tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3580639918656230427.post4505380160810938406..comments2024-03-22T17:41:17.625+13:00Comments on Peter's Pottery: Porcelain Paperweights. One important step remains... Hammer and Chisel!Peterhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/03078608554226394069noreply@blogger.comBlogger15125tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3580639918656230427.post-27586299486538313852017-11-26T19:42:50.498+13:002017-11-26T19:42:50.498+13:00Hi Ang,
Lovely to hear from you. Thanks for the ch...Hi Ang,<br />Lovely to hear from you. Thanks for the cheery comment, crystals in glazes are certainly not for the faint hearted... The very next firing was a spectacular flop for some reason! Ha..., but they are fantastic when they work!Peterhttps://www.blogger.com/profile/03078608554226394069noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3580639918656230427.post-8043993336859737732017-11-26T10:32:51.994+13:002017-11-26T10:32:51.994+13:00Stunning work Peter! it really is a challenge to g...Stunning work Peter! it really is a challenge to get nice crystal growth and you've done a fab job. :D cheers angang designhttps://www.blogger.com/profile/10818952156682990100noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3580639918656230427.post-47193369302361919502017-10-20T21:43:30.134+13:002017-10-20T21:43:30.134+13:00Hi Anna,
Nice to hear from you all the way from su...Hi Anna,<br />Nice to hear from you all the way from sunny Australia! We're starting to have a few more visitors through the gallery now that summer is approaching and the garden is flowering away madly. We still remember your enjoyable visit and hope things are going well for you both. Kind Thoughts from us!Peterhttps://www.blogger.com/profile/03078608554226394069noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3580639918656230427.post-13821522372483580962017-10-20T21:30:41.203+13:002017-10-20T21:30:41.203+13:00Hi Peter
Such a lot of work but you make it seem w...Hi Peter<br />Such a lot of work but you make it seem worthwhile with such wonderful results.. All the best to you and LauraAnnahttps://www.blogger.com/profile/03620588456375419442noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3580639918656230427.post-89863780949115891522017-10-16T20:31:05.670+13:002017-10-16T20:31:05.670+13:00Hello Rhonda,
Lovely to hear from you. I am very p...Hello Rhonda,<br />Lovely to hear from you. I am very pleased with how the paperweights turned out and..... have been doing a glaze firing of 10 more from around 7 last night to mid afternoon today!!! Hope to unload tomorrow evening or Wednesday morning first thing.Peterhttps://www.blogger.com/profile/03078608554226394069noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3580639918656230427.post-48916382079745171952017-10-16T20:18:03.511+13:002017-10-16T20:18:03.511+13:00Beautiful crystals! Well done!!!! You must be ver...Beautiful crystals! Well done!!!! You must be very happy with the results.k?Rhondahttps://www.blogger.com/profile/14633242746650059679noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3580639918656230427.post-22209958291396801902017-10-15T14:17:55.445+13:002017-10-15T14:17:55.445+13:00Hi Sue,
Lovely to hear from you on this rather wil...Hi Sue,<br />Lovely to hear from you on this rather wild and windy afternoon (a strong NW wind has just got up!). We are OK and Spring flowers are very springy! Lots popping up now and Laura darting from flower to flower like a hard working bumble bee!<br />Love to you both too!Peterhttps://www.blogger.com/profile/03078608554226394069noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3580639918656230427.post-53806307133487010292017-10-15T10:22:20.499+13:002017-10-15T10:22:20.499+13:00Peter, excellent work, as always. I love the glaze...Peter, excellent work, as always. I love the glazes, the colours and effects. Beautiful. <br />I hope you and Laura are well and enjoying the spring sunshine and flowers. <br />Love to you both. ☺Suenoreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3580639918656230427.post-41298041977124234542017-10-04T09:42:00.175+13:002017-10-04T09:42:00.175+13:00Good Morning Dad!
You are quite right of course, b...Good Morning Dad!<br />You are quite right of course, but I had a sense of urgency of getting all this down that would have overwhelmed my capacity for sleep, so .... doing the blog was the most "restful" option!! I think Einstein only managed 2 or 3 hours sleep a night and I can quite understand why! :-) "Physics is Fun!" to quote your old Nuffield Physics textbook!<br /><br />Hi Melissa,<br />Thank you so much for your ongoing interest and encouragement, it does mean a lot to know that you and others are still following this, even though my blog output has been rather patchy over recent months.<br /><br />Hello Anonymous,<br />Feet as napkin rings maybe..., but usually the porcelain rings are fairly battered and splashed with glaze in a way that even dedicated work with the grinder might fail to resolve particularly well. If I really thought about it, there might be something sculptural that could be done by re-firing them as a little stack and letting glaze blobs run and stick them together. I'll give that some thought.<br /><br />Good Morning Bob,<br />Lovely to hear from you, with or without words! The camera "skills" would make quite an amusing mini series in itself, as it must be a funny sight to see the potter grimly working with one hand and clutching a camera with the other. Lucky so far that it hasn't ended up in the glaze bucket!<br /><br />Hi Linda,<br />The "knife" was a chisel, but it was a challenge finding a camera angle that did not look like I was about to perform painful surgery! Laura assisted with the camera for the photos that worked. I do wear a heavy apron for such tricky work! :-)<br /><br />Hello Mike,<br />Good to hear from you, thank you for your interesting comment and encouragement. The hard water/soft water thing is an issue that I have seen crystalline glazers discuss this at times. Potters do report that this does have a profound effect, and some do resort to using distilled water or rain water to solve it. <br /><br />I can see that hard or soft water could have a significant effect on the behaviour of a glaze when it is sitting in the glaze bucket, (if the PH is wrong glaze ingredients like to form a horrid, unworkable lump at the bottom of the bucket, especially any materials that were slightly water soluble). I am less clear as to how this problem manifests as the glaze is fired as water has evaporated away and only a minor trace of the excess calcium and/or magnesium (which I presume was the cause for it being "hard") from the water would remain and act as a flux, and a very minor one compared to the vast amount of sodium and other "goodies" that are in the glaze materials that the potter has used. But, you and many other potters find that rain water or distilled water makes the difference between success and failure for these glazes, so this does simply illustrate the exciting complexity and wonder of what is happening to a glaze at high temperature when atoms are dancing and electrons jumping!<br /><br />I agree.... making all those extra bits and all the grinding and so on, is a big downside when working with these glazes. Whilst it does "get to me" a bit at times, I think that the hardest part is trying to come up with a fair retail price for the work. So much effort goes into a lot of the process that the customer just does not see... and then, if a dealer wants to take nearly half of the retail price for selling it... well, the poor old potter ends up with hours of work for almost no return! That said.... I keep on making them!Peterhttps://www.blogger.com/profile/03078608554226394069noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3580639918656230427.post-74379228298588465072017-10-04T07:28:38.507+13:002017-10-04T07:28:38.507+13:00Congratulations - really super results. The first...Congratulations - really super results. The first thing I tried when I got my own kiln, with a snazzy electronic controller which allowed me to control the cooling cycle, was crystalline glazing. I used that same blue-and-tan one on a smooth white stoneware. I still have a couple of little bottles. I confess, the trauma of opening the kiln, the grind of making all the extra bits and the grinding if they stuck to the saucers put me off in the end. <br /><br />Then I resolved to use the glaze on tiles for our kitchen but I found in our new home that the glaze simple wouldn't work for me. Several years later I finally worked out why: the water here is hard and was soft where we lived previously. If I make the glaze with rainwater it works. However my hatred of the cold working required still puts me off returning to it.Anonymousnoreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3580639918656230427.post-67775887461428880552017-10-04T04:22:55.493+13:002017-10-04T04:22:55.493+13:00scary, careful with that knife, they look like lar...scary, careful with that knife, they look like large marbles, wonderfulLinda Starrhttps://www.blogger.com/profile/04364078667554676592noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3580639918656230427.post-58124859776824732602017-10-03T21:05:24.580+13:002017-10-03T21:05:24.580+13:00I'm lost for words Peter, just magnificent and...I'm lost for words Peter, just magnificent and your camera skills too. srgbhttps://www.blogger.com/profile/13679148977913262353noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3580639918656230427.post-15969902371718805052017-10-03T14:19:16.039+13:002017-10-03T14:19:16.039+13:00Turn those feet into napkin rings? Just a thought...Turn those feet into napkin rings? Just a thought!<br /><br />Beautiful glazes!Anonymousnoreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3580639918656230427.post-43831670086138067022017-10-03T13:08:07.381+13:002017-10-03T13:08:07.381+13:00Really enjoying looking at these.
Really enjoying looking at these. <br />Melissa Rohrerhttps://www.blogger.com/profile/00483066813883556359noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3580639918656230427.post-79185785676365259612017-10-03T09:01:12.763+13:002017-10-03T09:01:12.763+13:00Love the pictures, but suggest an earlier night, a...Love the pictures, but suggest an earlier night, and soothing book prior to lights out!Peter's Dadhttps://www.blogger.com/profile/12877219925527687618noreply@blogger.com