Tim Thornton Ceramics - Technical
Thanks for coming to the technical part of my web site.
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As an unregistered visitor, you just have access to brief snippets of information that I also publish on Instagram and Facebook once a week.
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What's Here?
This provides content that is primarily of interest to fellow potters.
As the content is all work in progress, whilst some pages are essentially complete, some may be incomplete or have sections with just draft notes, and some may not yet be written up.
Quick Views
Quick summaries on health and safety topics, as posted on Instagram and Facebook every Friday.
These are available to both registered and unregistered users.
Health and Safety
This deals with all of the issues regarding health and safety in the studio.
A significant proportion of the content is given over to the toxicity or otherwise of materials used in the studio, as there is a lot of misleading information here. Hazards of kilns and kiln firing are covered, clothes and protective equipment; and avoiding muscular and other damage to your body.
It doesn't cover any of the issues associated with having other people in your studio, whether staff or people you are teaching. Whilst the same health and safety issues apply, there are often additional regulatory and administrative issues that may need addressing in these circumstances.
Product Safety
This covers producing products that are safe for your customer.
Food safety is a major topic, looking at leaching from clays and glazes, what levels may be toxic, and how it can be minimised. Other issues for tableware include making pieces suitable for ovens, microwaves and dishwashers; crazing; and cutlery marking.
For outdoor pieces, it covers issues such as making glazes weatherproof, and making pieces frost resistant.
General issues such as ensuring pieces are strong and stable are also covered.
Wood Firing
Over the past few years I've been doing an increasing amount of wood firing, primarily at the Oxford University kilns. I've found it very hard to obtain technical information on kilns, the firing process, and the reactions involved - much of this seems to be transferred by word of mouth, and with a less technical and analytical approach than I tend to take. This documents my learning of wood fired techniques.
Themes of Life
These are my research notes for a project for an exhibition at Chapel Arts Centre, Andover, for which I'm making two pieces about the Royal Flying Corps and World War 1. The first casualty of the RFC died nearby, and came from Andover, where he is buried.