5th of July

Hey All,
I'm back. Mrs. Rose, The Kitten and I had a great time on Cape Cod.

I had a great class with a fantastic group of people. I love teaching glaze calc classes, because the students are so into it. It makes for a super fun teaching experience.

If you want a glaze clac class for yourself. Please tell your local arts center about me and I would love to come to you too, as I know not everyone can make it out to Cape Cod.

 Yesterday was American Independence Day, In celebration I have to post this video of a flash mob at the grocery store we were shopping at while on The Cape. We just missed this performance, Bummer.

_________________________________________________________________________

Slipcast is brought to you by Matt and Dave's Clays. 

Porcelain for the People!

Clays designed by Scientists to work for Artists.

Check out our new lower prices!

Flux Capacity

 A Little Monday Morning Glaze Clac for yall.



The fluxes that we use do the heavy lifting for getting our materials to melt in the kiln. One of or a combination of Lithium, Sodium and Potassium are the fluxes in almost every single clay and glaze that we use. We can see why they are so effective for melting in their reactions with water in this video.

We don't use them in this raw state, Instead we use them in an oxide form Li2O, Na2O, K20. This keeps them from being explosive as they have already oxidized (which is what this video shows happening). But it is this very reactive nature that gets our Clay and Glazes melting.

Since we are talking about Glaze Calc,  don't forget that there is still space available for my Glaze Calc class "Glaze of our Lives", June 27th -July 1st, at Truro Center for the Arts at Castle Hill in beautiful Truro, MA.

_________________________________________________________________________

Slipcast is brought to you by Matt and Dave's Clays. 

Porcelain for the People!

Clays designed by Scientists to work for Artists.

Check out our new lower prices!

Glaze Calc for the People!

Hey All,


How is everyone feeing about their Glaze Calc skills? Wanna learn? Wanna Refresher? Wanna know more?


Then I have the opportunity for you! I am returning for a command performance to the Truro Center for the Arts at Castle Hill for my Glaze Calc class "Glaze of our Lives".


The class is taking place in beautiful, Truro, Massachusetts from June 27th-July 1st. It is an amazing place at the best time of the year.


We will explore the ins and outs of glazes. How and why they work and how and why they don't work.
We will talk about surface, temperature, materials, chemistry and everything in between.


I hope to see you all there. We're going to have a great time!

_________________________________________________________________________

Slipcast is brought to you by Matt and Dave's Clays. 

Porcelain for the People!

Clays designed by Scientists to work for Artists.

Check out our new lower prices!

Breaking Hart(wick)s

Hi All, 


Sorry I disappeared last week. I was asked by my friend Sephanie Rozene to come to Hartwick College and do a lecture on glaze flaws for her students. It was a great time and the students were lots of fun. 
Some of the Hartwick students helped me at NCECA with some Matt and Dave's Clays promotional activities. In exchange I gave them Matt and Dave's Tee Shirts (available here). One crafty student named Zach, took his tee shirt and had a friend tie-dye it. Pretty snazzy if I do say so myself.
It goes so well with our awesome Porcelain for the People clay. Give it a spin, you won't be disappointed. 

Speaking of Glaze Calc. I wanted to give a heads up for my glaze clac class for all of you New England readers. It is taking place from June 14-18, on Cape Cod at The Truro Center for the Arts at Castle Hill. It is called Rumor Milling and will be a great class for learning all about glazes, for the beginner or the professional. Be There!

We Have Chemistry Together.

Today is random stuff day at Slipcast, so we will have a few non-ceramics related things that I love.
As I am elbows deep in my glaze calc class I had to post this because I have been talking chemistry, a lot. To all the ceramicist who are out there who are trying to learn glaze calc on their own, I offer this advice. There are only 10 elements that you need to focus on. Lithium, Sodium, and Potassium, the first column of the periodic table. Magnesium, Calcium, Strontium, and Barium, The second column. These two groups are the fluxes and the neat thing about the periodic table is that if elements are in the same column then they work in a similar way. So to say, Lithium, Sodium and Potassium, all do the same thing. Silica and Alumina, are the glass formers and are on the right hand side. Boron is a glass former too, but you only have to worry about that if you are working at low temperature. That's it, understand what these 10 elements do and you will be on your way to understanding glaze chemistry.

This quilt was made by Cherry_Blossom55 over at Craftster.
found via: Unique Daily

This really makes me think about my parents, as my mother is a quilter and my father's undergraduate degree is in chemistry. I should call them.