Pottery beginner, need help.

I want to know what is minimal temperature for firing pottery ?
Thanks in advance.
PS
I know that higher the temperature the harder it will be...

"Piotrek_warszawa" wrote in message
om...
I want to know what is minimal temperature for firing pottery ?
Thanks in advance.
PS
I know that higher the temperature the harder it will be...

It depends on the clay. Different clays need different temperatures.

You can actually get clay that fires in an oven. It is not suitable for
anything other than decoration but that would be the minimum "firing" temp
for pottery. You can also do pit fires which are lowfire.


some samples

http://www.uwm.edu/Dept/ArchLab/expe...ring_2003.html
http://grafik.sdsu.edu/ceramicsweb/a...primitive.html


http://www.ccds.charlotte.nc.us/green/firing&.htm (nice page)

WHAT HAPPENS AS CLAYS AND GLAZES ARE FIRED
100oC Water boils.
100-200oC Clays lose "mechanical water."
200oC Typical kitchen oven baking temperature.
374oC "Critical" temperature of water. Chemically combined water leaves
clay.
500oC Red glow in kiln.
573oC "Quartz inversion"
SLOW, CAREFUL FIRING UNTIL 600oC
800oC D015 Organic matter in clay burns out.
800-1000oC D015-07 Orange color in kiln. Low-fire earthenwares and lowfire
lead glazes mature. Normal firing temperature for red bricks, flower pots.
1000-1160oC D07-1 Yellow color in kiln. High-fire earthenwares mature.
Feldspars begin to melt.
1170-1190oC D3-4 Bright yellow-white color in kiln. Mid-range clays and
low-fire stonewares mature. High iron-content clays begin to melt.
1250-1285oC D7-9 White color in kiln. Stoneware clays vitrify, feldspathic
glazes mature.
1285-1350oC D9-13 High-fire stonewares, porcelains vitrify.
MOST STUDIO POTTERY IS FIRED TO D9 OR LOWER.
1712oC Silica melts
2050oC Alumina melts

--
"As democracy is perfected, the office of president represents, more and
more closely, the inner soul of the people. On some great and glorious day
the plain folks of the land will reach their heart's desire at last and the
White House will be adorned by a downright moron."

- H. L. Mencken (1880 - 1956)
"Piotrek_warszawa" wrote in message
om...
I want to know what is minimal temperature for firing pottery ?
Thanks in advance.
PS
I know that higher the temperature the harder it will be...

Thanks
Thats All I wanted to know.
Oh one more thing...
I noticed that I have non typical oven :-)
My oven has 300oC (temperature counter ends on 300 i guess that it can
make some more heat ;-) )

That would be 572F and most ovens that I know of go to 500F.... still it
would not do anything but dry out the pot on most clays potters use (600 is
where you begin to get things going on I believe...)

Although the oven clay is not really clay I have been impressed with what
can be done with it. I especially like the affect that mimics glass - I
cannot remember the name of the technique but for glass you take and do
layers of different colors of class (often pinching in the ball of glass on
one layer to then give the next layer different depths of color. When you
get enough layers of different colors and the glass is hot you have two
people with an iron rod attached to both ends of the glass run like hell
away from one another. This stretches the glass out to thin rods that can
the be sliced and used to 'tile' a piece of glass that is then blown. It is
much easier to do with the synthetic clay....



http://www.jaedworks.com/clayspot/po...aq/basics.html


--
"As democracy is perfected, the office of president represents, more and
more closely, the inner soul of the people. On some great and glorious day
the plain folks of the land will reach their heart's desire at last and the
White House will be adorned by a downright moron."

- H. L. Mencken (1880 - 1956)
"Piotrek_warszawa" wrote in message
om...
Thanks
Thats All I wanted to know.
Oh one more thing...
I noticed that I have non typical oven :-)
My oven has 300oC (temperature counter ends on 300 i guess that it can
make some more heat ;-) )

"DKat" wrote in message
...
That would be 572F and most ovens that I know of go to 500F.... still it
would not do anything but dry out the pot on most clays potters use (600
is where you begin to get things going on I believe...)

Although the oven clay is not really clay I have been impressed with what
can be done with it. I especially like the affect that mimics glass - I
cannot remember the name of the technique but for glass you take and do
layers of different colors of class (often pinching in the ball of glass
on one layer to then give the next layer different depths of color. When
you get enough layers of different colors and the glass is hot you have
two people with an iron rod attached to both ends of the glass run like
hell away from one another. This stretches the glass out to thin rods
that can the be sliced and used to 'tile' a piece of glass that is then
blown. It is much easier to do with the synthetic clay....

pulling cane



http://www.jaedworks.com/clayspot/po...aq/basics.html


--
"As democracy is perfected, the office of president represents, more and
more closely, the inner soul of the people. On some great and glorious
day the plain folks of the land will reach their heart's desire at last
and the White House will be adorned by a downright moron."

- H. L. Mencken (1880 - 1956)
"Piotrek_warszawa" wrote in message
om...
Thanks
Thats All I wanted to know.
Oh one more thing...
I noticed that I have non typical oven :-)
My oven has 300oC (temperature counter ends on 300 i guess that it can
make some more heat ;-) )

"Charles Spitzer" wrote in message
...

"DKat" wrote in message
...
That would be 572F and most ovens that I know of go to 500F.... still it
would not do anything but dry out the pot on most clays potters use (600
is where you begin to get things going on I believe...)

Although the oven clay is not really clay I have been impressed with
what
can be done with it. I especially like the affect that mimics glass - I
cannot remember the name of the technique but for glass you take and do
layers of different colors of class (often pinching in the ball of glass
on one layer to then give the next layer different depths of color.
When
you get enough layers of different colors and the glass is hot you have
two people with an iron rod attached to both ends of the glass run like
hell away from one another. This stretches the glass out to thin rods
that can the be sliced and used to 'tile' a piece of glass that is then
blown. It is much easier to do with the synthetic clay....

pulling cane

And what is the finished piece called? They used to do paperweights with
them as well.... Looks kinda like an old fashion quilt.

"jedi" wrote in message
...

"Charles Spitzer" wrote in message
...

"DKat" wrote in message
...
That would be 572F and most ovens that I know of go to 500F.... still
it
would not do anything but dry out the pot on most clays potters use
(600
is where you begin to get things going on I believe...)

Although the oven clay is not really clay I have been impressed with
what
can be done with it. I especially like the affect that mimics glass -
I
cannot remember the name of the technique but for glass you take and do
layers of different colors of class (often pinching in the ball of
glass
on one layer to then give the next layer different depths of color.
When
you get enough layers of different colors and the glass is hot you
have
two people with an iron rod attached to both ends of the glass run like
hell away from one another. This stretches the glass out to thin rods
that can the be sliced and used to 'tile' a piece of glass that is then
blown. It is much easier to do with the synthetic clay....

pulling cane

And what is the finished piece called? They used to do paperweights with
them as well.... Looks kinda like an old fashion quilt.

not quite. you make a brick or rod of glass somehow. you can either build it
up with rods, strips, frit, etc, then melt it together in a flame or kiln.
that's called a cane. attach a punty or grab it with plier-like tools on
each end. heat up in a flame and pull making it be very thin. pulling cane.
you then take the long rod, cut it into slices (saw, nippers, glass cutter,
etc). these slices are called millifiori. you then use these slices in
making other objects (paperweights, bowls, etc).

As far as I can tell from a search on pulling cane the glass style that I'm
talking about is called Millefiore or Murano glass. Thanks for the lead.
DK

http://store.yahoo.com/fossilflyimports/gisu.html

http://www.mcstx.com/beads.html

Millefiori, meaning "A Thousand Flowers" is small segments of differently
shaped and colored glass rods, laid close together and then fused into tiny
mosaics, each of them being unique. Each piece is a one-of-a-kind work of
art, entirely handmade.


"jedi" wrote in message
...

"Charles Spitzer" wrote in message
...

"DKat" wrote in message
...
That would be 572F and most ovens that I know of go to 500F.... still
it
would not do anything but dry out the pot on most clays potters use
(600
is where you begin to get things going on I believe...)

Although the oven clay is not really clay I have been impressed with
what
can be done with it. I especially like the affect that mimics glass -
I
cannot remember the name of the technique but for glass you take and do
layers of different colors of class (often pinching in the ball of
glass
on one layer to then give the next layer different depths of color.
When
you get enough layers of different colors and the glass is hot you
have
two people with an iron rod attached to both ends of the glass run like
hell away from one another. This stretches the glass out to thin rods
that can the be sliced and used to 'tile' a piece of glass that is then
blown. It is much easier to do with the synthetic clay....

pulling cane

And what is the finished piece called? They used to do paperweights with
them as well.... Looks kinda like an old fashion quilt.

pulling cane

And what is the finished piece called? They used to do paperweights with
them as well.... Looks kinda like an old fashion quilt.

not quite. you make a brick or rod of glass somehow. you can either build
it up with rods, strips, frit, etc, then melt it together in a flame or
kiln. that's called a cane. attach a punty or grab it with plier-like
tools on each end. heat up in a flame and pull making it be very thin.
pulling cane. you then take the long rod, cut it into slices (saw,
nippers, glass cutter, etc). these slices are called millifiori. you then
use these slices in making other objects (paperweights, bowls, etc).

Not quite what? When I was a child they used to make quilts from pieces of
fabric that were cut, shaped and formed around of all things on bottle caps.
These were pieced together and looked just like the pieces of glass works
I'm referring to that were around quite a bit at the same time.

For the glass pieces that I'm talking about the canes were cut into slices
that were put together much like you would form a pattern for a quilt. This
'grid' of glass pieces had a liquid glass 'ball' (yes I'm making the jargon
up because I can't remember what we called it) pressed onto it. You could
then leave it as a solid piece (paper weight) or blow it out as a bowl,
vase, etc.

http://users.ticnet.com/mikefirth/paperwts.htm#SETUP Look at the second
item down the page. Then look at the bottom of the page to see how it is
constructed.