Pottery, for Artists Craftsmen & Teachers Part 11

Table, strong and heavy.

Clay: white, red, buff.

Plaster.

Glaze materials.

Oxides, l.u.s.tres.

Under- and over-glaze colours.

Modelling tools, callipers.

Painter's outfit.

Brushes, straight-edges.

Sh.e.l.lac, beeswax, French chalk.

Gum arabic and tragacanth.

Glaze tubs, teak.

Sieves, glaze and slip, Nos. 80, 100, 120.

Buckets.

Bowls, enamelled and earthenware.

Small porcelain ball mill, hand or power.

Spray and pump (respirator).

Small outfit for carpentry.

Files, sheet iron, and zinc, wire and cutters, cords, sandpaper.

Benches and shelves ad lib., odd cupboards, chairs, etc., Shovels and slicer for firing, tongs for trials.

Two large tubs and rubber tubing.

Sand and flint.

Spurs, props, fire tiles.

Tile boxes.

Disc (emery) for grinding.

Small pestle and mortar.

Jugs and funnel.

Potter's knife, sponges.

Whirler.

Turning tools and lathe.

Temperature indicators.

Oil can, oil, waste.

Callipers and compa.s.s, rulers.

Most of this equipment has been previously described and needs no further comment.

The pot boards and brackets are simple but indispensable devices. The boards are about six feet long, iron shod or cross battened to prevent warping, and six or nine inches in width. The brackets of any serviceable kind are fixed to the wall at convenient distances. When throwing, turning, or glazing, the pots are stood on one of these boards to dry, and each board as filled is slipped onto the brackets. Thus the pots may be carried about to the kiln, drying cupboard, or glaze tubs without loss of time or frequent handling.

The table must be stout enough to withstand the heavy work of wedging and should have a top of hard wood. Teak or hard-wood glaze tubs have the advantage of not breaking either themselves or pots accidentally knocked against them. Further, some glazes stick badly to porcelain or enamel tubs.

EQUIPMENT FOR A SMALL POTTERY

In the small pottery plotted here, the equipment and arrangement were as follows:

An anthracite stove with the pipe running into the large room warmed the workshop in winter, but no wet or half-dry pots were left where the frost could get at them.

The glaze materials, oxides, colours, painting paraphernalia, finished pots, trials, and trial kiln were in the small room.

The wheel had a good top and side light.

The drying cupboard, plaster bin, and moulds were at the end nearest the stove; the clay bin, damp-box, and sink farthest away.

All the walls were copiously supplied with brackets and shelves and handy benches.

Outside, in a well-built lean-to, was the m.u.f.fle kiln for onglaze and l.u.s.tre decoration.

This was well bracketed and shelved for the biscuit, and here was done the glazing, handy for packing in the brick kiln just outside. This was protected from the weather and other lean-to's held the saggars, c.o.ke, and coal.

EQUIPMENT FOR SCHOOLS

The teacher with ample funds and a free hand will find the previous chapter all-sufficient, but in many cases the purchase of a kiln will nearly exhaust the allowance and the rest of the equipment becomes sketchy.

The indispensable appliances are as follows:

A kiln, with fire tiles or shelves, props, spurs, and stilts, etc., for packing. A good clay bin and sieve for slip (No. 80) with a tub and two pails.

Scales and weights, pestle and mortar and glaze lawn (No. 100), shot for weights.

Plaster, for drying bats and working discs.

Large drip pan and three round pans.

Several jugs and bowls.

Spoons (wooden), knives, and big brushes.

Oil, gum, boards, strips, rolling pin.

Hammer, saw, iron straight-edge, sponges.

Gla.s.s slab and muller, palette knife and brushes for painting.

An atomizer or spray pump.

Glaze materials:

Kaolin, China stone, flint, silver sand, whiting, felspar, borax.

A supply of ground pitchers and grog, cones.

Metallic oxides:

Tin, white, oxide of, iron, copper, manganese, cobalt, etc.

Under-glaze colours to taste.

Gla.s.s jars with lids to contain materials. Gummed labels, India ink.

For a school in the country or where ground is available, a kiln like the one shown at p. 164 should be practicable. It costs very little to build or to fire. Next comes the question of the clay. This is one of the most abundant of nature's materials, and almost any river bank or creek will supply clay of some kind. Any sort of clay near to hand should be thoroughly tested before going to other or distant sources.