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Comment by Kathy Ransom on November 20, 2014 at 8:00am

I'm going to dial back my enthusiasm Jeff and resolve not to follow that yellow brick road!  The last 2-3 months I've been preparing work (cone 10 stoneware and porcelain) for salt and soda kilns -16 cu ft each at Medalta in Medicine Hat, Alberta).  Met with 4 other potters and we spent 5 days preparing our work, loading then firing the kilns.  I've always fired to cone 6, electric, oxidized so this was a new and wonderful experience.  I have some really nice pieces from this firing but it is so tough to narrow my focus and decide what type of work do I want to make, what clay, what firing (have a fairly new Scutt 1027 so that's kind of a given).  I want to specialize and am narrowing in on the work that makes me really happy, although I know there is sculpture in me that really wants to be expressed!  Seem to be trying to detour this discussion but does everyone struggle with this and how have you resolved it?

Comment by Jeff Poulter on November 19, 2014 at 11:42am

I get my moly from US pigment.  It's $30/lb so it's not the cheapest thing. It's biggest drawback is that it is very fugitive and goes straight from a solid to a vapor so when you fire it you have to contain it in the kiln so that it redeposits back on the ware on the way down and hopefully grows into crystals.  I think some of it stays in the glaze, cause it's not totally like fuming something.  It performs better in lead based glazes, but I am trying to get away from that.  I fire outside and would definitely not fire it indoors since it likes to escape.  Some have fired in saggars with great results, but I just shut my kiln up really tight before I hit 700c.  I have been having better luck refiring over other glazes with high iron such as aventurines and other glazes & underglazes with high concentrations of metal oxides.  Definitely not for functional ware, but all I do is decorative anyway.  jhp

Comment by Kathy Ransom on November 19, 2014 at 11:12am

Did not realize the base was frogskin Jeff but can certainly see it now.  I hadn't heard of these crystals before, is it a product you purchase, where and is it washed over any base glaze?

Comment by Denice E. Demuth on November 19, 2014 at 6:40am

I have never seen a up close picture of moly crystals before very interesting.  Denice

Comment by juli long on November 18, 2014 at 6:45am

Jeff,   glad you posted the close up photo.  I tried to enlarge your other picture and couldn't see the moly crystals.

Now I see what you were excited about!  Way to go.

Juli

Comment by Kathy Ransom on November 17, 2014 at 6:07pm

Wow, love the crystals.  They look like stars.

Comment by Robert Coyle on November 17, 2014 at 5:54pm

Thanks Jeff... Looks like you nailed it at least a few times.

Comment by Jeff Poulter on November 17, 2014 at 2:00pm

Moly crystals are a lot harder than regular macros since moly is so fugitive.  It goes from a solid into a gas and then has to re-deposit back on the glaze surface and grow into crystals.  And unlike macros which grow in the matrix and have specific temps at which they grow, I have been unable to find a sweet spot for moly crystal growth.  When I fire them, all I do is shut the kiln completely up before it hits 700c and leave it that way until the firing is done. jhp

Comment by Robert Coyle on November 17, 2014 at 1:46pm

looks fantastic Jeff. What's the trick to get the crystals???

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