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Writing Out Recipes
-I’m a “dump cook.” I may start with a recipe, but my natural instinct is to treat it as a starting point for improvisation. I enjoy playing in the kitchen and following any impulse that happens to strike me. Because of this, the quality of my cooking is admittedly uneven. When I happen to get it right, my very supportive
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Adjusting Glazes
-Adjusting Glazes for Application PART 1 One of the more frustrating aspects of ceramics is glazing. Glazing is a pretty non-intuitive act: what you see is definitely not what you get. Besides that, the very act of glazing is a difficult dance that requires a person to do everything correctly and in the right order to get a perfect glaze
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GLAZE CHEMISTRY WITHOUT FEAR
-Many a pottery student becomes intimidated when faced with the procedure of glaze formulation. Glaze chemistry without fear is what we are going to touch upon in this issue. Although some potters understand enough basic chemistry to perform complex glaze calculations without difficulty, those of us with non-scientific brains often struggle through the majority of glazing information. Too often, it’s
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EXPERIMENTING WITH LINE BLENDS
-Many potters rely on glaze recipes available to them from pottery periodicals, books, college courses, online resources, friends, or colleagues…leaving little incentive for experimentation. It’s true that formulation of an original, new glaze might seem intimidating at first, but a simple method called “line blending” can yield very rewarding, unique results. A line blend is made by mixing together equal
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EXPERIMENTING WITH COLORANTS
-Modification of a base glaze recipe can be as simple as making changes to a bread recipe in your home kitchen. Much like you might substitute molasses for honey to make your bread appear dark brown rather than light-colored, you can add different colorants to your base glaze to achieve a wide variety of colors. To begin experimenting with glaze
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COMBINATION GLAZING TECHNIQUES
-Perhaps one of the most enjoyable things about working with clay is the endless variety of techniques that can be tried and experimented with to yield new and exciting ways to decorate one’s pots. Combination glazing techniques, in which two or more glazes are combined to achieve various effects, can be performed in many different ways to achieve countless possibilities.
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Testing for Barium Leaching
-By Monona Rossol Final segment of a three-part series from the March/April 1996 issue of Clay Times The EPA recognizes the toxicity of various metals by setting standards for them in our drinking water. There are two types of standards: 1) Maximum Contamination Levels (MCLs) which are enforceable; and 2) Drinking Water Health Advisories (HAs). The EPA standard for barium
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Common Sense About Barium Leaching
-By Monona Rossol Part two of a three-part series on barium from the January 1996 issue of Clay Times I’m old enough to remember that the tests for leaching of barium in the ’70s and ’80s were done primarily to settle an argument. Some potters insisted that high fired glazes don’t leach. Since barium was a common toxic flux for
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Barium Glazes: How Safe?
-Barium Glazes: How Safe? By Monona Rossol Part one of a three-part Series on barium from the December 1995 issue of Clay Times Barium glazes do not present an unreasonable hazard to potters as long as they understand barium’s health effects, use local ventilation (a spray booth or other area in which powdered materials can be handled safely), wear protective