Stephen Cullum's Bonsai & Pottery: Post 204 New Elements and New Pots

Thursday, 2 July 2015

Post 204 New Elements and New Pots

The last month or so has been a bit of a pottery trial. I posted about my failed element saga and was pretty pleased to have apparently solved solve the challenge of replacing the elements of a kiln that suffered from specification obsolescence. Of course new elements fire entirely differently from the old ones. They have the capacity to fire at a set rate to a higher temperature. As they get older and oxidized at ever higher temperatures they are unable to maintain the same rate, so the firing curve actually does curve until it reaches a point of limitation. Fortunately I had kept a record of actual kiln temperature vs time performance for the firing schedule I had set. It was finely tuned to fire at cone 6 to give me the clay and glaze performance I was after. It took a couple of less that successful firings with the new elements before I 'tuned' the firing schedule to get me back to cone 6.

All this while trying to complete a largish commission order which resulted in a series of failures and rebuilds; very frustrating.
Oh yes and also in the middle there the clay supplier and all its distributors ran out of my stoneware clay; aaaahhhhhhhh!!!!

That's ok I just hope my trial is now over and order is restored in the pottery universe.

Some new pots:

First up is a Bowed Wall Rectangular pot, Pot No 215, ( 440 x 325 x 110 ). This one and most of the following pots are destined to carry pines and junipers so the plan has been to use my suite of satin brown glazes to replicate unglazed pots but with the surface protection of glazes.

Next up is Pot No 216 (450 x 330 x 110) another Bowed Wall Rectangular pot. This one has a squared lower rib.

This is Pot No 213 (390 x 290 x 110 ) also a BWR but with truncated corners. This makes for a pretty handsome pot in the flesh.

These two are designed for literatis the first is Pot No 219 ( 270 diameter x 60) and the second Pot No 218 ( 270 diameter x 65 )

This large Oval Pot No 209 (460 x 340 x 100) has a double bead rim and lower rib; a very nice tub.

This is was an interesting little build. The owner wanted a pot for a Melaleuca and he tends to grow this species sitting in a shallow pan of water. Being a swamp plant they certainly enjoy the water. He was also looking for a pot to reflect the texture and colour of the flaky papery bark. So I made the pot and the detail picture shows the texture. I then made another on the same mold without any adornment or glaze or even feet. The idea being to grow the tree in the simple pot and then just slip it into the decorated one for display.
Pot No 211 ( 225 x 160 x 40 )