Portal Star: Your ceramic piece was clinking because the glaze didn't fit the clay body.
The glaze shrunk more than the body so it crazed. If you look at it closely you'll see a network of cracks. The more severe the problem is the finer the network will be. Over time the cracks will pick up dirt and become easily visible and may even add to the appeal of the pot.
The opposite problem occurs if the body shrinks more than the glaze. When this happens, the glaze flicks off the pot in small slivers. This is called shivering, but it doesn't make a noise unless it's severe and cracks the pot. However, just to be sure, check around the shelf it's on for slivers. If you find them, throw the pot out.
coluber2001 wrote:Portal Star: Your ceramic piece was clinking because the glaze didn't fit the clay body.
The glaze shrunk more than the body so it crazed. If you look at it closely you'll see a network of cracks. The more severe the problem is the finer the network will be. Over time the cracks will pick up dirt and become easily visible and may even add to the appeal of the pot.
The opposite problem occurs if the body shrinks more than the glaze. When this happens, the glaze flicks off the pot in small slivers. This is called shivering, but it doesn't make a noise unless it's severe and cracks the pot. However, just to be sure, check around the shelf it's on for slivers. If you find them, throw the pot out.
Thank you. You're right, I found the artist and asked her - she had done an experimental glazing technique which makes the glass sliver off! Very dangerous, I hope the other guy who salvaged her stuff doesn't decide to eat off it.
So the slivering caused clinking in this case? I have no clue what I am talking about here, but I just finished understanding that slivering wouldn't be noisy, the cracking would...
I've had a lot of shivering on my pots, but I don't remember them pinging, but maybe I just forgot. In either crazing or shivering the glaze, which is glass, is fracturing so there is bound to be some noise. In shivering, tiny slivers of glaze pop off the surface, so unless the problem is severe there shouldn't be a lot of noise.
I've had pots, that I glazed only on the inside, fracture because the pot shrunk more than the glaze. A wide vertical crack would open up down the whole length of the vase, and when it broke there was a very distinctive ping.
I have a question about ceramic and clay work. I know that when you want to attach to pieces together you are supposed to rough and wet the area and then mush and smooth them together (silting I think is the term). When you have two pieces that you need to join that are at different stages of dryness is there some kind of compound or chemical that you use to help "glue" the pieces together temporarily that burns away in the kiln? a friend said he had heard of something like this but I wasn't sure. Any info would be appreciated.
Oh, and about those giant flying cockroaches, they are here in south Texas too. We call them tree roaches because they normally reside in the trees, but whenever it rains really hard they come into the houses. Those creatures sound like a 747 when they are flying at you and oh God do they have the most horrific scream!
I had to do a bug collection in high school biology and I caught one in a jar. I put a cottonball doused in fingernail polish remover in there to kill him and it screamed so long and loud that I had to close it up in another part of the house. I felt so horrible and guilty that I couldn't finish the project and got a D.
Aldistar:
Different clays react differently when you try to add attachments. I've found porcelain to be impossible because of cracking or separation, but I work with earthenware, and it's quite forgiving.
If you try to attach a piece of clay to another of a different consistency, you're asking for trouble. When the wetter part dries, it shrinks more than the drier part and may pull away or crack. But like I said, some clays--earthenware--are very forgiving.
To attach pieces use a clay slip made of the same clay. Put a little soda ash in with some clay and a little water, then mix--if you've got a blender, all the better. Your school probably has soda ash or sodium silicate for the deflocculant. With either of these chemicals, the clay will require less water to become liquid; therefore, it will shrink less.
There is no need for scoring; it only weakens the bond. Welders don't score the steel for the same reason.
At times you might have pots blow up in the kiln, and people will tell you that there were air bubbles in the clay. Don't believe it. Pots blow up in the bisque because they were not completely dry.
I live in Texas too and am familiar with the large American roach. They apparently think my kitchen is a diner for they all seem to head there; however, I've never heard one scream.
I am taking a sculpture/ceramics clay class right now that I am really enjoying.
My teacher has a neat method for hiding cracks in dry clay: some kind of silicone liquid (I forget what it's called) that doesn't dry and doesn't shrink. You take the silicone liquid, brush it onto the crack, and then crunch little pieces of dried clay into it. Then you make it look the way you want it.
Aldistar: You can connect anything as long as it is not beyond the leather-hard (scratchable with fingernail) phase. If they are drastically different in moisture, you will need to keep the different parts you are connecting wrapped in plastic so they can equalize their water content a bit.
Scoring should be deep and have cross lines down into the clay, like multiple rakeings. Slip is what you use to attach, and slip is made out of clay that has been dried (I like to dry them in little flat sheets) then broken up and put into a container full of water. After a day or so you pour off the excess water (be sure to use an airtight container, like tupperware) then you have slip (clay glue.)
Thanks for the replies people! I am not really working on anything in clay at the moment (haven't since high school), but I was more curious about the compound/gel stuff I mentioned. My friend is curious if it exists and he wants to see if it will work on the forging process for a sword (whole other story).
Thanks again!
Have you rubbed the pieces? maybe you have a genie in a ceramic!
Now really, did it stop?
My mother worked with ceramics, I'll ask her and see what she has to say about it.
the clinking answer
I have your answer. I have been throwing clay for about 4 yeras, and the first time I brought home a box of pottery, I started to hear the clinks. Fresh pots out of the kiln, will often click. It happens once in awhile for days, and can last for weeks. But like everything it eventually settles and stops cracking.
I am not sure why it makes the sudden noise as though it will explode, but it never has an ill effect. Basically the clay is twisted a bit while being thrown on the wheel, it slowly untwists while being fired. I think this process just continues even after seeming solid and unmaluable.
Don't worry, it will stop- But I actually enjoy hearing it. Its something I created and it has a life of its own, a little noise now and then keeps me aware of the art.
Hope this helps, enjoy the wheel!
That sounds reasonable! Thanks urban_e and welcome to A2K.
Re: the clinking answer
urban_energy wrote:I have your answer. I have been throwing clay for about 4 yeras, and the first time I brought home a box of pottery, I started to hear the clinks. Fresh pots out of the kiln, will often click. It happens once in awhile for days, and can last for weeks. But like everything it eventually settles and stops cracking.
I am not sure why it makes the sudden noise as though it will explode, but it never has an ill effect. Basically the clay is twisted a bit while being thrown on the wheel, it slowly untwists while being fired. I think this process just continues even after seeming solid and unmaluable.
Don't worry, it will stop- But I actually enjoy hearing it. Its something I created and it has a life of its own, a little noise now and then keeps me aware of the art.
Hope this helps, enjoy the wheel!
Be careful not to eat out of pots like that - we've determined that it's a result of the glaze shivering (cracking, breaking) and that can be the result of several different things, including taking pieces out of the kiln too early. You can't eat off the stuff because there are micro pieces of glass in there, which is bad for you to ingest.
News in Ceramics : Someone stole my 3 ft. tall cute little gargoyle after it was unloaded from the kiln! Everone says it was awesome, I didn't get to see it or even take pictures. It now haunts the dwelling of some thief, I hope it eats their firstborn.
Ooooooh, I would be mightily irritated. I hope someone tells on Thiefy.
Sorry to hear that Portal Star, I hope you get it back.
I promised I will ask my mother about this but she was away for a while, however, she said that sometimes you get the clay to wet and gets bubbles and as the piece settles, it starts making cracking noises.
