If this is your first visit, be sure to check out the FAQ by clicking the link above. You may have to register before you can post: click the register link above to proceed. To start viewing messages, select the forum that you want to visit from the selection below. |
|
|
|
Thread Tools | Display Modes |
|
#1
|
|||
|
|||
Chemistry basics for potters?
Hi everyone
I have litterally only had about 3 lessons in Chemistry during my schooling, due to a change of systems late in high-school. And those 3 lessons were so far over my head, you wouldn't believe it. Now, especially considering the problems I am having using other peoples' glazes, I really want at least to understand more about the components that go into the glazes. At best, maybe I can learn enough to understand how to make my own glazes. Toward this goal, I have bought the following books and I will list them in the order I intend to read them: The cartoon guide to chemistry - gonick/criddle Chemistry for dummies - moore An introduction to chemistry for biology students - sackheim * Chemistry in context - hill/holman *I did do very well in biology at school, so I thought this would be a good angle. Also, it doesn't hurt to know something about chemistry in living matter. I bought Chemistry in Context first, but that was WAY over my head. I hope that the progression now will help me to get an understanding of things. The cartoon guide actually looks very promising, and entertaining at the same time! Getting lengthy here. What I want to ask you guys is if you know of any chemistry books that deal specifically with the chemistry of pottery - both clays and glazes - and anything else that might involve. I do have quite a few pottery books, some a bit in depth, that do deal with chemistry in a chapter or more - but I have always skipped those before, so if you know of a book like that as well, where the explanations are simple enough to be understood by a newbie, please point those out as well! THANKS for your time! Marianne |
#2
|
|||
|
|||
Chemistry basics for potters?
The first thing I would have recommended you do is to go to these sites and
read what they have. There is more than you will ever want to know on the digitalfire site about chemistry. It is an excellent educational source. Frogpondpottery has a wonderful article on glaze stability. Both Masteringglazes and digitalfire have software for analyzing your glazes. I have a very primitive program for doing so but have given up on giving it out because I kept finding bugs in it that people never told me were there so I decided it was not safe for me to be sharing. Plus both digitalfire and masteringglazes software have experts behind the software that can give you the right answers to you questions. http://www.digitalfire.com/ http://www.masteringglazes.com/ http://www.frogpondpottery.com/glaze...bleglazes.html examples http://ceramic-materials.com/cermat/education/126.html http://www.masteringglazes.com/Pages/GM1frame.html http://ceramic-materials.com/cermat/...ion/index.html http://ceramic-materials.com/cermat/education/15.html http://ceramic-materials.com/cermat/education/197.html Organic chemistry is really not going to be of any use to you. In fact, the most you will really need to know, you probably already know. Potters work in the world of oxides - an oxide is a chemical compound containing one or more oxygen molecules. Next I would recommend you go to the clayart list - you have to join to post but you don't have to join to search. Many questions you would ask have already been asked. http://lsv.ceramics.org/scripts/wa.exe?A0=CLAYART http://lsv.ceramics.org/scripts/wa.exe?S1=clayart http://www.potters.org/ http://groups.yahoo.com/group/clayart/ The book I would recommend is Mastering Cone 6 Glazes by John Hesselberth and Ron Roy (see above site). While I really like this room it is for the most part relatively quiet (one of the reasons I like it). I think you would do better posting your questions in the other room. They have first class support there who check in regularly. Donna P.S. I checked the site where you get your glaze and clay and still have not been able to figure out what is what. They are not going to share the recipe of their glazes however so there is no way to help with the chemistry of your glazes. It would be good to know if you are underfiring your glaze but I can't find it from what you gave us. As I said however, any commercial glaze should not be giving you this problem if you are firing to the correct temperature. "Bubbles_" wrote in message ... Hi everyone I have litterally only had about 3 lessons in Chemistry during my schooling, due to a change of systems late in high-school. And those 3 lessons were so far over my head, you wouldn't believe it. Now, especially considering the problems I am having using other peoples' glazes, I really want at least to understand more about the components that go into the glazes. At best, maybe I can learn enough to understand how to make my own glazes. Toward this goal, I have bought the following books and I will list them in the order I intend to read them: The cartoon guide to chemistry - gonick/criddle Chemistry for dummies - moore An introduction to chemistry for biology students - sackheim * Chemistry in context - hill/holman *I did do very well in biology at school, so I thought this would be a good angle. Also, it doesn't hurt to know something about chemistry in living matter. I bought Chemistry in Context first, but that was WAY over my head. I hope that the progression now will help me to get an understanding of things. The cartoon guide actually looks very promising, and entertaining at the same time! Getting lengthy here. What I want to ask you guys is if you know of any chemistry books that deal specifically with the chemistry of pottery - both clays and glazes - and anything else that might involve. I do have quite a few pottery books, some a bit in depth, that do deal with chemistry in a chapter or more - but I have always skipped those before, so if you know of a book like that as well, where the explanations are simple enough to be understood by a newbie, please point those out as well! THANKS for your time! Marianne |
#3
|
|||
|
|||
Chemistry basics for potters?
"DKat" wrote in message ... The first thing I would have recommended you do is to go to these sites and - snip loooong list of wonderful links and suggestions - While I really like this room it is for the most part relatively quiet (one of the reasons I like it). I think you would do better posting your questions in the other room. They have first class support there who check in regularly. I also appreciate this room because it is quiet. As you might have noticed, I don't stop in very often these days, so the fewer things to catch up with, the better. Also, because it is a newsgroup, I can mark threads to ignore or follow, and I can view only new posts. That way, it is wayyyy simpler to get caught up with what interests me. P.S. I checked the site where you get your glaze and clay and still have not been able to figure out what is what. They are not going to share the recipe of their glazes however so there is no way to help with the chemistry of your glazes. It would be good to know if you are underfiring your glaze but I can't find it from what you gave us. As I said however, any commercial glaze should not be giving you this problem if you are firing to the correct temperature. I am firing the glazes to the temperature ranges required by the manufacturer, so the problem doesn't lie there. I've added a little "ps" to my bubbling post, as I had a thought that aluminium might cause the problem - or at least make it worse. I have also talked with my clay/glaze supplier, and have tried his suggestions without luck. But I had a couple of pots a couple of years ago that also bubbled badly - and he refired them at a slightly higher temperature and they turned out wayyyy better. I try the same here, and I have no luck - so it could also be something with my kiln - maybe it is too small so that the circulation is bad? I dunno. I'm running out of ideas and getting more and more pretty pieces that are impossible to use :-( Hope you are well from that flu you had and happily jumping around doing your things again! Marianne |
#4
|
|||
|
|||
Chemistry basics for potters?
Sorry about top posting but I just don't buy that the other is more polite -
if you haven't kept up, the old message is there for reference - otherwise why should you have to read it all to get to where you are going... Sorry about the rant but I have never understood the etiquette of bottom posting (I'm not referring to your proper behaviour by the by but my improper behavior - so I'm not ranting at you but defending myself). I'm all over the flu - just living with the lack of air from asthma due to allergies (I'm really hoping it snows soon). Which makes me cranky - which explains the above silly rant. Thanks for remembering and thinking of me. How does this glaze behave over or under other glazes? If they have sold you a glaze that is not maturing at the temperature they claim then bad on them (you should not have to fire higher than what they say it fires to). Is there a reason you are sticking with this glaze when it is behaving badly? The reason I ask these questions is that depending on why you are keeping this glaze and how it behaves with other glazes - there might be short term fixes. Donna P.S. I also like this room better because you are more likely to get a response (even if it is maybe more likely not to be corrected if it is wrong) and you can easily follow threads. I hate the inability to keep a thread together in Clayart. I posted your original question there and never did get a response. There is quite a bit of chatter though on all sorts of odds and ends I would never want to follow. Still, if you can at least do searches there, I think you would find it useful and that is where you would pick up the pearls by the experts. As it turns out really - most questions you would ever ask have already been asked and the ones that haven't are usually impossible to answer. "Bubbles_" wrote in message ... I also appreciate this room because it is quiet. As you might have noticed, I don't stop in very often these days, so the fewer things to catch up with, the better. Also, because it is a newsgroup, I can mark threads to ignore or follow, and I can view only new posts. That way, it is wayyyy simpler to get caught up with what interests me. P.S. I checked the site where you get your glaze and clay and still have not been able to figure out what is what. They are not going to share the recipe of their glazes however so there is no way to help with the chemistry of your glazes. It would be good to know if you are underfiring your glaze but I can't find it from what you gave us. As I said however, any commercial glaze should not be giving you this problem if you are firing to the correct temperature. I am firing the glazes to the temperature ranges required by the manufacturer, so the problem doesn't lie there. I've added a little "ps" to my bubbling post, as I had a thought that aluminium might cause the problem - or at least make it worse. I have also talked with my clay/glaze supplier, and have tried his suggestions without luck. But I had a couple of pots a couple of years ago that also bubbled badly - and he refired them at a slightly higher temperature and they turned out wayyyy better. I try the same here, and I have no luck - so it could also be something with my kiln - maybe it is too small so that the circulation is bad? I dunno. I'm running out of ideas and getting more and more pretty pieces that are impossible to use :-( Hope you are well from that flu you had and happily jumping around doing your things again! Marianne |
#5
|
|||
|
|||
Chemistry basics for potters?
On Tue, 9 Oct 2007 12:06:42 -0400, "DKat"
wrote: P.S. I also like this room better because you are more likely to get a response (even if it is maybe more likely not to be corrected if it is wrong) and you can easily follow threads. I hate the inability to keep a thread together in Clayart. I have my Clayart email, as well as most my other email lists, sent to my gmail (google email) account. gmail automatically threads conversations. I simply filter my different email lists into separate folders. Oh, and gmail is free. If anyone wants an invitation to get a gmail account, send my private email and I'll send you one. Posting such a request to the group, however, will get you scorn and ridicule. :-) deg |
#6
|
|||
|
|||
Chemistry basics for potters?
I'm real confused (again) - you just go to goggle to get a gmail account
don't you? Or are you referring to belonging to a group? I tried having clayart emailed to me and was soon so overwhelmed with emails that I just gave up on it. Clayart does have some mapping to threads but they are frequently broken off depending on how people answer the posts. So you can have dozens of threads with the exact same title. Since Clayart is a list and not a group it behaves in a very different and archaic way than what you now find in newsgroups. "Dewitt" wrote in message ... On Tue, 9 Oct 2007 12:06:42 -0400, "DKat" wrote: P.S. I also like this room better because you are more likely to get a response (even if it is maybe more likely not to be corrected if it is wrong) and you can easily follow threads. I hate the inability to keep a thread together in Clayart. I have my Clayart email, as well as most my other email lists, sent to my gmail (google email) account. gmail automatically threads conversations. I simply filter my different email lists into separate folders. Oh, and gmail is free. If anyone wants an invitation to get a gmail account, send my private email and I'll send you one. Posting such a request to the group, however, will get you scorn and ridicule. :-) deg |
#7
|
|||
|
|||
Chemistry basics for potters?
"DKat" wrote in message news -snip- Glad you are feeling better. If I get any snow over here in Zurich, I will HAPPILY send it your way! ;-) How does this glaze behave over or under other glazes? If they have sold you a glaze that is not maturing at the temperature they claim then bad on them (you should not have to fire higher than what they say it fires to). Is there a reason you are sticking with this glaze when it is behaving badly? The reason I ask these questions is that depending on why you are keeping this glaze and how it behaves with other glazes - there might be short term fixes. All the glazes I use behave very well normally. It is just with this "beautifier" on top that I get the bubbles. It may be that I am putting too much on. I am currently making up a bunch of tiles that I will criss-cross with different thicknesses of glaze and beautifier to have a more accurate example of what happens with the thicknesses/combinations. Marianne |
#8
|
|||
|
|||
Chemistry basics for potters?
"Bubbles_" wrote in message ... "DKat" wrote in message news -snip- Glad you are feeling better. If I get any snow over here in Zurich, I will HAPPILY send it your way! ;-) How does this glaze behave over or under other glazes? If they have sold you a glaze that is not maturing at the temperature they claim then bad on them (you should not have to fire higher than what they say it fires to). Is there a reason you are sticking with this glaze when it is behaving badly? The reason I ask these questions is that depending on why you are keeping this glaze and how it behaves with other glazes - there might be short term fixes. All the glazes I use behave very well normally. It is just with this "beautifier" on top that I get the bubbles. It may be that I am putting too much on. I am currently making up a bunch of tiles that I will criss-cross with different thicknesses of glaze and beautifier to have a more accurate example of what happens with the thicknesses/combinations. Marianne Back step.... I'm sorry, I totally misunderstood what you were doing. What is a beautifiers? That completely changes things. When glazes are too thick you will get bubbling - so if you are layering your glazes and then putting this last layer on rather thickly I would not be surprised to see bubbles. Have you taken a needling tool to check how thick your glazes are (the final product)? |
#9
|
|||
|
|||
Chemistry basics for potters?
"DKat" wrote in message news P.S. I also like this room better because you are more likely to get a response (even if it is maybe more likely not to be corrected if it is wrong) and you can easily follow threads. I hate the inability to keep a thread together in Clayart. I posted your original question there and never did get a response. There is quite a bit of chatter though on all sorts of odds and ends I would never want to follow. Still, if you can at least do searches there, I think you would find it useful and that is where you would pick up the pearls by the experts. As it turns out really - most questions you would ever ask have already been asked and the ones that haven't are usually impossible to answer. I absolutely agree with you that clayart is a good resource. The trouble is that it is rather messy to search and you get a lot of things you don't want. Partly my fault for not putting in the parameters better, but still. Also, this bubble problem is very specific, so I did want a dialogue - and I am not about to post over on clayart - got too many places to post already in different subjects. But I thank you for posting there for me, and am sorry nobody gave any feedback. Marianne |
#10
|
|||
|
|||
Chemistry basics for potters?
"Bubbles_" wrote in message
... Hi everyone I have litterally only had about 3 lessons in Chemistry during my schooling, due to a change of systems late in high-school. And those 3 lessons were so far over my head, you wouldn't believe it. (snip) Hi Maryanne I have a book called "Ceramic Science for the Potter" by W.G Lawrence which gives LOTS of information about all technical aspects of ceramics, including glaze chemistry. If you wanted to do some serious study it's worth a look. It's an old book (1972) but today I found several copies on abebooks for as low as US$16. If you are interested I can post more information about the book. Cheers David |
|
Thread Tools | |
Display Modes | |
|
|
Similar Threads | ||||
Thread | Thread Starter | Forum | Replies | Last Post |
Back to basics | Marion Pearcey | Machine Knit | 4 | May 22nd 05 05:00 PM |
Beading Basics | [email protected] | Needlework | 5 | April 21st 05 03:07 PM |
ash glaze chemistry ? | Beowulf | Pottery | 7 | March 17th 04 06:36 PM |
AD: Taos Tesserae and Strange Glow/Experiments in Chemistry | Susan B. | Beads | 7 | November 21st 03 08:52 PM |
elma ox-hydrogen chemistry ? | ilaboo | Jewelry | 3 | October 28th 03 04:43 AM |