[Slooooooow.... I am going to push this along. Weird probably won't be going to that tower today. Nobody else knows how to run a kiln that large, but now that there's wood, he's not needed as the fire source. The anagama is intended to be wood fired anyway, it just needs a *whole lot* of wood. I'm gonna have him get *his* crew together, and get crackin on getting pots and bricks made.]
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Weird shook his head.
"Hugo's probably free. He said the tower was just a few miles away, so he should be fine, even with those bum legs. You might be able to scrounge up some haulers too. Really now, I gotta get busy. I've wasted enough time trying to find that fool eric to give him a piece of my mind... I gotta get busy."
He pointed toward the now larger, somewhat segregated releif and resource pitch laying out in the open on the lawn where smoked and dried fish bits were laying in piles on scavenged stone blocks, baking in the open in the hot sun.
"I dunno about you guys, but I like my food a bit less infested with bugs. We're real short on pots and barrels, like-- dangerously short. I'm gonna round up all the ceramicists I can cabbage, and get busy. You guys have fun now if you go see that tower."
He turned and nodded at the still snickering and giggling woman as she turned X's head side to side examining the handiwork and gave her a pleasant nod. "Ma'am."
And with that, he strode off.
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It took awhile, prying dwarves away from hauling logs when they could be making bricks, and learning to use the new large kiln, but finally he had rounded up a small gang of 6 ceramicists, icluding Rikod, who was looking much better today.
He had found Rikod examining the inside of the now cooled anagama. The dwarf had apparently been waiting there for him, since nobody else knew anything at all about how to run a kiln of that immense size.
They had talked for a few minutes, examined the inside for signs of heat stressing and cracking, and had been surprised and relieved, respectively, to find only minor hairline cracks in the now grey-white bare stoneware walls and floor of the kiln.
Weird had told Rikod to fill the terraced recesses on the kiln floor with sand from the river's edge, while he rounded up a firing gang.
That had been over an hour ago.
Now, weird, rikod, and 4 others who dabbled in ceramics but were really basically just haulers were busy loading nearly dried ware from the now dripping wet ice structure he had conjured around the pots the night before into the gaping maw of the opened kiln wall, and kicking the ice structure down, and throwing the bits into the river.
"It's really important how you position the ware inside the kiln.." he lectured while moving a greenware urn nearly as big as he was into position. Most of the dwarves didn't seem to interested, and just wanted to get the loading overwith so they could get back to hauling logs. Rikod was the only one really fascinated by the enormous community-sized kiln. As such, he was directing nearly the whole lecture to the ceramicists, and if the others picked up something useful by proxy, even better. "..you have to imagine the path the fire will make when it arcs and draws through the kiln. Anagama like this one are supposed to be wood fired, and ash-glaze the ware WHILE it is firing. That's why the bottom of the kiln is lined with sand. It helps hold the ware upright, but it also keeps dripping glaze from glueing pots to the kiln floor..."
"Why dd you have me put sand in then, if we aren't going to wood fire the kiln?" Asked Rikod, nestling his own large burden into the wall of pots his new necromantic work partner had drawn out on the sand. "Other than helping to position the pots that is..."
Weird smiled broadly.
"We're gonna salt glaze!" He beamed.
"Salt...glaze?" Came the confused and bewildered reply.
"Yes! Salt glaze!"
"Won't it just... wash off?"
Weird about fell into the greenware he was positioning with fits of laughter.
"No silly! The salt vaporizes when it enters the kiln. It doesn't stay salt-salt for very long!" He chortled, regaining his composure enough to take another hugely oversized pot from one of the loading gang. "It breaks down, and part of it sticks to the ware like late evening dew. When it does, it fluxes the surface of the ware, and causes it to melt just a little bit into a very thin layer of glass."
"So, its like a tin glaze, only ye don' paint i' on?.. an' i's salt inteada tin?"
Weird heaved the pot into its spot in the row, made sure it wasn't directly touching any others, and shimmied it a little to plant it in the sand before starting on the next one.
"Exactly. One of the benefits of salt firing a kiln, is that it will always slightly glaze any ware fired in it from that point on. You have to still add salt to the kiln during firing every so often, but even if you completely forget or run out, the wear will always be waterproof."
"Really naow? Tha's increadible! Buh'... where're we gonna get any salt?"
"Same place I got it last time I needed some. The ocean."
"But that's miles away!" Rikod complained.
"We only need a few pounds... I'll tell you how to make slipfire glaze on the way."
"Slipfire glaze? Ain' never heard o' it!"
"Course not. Its just a runny earthenware slip mixed with a fluxing agent that you dip bisque-ware into. Salt will do in a pinch, but it tends to bubble and craze. Borax is a better choice."
"Borax? We'd have te import 'at... we dunna have any 'ere..."
"Relax. We have a stoneware body to work with. Its high fire. We can just paint terra-sigilata slip from the earthware body on, and high fire it. Works just as good. You only need the flux to drop the firing temp and firing time."
"Terra.. whatta?"
Weird paused for a monent, and realized he was planting the last of the pots that he and Rikod can made the day before, so he dismissed the work crew.
"It's clay slip, that you mix with lots and lots of water, and let settle. You pour off the top once it does, and let that settle. Then you pour off the top again, and let it dry into fine slip. Only the finest of the fine in terra sigilata. It holds images and imprints fantastically well, and is used as a decorative layer over harder ware. Stuff like decorative bricks. The fine texture of the stuff helps it melt easier when used to make glazes. Its labor intensive, but otherwise inexpensive as a glaze."
"How'ya know all this shite?" Rikod asked jovially.
"I'm a wizard, I get around."
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Topic: If Bay Forum were a Mountain Hall, continued... FULL DISCLOSURE (Read 266647 times)