I recently purchased a small Rohde ceramic test kiln from Keramikos. In addition to congratulations on ” the little one” :-), I was also asked: why buy a test kiln? After all, I can also fire my work in my larger (150 liter) kiln.
A good question and a nice reason to list my reasons for my investment in this blog. I came up with this top three and one to get rid of my kiln…
Continue reading Top three reasons to buy a small ceramic test kiln (and one to get rid of it)Stoneware ceramics were developed in Europe around 1400 in the Lower Rhine area. In cities/villages around Raeren, Cologne and Höhr-Grenzhausen all the ingredients were available. Suitable clay in the ground, wood for fuel and enough technical knowledge to fire the clay at an increasingly higher temperatures.
So in today’s Germany, they have more than 600 years of experience with stoneware. We can therefore take the folk wisdom of this type of ceramics seriously:
“Steingut ist Zeug, Steinzeug ist Gut”
In translation: “Stein” = Stone, “Gut”=Good and “Zeug” = Bad. In short, this German saying teaches us that: “Stone-Good” is Bad and “Stone-Bad” is Good? … Uh, how about that?
Continue reading What is Stoneware Ceramics? Is it Good or Bad?Tired of your old body? Try a new one! KBJ Stoneware, a new clay body from Valentine is more than worth a try. A few weeks ago I received a bag when I picked up my order of raw materials from my supplier Keramikos. I immediately wanted to sink my teeth into it ….. well, in a matter of speaking.
KBJ stands for Keith Brymer Jones, yes, the one from the Great Pottery Throw Down. Valentine Clays is a renowned clay producer from Stoke-On-Trent, at the heart of the English ceramics history.
Together they have developed a new “off white stoneware body” for throwing and hand forming. A clay mixed with Keith’s tears. A silky soft clay that melts under your hands, but can be fired from 1120 to 1280 C.
Do you ever have the feeling you are ready for something new? Does your old body no longer feel like it used to? Then try a new one!
Continue reading Tired of your old body? Get a new one! KBJ stonewareToday I reserved for writing a blog and finishing a few ceramic owls. Of course not “finishing” as a butcher, but just the opposite of bringing them life. Not a blog about the design process, but the physical “making”. After all, if you are a maker 🙂 .
A while ago I shared a few photos of my making process on Insta . I received some nice responses. So I thought it would be a good idea to explain the physical process in this blog using photos and text.
In short I would like to show you how I work.
Making ceramics is magical, ceramics mystifications certainly are not. Ceramics and glazes are surrounded by a cloud of thick black smoke. And I do not mean the smoke when firing raku.
Theory behind practice is often unnecessarily made very complicated. Because of ignorance, to impress? I have no idea, but it has always frustrated my quest for clear knowledge. Time for unmasking.
In this blog I grab three ceramics mystifications by the clay.. euh horns.
This week a blog about a new book by Deanna Ranlett “Off the Shelf, outside the Box”.
I fasten my bike on the Bloemgracht, Amsterdam. On the corner I can score at my dealer, in an old building with a nice glass facade. I step in, my heart rate accelerates, my blood pressure rises. I can’t pull my eyes from all the mysterious powders in many colors on the shelves. Here dreams are fulfilled.
It was in the early years 90 of the last century. And no, it wasn’t a “headshop” where I went in. It was the old shop of Ve-Ka in Amsterdam. Of these powders you do not hallucinate, but you will be happy…… when it is fired in a ceramic kiln.
As a ceramic maker, “the recycling of clay is part of my work process“. To describe it a bit less professional: “fooling around with clay“, is not only throwing behind the wheel. There are also less ambitious activities such as “flinging with mud“…
Clay recycling means in practice, that everything that goes wrong on the potter’s wheel, I “fling in the clay bin”. And when the clay bin is overflowing I need to get started…
Stoneware clay is is the material which I use to form my ceramic sculptures on the wheel. And I’m not the only one who has daily contact with this natural product. An average human uses in his lifetime according to the BKRI about 18 tons (18,000 kg) of clay. It is difficult to make an accurate estimate, but that it is much, I am more than willing to believe.
Clay is the main component of plates, bowls and tiles (“fine ceramics”), for bricks, roof tiles and drainpipes (“coarse ceramics”) and as auxiliary raw material in among others soaps, toothpaste and cosmetics.
In addition, clay in modern times is used in technical ceramics such as implants (bio-ceramics), insulators and superconductors (electro-ceramics) and in various ceramic composite materials (such as solar cells and heat shields on the space shuttle).
So a life without clay is not only unthinkable for me. Where does all this clay come from? For this blog, I went on a journey to the source.
