Electric Kilns: Some Recent Advances You Should Not Ignore
Section: Firing, Subsection: General
Description
Electric firing is undergoing a renaissance among potters because of changing attitudes and new equipment.
Article
In the past electric kiln users felt somewhat like second class citizens in a ceramic community that idolized high temperature gas firing. While it is true that exciting developments in gas kiln equipment have made this medium even more compelling, the electric kiln has undergone a bit of a renaissance in the past five years and most of the cons have been erased. Here are a few examples:
Electronic controllers: If you don't have one get one. Case closed. Electric firing is about consistency and control and these devices take that advantage much further. They work very very well and save energy also. Crystalline glazes for example were once the domain of a select few, but now they are simple because of these devices. Check the article in May 2000 Pottery Making Illustrated magazine for a good example.
ITC: This coating material can be applied to elements and the insides of kilns to give electric kilns better durability and economy. ITC coated elements last many times longer and they can withstand reduction firing!
Electric Reduction: Nils Lou, author of "The Art of Firing" has done hundreds of firings using a simple bunsen burner under his ITC-coated electric kiln. It works and it works well.
"Stoneware" is simply dense and strong non-pourous ceramic. It is no longer synonymous with cone 10, it can be made as low as cone 1. However making attractive and fitted glazes at low and medium fire is more difficult. But with the recent proliferation of books on cone 6 electric firing for example, this is no longer true. The internet and glaze calculation software have also fostered the spread in glaze technology. Despite what anyone tells you, matte and gloss effects of most types can be done in electric firing.
Where do you start to 'catch this wave'? Not wanting to be biased, let me give you two web sites that I made: Go to http://digitalfire.com to learn about glazes. Go to http://axner.com to buy books, ITC, and controllers.
Authors
- Tony Hansen (Owner)
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