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It fires very evenly from top to bottom and front to back. We have used it for quality control to fire thousands of porosity and shrinkage test bars to monitor the maturity of the clay bodies. Oh, we also fire pottery in this!
The mural is made from unglazed stained stoneware tiles, each cut to shape. The inscription reads: "THE DOCTOR OF TODAY TAKES HIS PLACE AT THE HEAD OF A VERY LONG LINE OF DISTINGUISHED PREDECESSORS; THE KNOWLEDGE AND TRADITION THAY MAKES THE MEDICAL PROFESSION WHAT IT IS TODAY GROWS FROM
THE GREAT DOCTORS OF THE NINETEENTH CENTURY AND OF MEDIEVAL EUROPE, OF GREECE, OF EGYPT AND BEYOND - LOST IN THE PAST. THIS MOSAIC PAYS TRIBUTE TO THAT VAST HISTORY."
This is housed on the lower floor of the Medicine Hat public library. It is a testimony to the skill Luke Lindoe, this heavy piece has no visible cracks. Made at the time Plainsman Clays was just starting. Luke did not have a high-temperature red burning clay to be able to make the warm colors of H440, for example (this employs the clays available in the I-XL Brick suite of raw materials). He did have materials mined around Elkwater, two of them he could have used were 45R, a low-fire red similar to BGP, and 45D, a medium-fire plastic material. These types of materials would have limited firing temperature to around cone 2. But Luke would also have been aware of the more refractory clays around Ravenscrag, Sask and could have been processing them himself - that would have enabled a high-temperature body for gas firing in a reduction atmosphere.
Articles |
Building a Lindoe Downdraft Gas Kiln
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Glossary |
Reduction Firing
A method of firing stoneware where the kiln air intakes and burners are set to restrict or eliminate oxygen in the kiln such that metallic oxides convert to their reduced metallic state. |
Glossary |
Kiln Firing
All types of ceramic are fired in a kiln to cement particles together to produce a hard and water and temperature resistant product. |
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