the same length, then ball it back and start wedging.  Some 5 runs of wedging is sufficient for me.

There is nothing special regarding throwing. The only rule is to have both – main body clay and the colored clay in the same moisture. If not, that colored parts and core body run different which may lead to regular throwing failures (collapsing, thick walls, breaking or losing the form). How to make the same moisture – wedge the body and colored clay well in advance and leave for “synchronization”. A day was enough in my case, but 5 would be perfect.

The other lesson is that there is no need for conning clay too many times. It gets more flexible but it mixes too much. Especially when you apply many layers into a single piece, there is a risk of … getting a single color which often is not attractive at all. See the below example – compare the handle with the body – it was the same starting set of colors.

For my purposes, I tried to have a single leading color for the base and then add other colors in proportions 1,3:10. See the below examples for leading color black red traces.

 

However, proportion of colored clay depends much on the desired end-effect. Here is an example of marble effect. The proportions are almost equal. It might be prefered for some objects.

 

Trimming and fluting

I do not trim always. In many cases the foot is not needed neither estatically nor practically. But in this technique, trimming is warmly welcome. It exposes and cleans up the colors. It  might be that the layers are not really visible at all at the last phase of throwing. The colorants may get into slip and run around the piece making it grey or pink instead of black or red accordingly. First of all clean the slurry with sharp edge (sponge is not sufficient) but metal or plastic ribs make the work properly. Then, you will be able to see the actual colors and patters. But trimming reveals the layers even much nicer. It makes the borders between layers sharp and much more irregular.

The next step in sharping the layer borders for more contrast and making it much more irregular is – fluting. It makes the color pattern unpredictable. It may turn from spiral form (as and effect of wheel throwing) into vertical lines in an extreme case. This is because the colored layers are distributed in the walls not only horizontally but also vertically. So, what is white outside may be colored inside or even with different color a bit deeper in the wall if you decide to use more than 2 colors. I cut the edges or make fluted patters with cheese strings and wire-end tools. The best is to do it at the leather-hard state of the clay. However, it can be done even a bit later but then with different tools. See Simon Leach while fluting his pieces.

Saturation

We do agateware to get nice spectrum of colors. But the colors change in the making process. This changes might be disappointing and a stress factor to the maker. They start with strong saturation when dumping the colorants. Then move to relatively pale color when wedging. But one can be very surprised when the piece gets dry. The colors switch to very light shades at that stage. All changes back to saturated shades at firing. At the bisque stage it is still not impressing (unless you look for pastels). But later, in the stoneware firing the colors blow up again in their actual vibrance. I ‘ve been not disappointed until now. I was even surprised how bright they can be at the end. See the below piece.

Another method to make the colors more saturated and appealing is to cover them with glossy transparent glaze. Myself, I prefer rather sating non-glazed surface of porcelain. But I have to admit, that glossy glaze makes the difference. See below the above handle before glazing.

Sealing

In my specific case I wanted to put clear and visible seal on my pieces. There was a purpose for it. The seal does not advertize myself but a national programme for celebration of Independence of Poland. This kind of occasional seals come not that remarkably visible in marbled bodies. Especially  after firing (when edges shrink and fill the thin inprints) and after glazing (which fills the seal). Hence, the seal must be sharp and deep. To do so, you need to press out the seal in leather-hard state of the walls. Don’t bother too much about deformation, you may still still correct afterwards. Obviously, a firm support on the reverse site of the wall when sealing is mandatory!

The results were still not satisfying to me. Hence, I tried to glaze the seal with additional color. It is almost impossible to glaze it precisely with a brush, just in the seal. Don’t care, go clumsy, all around. After drying I simply rubbed out the other parts with any tool or fine-grade (>1K) sand paper, so the glaze remains only inside. The results are nice, especially for my type of seal which emulate hand-writing.

Firing

The same considerations regarding maximum firing temperatures applies to agateware as to any other materials. However, marbled pieces come a bit more complicated and prone for errors. Body clay firing temperature is one and the colorants firing temperature needs to be respected as well. Even if the volume of colorants is low. Here is an example when in theory all should be fine but there are evidences of passing the limits.  Good practice is to  not reach the limits of materials and keep some safety margin. So, although both – pigments and body can be fired at 1250°C, I go for 1245°C max and it works. See the below bubles in red layer.

Other building techniques

Is throwing the only way – no. Nerikomi is about layering differnet colors in beautifil patterns. I do not have experience in it. However, on of the abovepresented handles and the below shaving razor scales are made manually in a similiar way. I tried to cut the shape from plate thrown on the weel. But after some attempts I found it more consisted to cut hem from a rolled sheet of mixed clay. The effect is nice and fits to scuttles and bottles thrown on the wheel.

 

charity, pottery, shaving

Unload 2018

I rush to unload the kiln and manage to release some mugs and handles made to celebrate anniversary of Polish Independence (see more on the celebration from top menu – you may  select different languages). The goal was to make it still in 2018!

What you can see here are the prototypes done from different materials and with different shapes. Thanks to community, I could learn from the poll on your preferences. I must say that some choices are surprising to me. I voted for simple handle and a regular mug. But it the sculptured handle and fluted mug seem to be most appreciated. See the results of voting in here (click on report button).

In addition to mugs and handles for Niepodległa, I managed to fire some other stuff. See it below.

 

charity, pottery, shaving, shaving brush

Spectrum

Here I put all the pigments at hand alltogether. It went crazy, but might be appreciated by those who look for something fresh and modern.

BTW, it fits nice to the shaving bell made before. The bell has gone but the handle goes for charity soon.