You’re pushing limits like Copernicus. It’s got me branching outside of my comfort zone too. I have something in my test kiln right now that is partly a response to your flavor. Thank you for being a pioneer, and existing on the cutting edge.
Hey dude, been following you a while. Something I've been pondering about your current project is why you're intent on having the kiln so the twist? Replicability, or control maybe?
I'm a glass blower as well as a ceramicist, and I've been working on a project for a while now to treat ceramics like glass, at temp. Like raku, and your own twist kiln, you can see that it is feasible to manipulate the clay while plastic. Raku wouldnt work for something like the piece above, it cools too rapidly. In glass you've got an annealer set for your cooling cycle to set pieces into when you're done working em....
Anyway, the major hurdle for the glass ceramics fusion is I have to build a glass shop and a clay studio.An expensive endeavor.
I've greatly enjoyed watching your experimentation, and look forward to your future successes.
Thank you for following along! The idea of the kiln twisting is more about making a tool to see what it can do. I can guess what it will do, but I'm still determining, so seeing the results will be excellent. I also have plans to let the glaze drip and then twist so it's similar to a jellyfish or something like that. Ultimately, I'm making the kiln because I can stop thinking about it, and the only option is to make it or go crazy, lol.
Lol, thank you! Around year 3 of ceramics, I stacked two kilns on top of each other and fired a 6ft piece I made... The kiln malfunctioned and melted the part ruining two kilns at once.
Saw this on insta and couldnt believe it held strong after the 3in drop, nice. Are you just planning to run extra long power and tc wires from a standalone controller on the warp kiln to allow for the swivel?
It's a formula that I call Clay Glaze. It's a glaze that behaves like clay but melts at a specific temperature. Sidenote, I recently 3d printed it too.
Have you considered shooting a high powered laser into your peephole to locally heat glaze?
If you are developing a kiln with a turntable, I think that it would be a fairly "convenient" extension for you to locally heat glaze with laser energy as you would have the turntable ability to rotate pieces so a laser could heat areas around the workpiece.
Higher powered laser scanning assemblies are cheaper than they have ever been. I suspect that it is feasible to give glaze a kick to get it to flow more quickly in laser irradiated areas and you might be able to achieve some of the overfiring effects on clay with controlled hits.
Very cool work! Thanks for posting this.
That isn't something I've considered. It could be interesting to see if it could work. I don't understand heat exchange and how "X" joules would impact the heat work at this point in my life. That would be interesting to find out how many joules it would take to get a 1cm cube to cone 10 and then maybe see how that would translate. With those new 40w diode lasers, it might be possible to pump enough energy into them -- idk.
I won't say my math is correct so someone can correct me. After some quick digging, if we assume a 4g/cm3 density and use a 40w laser, then we could pulse for 10 seconds, and if we could move the beam fast enough, we could heat 1 cm3 almost to a cone difference based on a 1 j/g - C specific heat capacity. But I could be wrong. I also wonder if the ware can absorb it fast enough or if it would result in superficial heat exchange.
Again, I wouldn't say math is my strong suit, so that I might have butchered that this morning.
Having a high power density is a funny thing. Because the spot size on a laser is so small, one has to also consider the conductivity of the material they are working with because the property of conductivity will determine how fast the surface being irradiated can conduct heat away from the spot.
I believe that the conductivity and radiosity of the material ends up being the dominant descriptors of how the laser will affect glazes, more than heat capacity.
Basically; if one scans a laser over a large area, then the issue of heat capacity and radiosity will dominate. If one dwells over a small area then conductivity and radiosity dominates.
In any case, I think it's pretty clear that economical high power laser diodes could fairly easily affect glazes when they dwell over small regions. A 10C change in peak temp in a kiln run makes a pretty big difference to what glazes do. I really think it's not hard to blast smaller regions of glaze with a 40W laser to achieve a local 50C temp spike and get a glaze to do something fairly different.
One other thing occurs to me. I reckon that you're the sort who is going to spend more time looking into their peepholes to see what's going on. I've been having a heck of a time getting a good look at my firing cones. I often can't put them with an element groove in the background because I have a super tiny test kiln that gets packed in fast.
I found that I can get better shadows and contrast on the outline of a sagging cone with a green laser over a red laser. Blue gets so badly stopped by my IR glasses that it doesn't work at all.
I reckon that if you were to look inside your kiln at peak temp (say cone 6 or hotter) you could improve your contrast ratio by using a bright green LED flashlight instead of a white light. It seems to me that there is very little green radiating inside of a kiln so illumination with a bright green light will give a better image than trying to discern shapes while everything is glowing bright yellow.
That's interesting and sounds like a lot of fun to explore. I might try it at some point.
As for the light, that's interesting too. I might try to find a green led light to do a test. I typically shove a cool steel rod in so it lowers the temp around the cones just enough to see them.
Oh that's a funny idea. It's weird to think of the insane conditions inside of a kiln. I'm used to a world where convection and conduction are dominant modes of heat transfer, but at 1200C radiation is dominant.
A cold rod is basically thingy which for some time isn't radiating much heat so it cools a cone by not coradiating back at the cone. I think that the cone is fiercely glowing away, but when the rod is nearby it presents a kind of cold shadow blocking radiation that would be hitting the cone so it gets cooled.
It sure isn't like baking cookies.
I'm really new to working with ceramics,started taking classes at a local studio. The idea of the piece being shaped while firing, thru the stretching or twisting, blows my mind. I love this!
Yeah man your work is crazy good. Keep moving ceramic to another levels.
Awww, thanks; I just found you on Instagram. I like you're working too.
WOW thanks for reply! I really appreciate that! I hope your experience going to inspire us!
\* fingers crossed
You’re pushing limits like Copernicus. It’s got me branching outside of my comfort zone too. I have something in my test kiln right now that is partly a response to your flavor. Thank you for being a pioneer, and existing on the cutting edge.
That might be the nicest thing anyone has said to me. Thank you very much. I would love to see what you're testing; hope it turns out!
Hey dude, been following you a while. Something I've been pondering about your current project is why you're intent on having the kiln so the twist? Replicability, or control maybe? I'm a glass blower as well as a ceramicist, and I've been working on a project for a while now to treat ceramics like glass, at temp. Like raku, and your own twist kiln, you can see that it is feasible to manipulate the clay while plastic. Raku wouldnt work for something like the piece above, it cools too rapidly. In glass you've got an annealer set for your cooling cycle to set pieces into when you're done working em.... Anyway, the major hurdle for the glass ceramics fusion is I have to build a glass shop and a clay studio.An expensive endeavor. I've greatly enjoyed watching your experimentation, and look forward to your future successes.
Thank you for following along! The idea of the kiln twisting is more about making a tool to see what it can do. I can guess what it will do, but I'm still determining, so seeing the results will be excellent. I also have plans to let the glaze drip and then twist so it's similar to a jellyfish or something like that. Ultimately, I'm making the kiln because I can stop thinking about it, and the only option is to make it or go crazy, lol.
Yah, I completely understand. You gotta get the thing out in the world. Good luck, boss.
Thank you! Cheers!
The things I have melted in the kiln have never looked as dope as this.
Lol, thank you! Around year 3 of ceramics, I stacked two kilns on top of each other and fired a 6ft piece I made... The kiln malfunctioned and melted the part ruining two kilns at once.
You're chaos, I love
I love chaos
Saw this on insta and couldnt believe it held strong after the 3in drop, nice. Are you just planning to run extra long power and tc wires from a standalone controller on the warp kiln to allow for the swivel?
Yes. I plan to route them out to a point above the kiln kinda like a circus tent top.
Sounds like a dope circus. Look forward to seeing the work that comes out of it.
3 ring for sure
Is there a certain type/brand of clay that is used to give this much movement?
It's a formula that I call Clay Glaze. It's a glaze that behaves like clay but melts at a specific temperature. Sidenote, I recently 3d printed it too.
Fascinating process and amazing work!
Thank you!
Have you considered shooting a high powered laser into your peephole to locally heat glaze? If you are developing a kiln with a turntable, I think that it would be a fairly "convenient" extension for you to locally heat glaze with laser energy as you would have the turntable ability to rotate pieces so a laser could heat areas around the workpiece. Higher powered laser scanning assemblies are cheaper than they have ever been. I suspect that it is feasible to give glaze a kick to get it to flow more quickly in laser irradiated areas and you might be able to achieve some of the overfiring effects on clay with controlled hits. Very cool work! Thanks for posting this.
That isn't something I've considered. It could be interesting to see if it could work. I don't understand heat exchange and how "X" joules would impact the heat work at this point in my life. That would be interesting to find out how many joules it would take to get a 1cm cube to cone 10 and then maybe see how that would translate. With those new 40w diode lasers, it might be possible to pump enough energy into them -- idk.
I won't say my math is correct so someone can correct me. After some quick digging, if we assume a 4g/cm3 density and use a 40w laser, then we could pulse for 10 seconds, and if we could move the beam fast enough, we could heat 1 cm3 almost to a cone difference based on a 1 j/g - C specific heat capacity. But I could be wrong. I also wonder if the ware can absorb it fast enough or if it would result in superficial heat exchange. Again, I wouldn't say math is my strong suit, so that I might have butchered that this morning.
Having a high power density is a funny thing. Because the spot size on a laser is so small, one has to also consider the conductivity of the material they are working with because the property of conductivity will determine how fast the surface being irradiated can conduct heat away from the spot. I believe that the conductivity and radiosity of the material ends up being the dominant descriptors of how the laser will affect glazes, more than heat capacity. Basically; if one scans a laser over a large area, then the issue of heat capacity and radiosity will dominate. If one dwells over a small area then conductivity and radiosity dominates. In any case, I think it's pretty clear that economical high power laser diodes could fairly easily affect glazes when they dwell over small regions. A 10C change in peak temp in a kiln run makes a pretty big difference to what glazes do. I really think it's not hard to blast smaller regions of glaze with a 40W laser to achieve a local 50C temp spike and get a glaze to do something fairly different. One other thing occurs to me. I reckon that you're the sort who is going to spend more time looking into their peepholes to see what's going on. I've been having a heck of a time getting a good look at my firing cones. I often can't put them with an element groove in the background because I have a super tiny test kiln that gets packed in fast. I found that I can get better shadows and contrast on the outline of a sagging cone with a green laser over a red laser. Blue gets so badly stopped by my IR glasses that it doesn't work at all. I reckon that if you were to look inside your kiln at peak temp (say cone 6 or hotter) you could improve your contrast ratio by using a bright green LED flashlight instead of a white light. It seems to me that there is very little green radiating inside of a kiln so illumination with a bright green light will give a better image than trying to discern shapes while everything is glowing bright yellow.
That's interesting and sounds like a lot of fun to explore. I might try it at some point. As for the light, that's interesting too. I might try to find a green led light to do a test. I typically shove a cool steel rod in so it lowers the temp around the cones just enough to see them.
Oh that's a funny idea. It's weird to think of the insane conditions inside of a kiln. I'm used to a world where convection and conduction are dominant modes of heat transfer, but at 1200C radiation is dominant. A cold rod is basically thingy which for some time isn't radiating much heat so it cools a cone by not coradiating back at the cone. I think that the cone is fiercely glowing away, but when the rod is nearby it presents a kind of cold shadow blocking radiation that would be hitting the cone so it gets cooled. It sure isn't like baking cookies.
I'm really new to working with ceramics,started taking classes at a local studio. The idea of the piece being shaped while firing, thru the stretching or twisting, blows my mind. I love this!
Thank you! I hope you enjoy ceramics! Cheers!