My Photo Booth

My wife Leah mentioned something about my inexpensive but effective "photobooth" on a pottery forum somewhere and it has struck the interest of a few people.

Hi Cody,
I read your reply about the photobooth and I would love to hear more about it and how you set it up. I'm a tile artist from Israel and I would love to be able to take better photos of my work for my website. Thanks a lot and good luck with your work.

Hi, I am new here and while browsing discussions I saw the "drawer" solution. I would like to know how that works. It sounds creative :).



Here's how it works:


I went to the thrift store and bought a really cheap old dresser. The dresser is 48" tall, 34" wide and 18" deep. Then I went to the hardware store and bought a sheet of masonite that is 4' by 8' and 1/4" thick. While at the hardware shore I also bought a small can of flat gray paint and two lamp kits. A lamp kit usually comes as a bag full of parts.

First I took the drawers of the dresser out one of which I will be using later. Then I turned the dresser on it's side so that it is now 34" tall and 48" wide. As you might have guessed I painted the masonite gray with a rolling style paint brush. I screwed the masonite to the wall about 8' off the ground and then I screwed it to what is now the top of the dresser. I placed the dresser away from the wall that the masonite is screwed at my determined distance. I determined that distance according to what kind of curve I wanted the masonite to have.

The Drawer:
I drilled two holes, one in each side of the drawer, which I then ran my lamp parts through so that I had a two places on the inside of the drawer to screw in a light bulb. The bulbs I used are full spectrum bulbs which means that the light is more like natural sunlight and doesn't have any kind of yellow tint to it. I covered the inside of the drawer with white paper to help reflect light.


Finally I hung my drawer light from the ceiling. I attached cables, with hooks on them, on either side of the drawer. Then I hung chains down from a stud in the ceiling. This way I am able to move my light up or down so I get the perfect amount of overhead light on the piece I am shooting.



Although this worked good I found I was having some dark spots behind the piece, so I got creative with some tin foil. I made a tin foil lamp shade for an old lamp that I had. I set this lamp to the right side of my photobooth. Keeping the light turned on I adjusted the tin foil so that it would fill in any remaining shadows. I also put some tin foil on the wall to the left of my photobooth to reflect back the light that was coming from my floor lamp with the tin foil shade.

My Camera:
I have a Canon Power Shot 610. It is not the best camera in the world but it's not bad for a cheap little 5 megapixel. I use the built in macrolense for my camera. If you have a Canon just push the button that makes the little flower icon show up. I never use a flash. and I either use a tripod or try and keep real still when shooting. Dave Hupp says: "Manual focus your camera. Manually adjust your camera's exposure." I put the camera on auto and I adjust the exposure afterwards using the basic little photo program that came with my computer. I probably should learn to manual focus my camera. I'll have to get around to that.

I hope I have explained this alright. If anyone has any further questions please feel free to email.

*Special thanks to Master Potter Rhue Bruggeman for teaching me the art of the cheap photo booth.

Another Fund Raiser for Emme

Emme Ek, a 4th Grader at Forest Hills Elementary, was diagnosed with Medulloblastoma, a cancerous brain tumor.

Emme has been at Doernbecher Hospital for the last month enduring many surgeries to remove the high-risk tumor.
Eventually, she will have chemotherapy and radiation treatments. Emme's mom, Nicole, has left her job at West Linn Hairport, to care for Emme at the hospital and is uncertain when she will be able to return to work. Emme's big brother, Austin, a sophomore at Lake Oswego High School, also has been at his sister's side.

It's times like these when our community must come together to help a family that needs and is grateful for our support.

This is the second fun raiser for Emme. This is a good chance to help out a family that really needs it. Some of the pottery that my wife and I have donated was not auctioned off at the last fundraiser (see pics at this link), instead It will be auctioned off at a fund raiser taking place tomorrow night. Hope to see you there.

Where and where?

At The Hawthorn Theater 503-223-7100

1507 Se 39th Ave Portland, OR 97214

Thursday December 3rd starting at 6:00pm

There will be 5 live bands playing at this fundraiser. $10 at the door. So buy some cool homegrown Oregon art, listen to some music, have a drink, and donate to a good cause!


If you can't make it to the fundraiser and you still wanna help you can check out www.gooddeeds.org to find out where to send donations.

The CodyO Show "Raku-ing Jars"

The quest for the perfect white crackle:

This picture is an example of one of the best white crackles that I was ever able to achieve. There are many different variants that can cause you to get a good or bad white crackle. Sometimes you get a few big dark cracks, sometimes you get a lot of smaller spiderweb like cracks, and sometimes you get not cracks at all.*

I wish I was taking meticulous notes when I made the jar in this picture, but at the time I figured it would be easy to reproduce the same results. How wrong I was. Oh well. Now I think I will start a series of CodyO Shows trying different techniques to achieve "the perfect white crackle". Ya'll can learn with me.

In this episode of "The CodyO Show" I will be spraying my jar to encourage cracks then I will be reintroducing oxygen into the post fire reduction chamber in one minute intervals (a process known as "burping"):




What did we learn?

The Bad: This method of spraying and burping did not get the cracks that I was looking for. This may have been because I let the pot cool down too much before I put it in the combustibles. It may also have been because when I burped it, I let it flame up too much rather than just letting it smoke real well.

The Good: I was able to solve a problem that I was previously having were I was cracking the clay body instead of just the glaze. This was a durability problem that was keeping me from being able to sell these jars which are in such high demand right now. I was having this problem because I had to bring my kiln up to 1800 degrees to melt the glaze. Pulling the pottery out at this point was too much thermal shock for the clay body. I remedied this by first bringing the kiln up to 1800 then dropping it back down, and not pulling the jars til about 1700, thus having less thermal shock.

Next Time: Next time on "The CodyO Show" we will try our luck with the tried and tested method of blowing on the pot to encourage cracks in the glaze (instead of spraying it with water). I think I will also burp it but I'm not gonna let it flame up as much. I'm just gonna to go for tons of smoke. See ya next time :)

* Remember, you can always click on any pictures in my blog to view them closer. You will find this helpful for examining the various types of crack formations on the three different jars I have shown in this post.

Kiln Conversion Questions

I got a great question from a fellow potter:

Cody,
Thanks for the step by step you did on the conversion of your electric to gas. I'm about to start the same process now and would like to ask you about a million questions (burner size, propane usage, pressure, burner location, etc). Anyway, would appreciate your feedback if you have time. thanks,

Here was my response:

For a burner I use the MR750 burner and pressure regulator combo such as the one shown at this link: http://www.wardburner.com/burnersparts/rakuburners.html

I use a 9 gallon propane tank. This size tank is the smallest tank that I am able to use to bring my kiln up to temperature. I am usually almost out of gas when the kiln reaches temp. My propane tank is also the biggest tank that I think I would be able to carry when it is full of propane. These two factors are what brought me to the decision to buy this size tank. A larger tank might be nice for you if you are in a situation where you don't have to carry your tank far, or you have a hand truck or something.

The burner location is about an inch away from the hole in the kiln. I prop it up on cinder blocks. you can kinda see it on the first pic at the top, and third pic from the bottom on this page: http://web.mac.com/codyo2/Site/My_Kiln.html

If you have any other questions feel free to ask I am glad to help. I would love to know how it works out for you. Maybe you will have some feedback that will help me, I am also kinda new at this.

CodyO

Have a Frightful Thanksgiving...

...And a Happy Halloween.

That's right it's nearing thanksgiving and we're still working on jack-o-lanterns. This unglazed jack-o-lantern is the one that I made in "the CodyO Show Halloween special #1". My wife Leah carved it into a scary jack-o-lantern. Who would have thought that such a kind hearted sweet woman like Leah would be able to imagine such scary faces to carve into all these pumpkins that I make? All the pumpkins in the picture below were made by me and carved into scary monsters by My wife Leah.

Stay tuned, I will be firing the newest jack-o-lantern in an up coming episode of "The CodyO Show". Maybe I will still be doing Halloween stuff for Christmas.

More pumpkin posts

If you haven't seen: I have also done a video on making jack-o-lanterns, I have done a general update after the video, I have answered emails about making pumpkins, I have received a picture of a jack-o-lantern that someone made after watching The CodyO Show. I have shown you a pumpkin that my wife and I made in 2008, I have thrown a 25 pound pumpkin on a potters wheel wearing a zombie mask, and I have raku fired a jack-o-lantern wearing a zombie mask.

Fundraiser for Emme

Emme Ek, a 4th Grader at Forest Hills Elementary, was diagnosed with Medulloblastoma, a cancerous brain tumor.

Emme has been at Doernbecher Hospital for the last month enduring many surgeries to remove the high-risk tumor.
Eventually, she will have chemotherapy and radiation treatments. Emme's mom, Nicole, has left her job at West Linn Hairport, to care for Emme at the hospital and is uncertain when she will be able to return to work. Emme's big brother, Austin, a sophomore at Lake Oswego High School, also has been at his sister's side.

It's times like these when our community must come together to help a family that needs and is grateful for our support.

Patrick Noe has helped organize a fundraiser to help out with a little monetary support for Emme and her family. He has gotten bunch of us together who are members of the Oregon Potters Association to donate some of our work to be auctioned or raffled off with all the money going to Emme's family's to help pay for their expenses.



My wife Leah and I have donated the pottery shown in the picture above. Going from left to right we have; My salt fired vase, Leah's horse hair pot, my Raku fired jar with chalkboard, and my pit fired vase. There will also be lots of great pottery from the other talented members of the Oregon Potters Association. Did I mention that there will also be LIVE BLUES MUSIC. So buy some cool homegrown Oregon art, listen to some music, have a drink, and donate to a good cause!

When and Where?

At the Trail's End Saloon on Sunday (11/15)

1320 Main Street

Oregon City, OR 97045

503-656-3031

A benefit honoring "Emme." This courageous little 10 year old
girl is being treated for a brain tumor. The benefit will begin
at 1:00pm with a 7 band line-up followed by an ALL STAR JAM at
night. Raffle with prizes all day! The cover is $5 at the door.

If you can't make it to the fundraiser and you still wanna help you can check out www.gooddeeds.org to find out where to send donations.

The CodyO Show "Zombie Raku" Halloween Special #2

This episode of "The CodyO Show" was filmed on Halloween night. I was overcome with holiday spirit and I decided to bust out the zombie mask again. The piece I am firing is the jack-o-lantern from the very popular CodyO Show episode #1, where I first showed the technique of making wheel thrown jack-o-lanterns. Those of you who watched this Jack-o-lantern's birth can now watch it being finalized.



The "Raku" glaze that I use for our jack-o-lanterns is highly metallic. It responds dramatically to the post fire reduction process (also known as Raku). As you saw in the video; I pull the glowing hot pottery out of the kiln and placed it into a separate chamber (in this case a trash can) full of combustible materials (in this case newspaper). When the newspaper burns, flames dance across the the jack-o-lantern. The flames, depending on where they hit that metallic glaze, are what create the different array of colors across the piece. What is really happening is the metallic glaze decides on what color it wants to based on how much oxygen is in it's proximity. The flames dancing across the jack-o-lantern eat up the oxygen in variable amounts all over the piece, creating random colors.


Take a look at the three scary jack-o-lanterns. My wife and I have made about one each year. Here we have 2007 on the left, 2008 on the right, and the recently fired 2009 in the middle. With the exception of the stem on the newest pumpkin, all three pieces have the same glaze. You can see how each one of them has their own unique array of colors. This was totally dependent on what the flame did and, for the most part, out of my control. Make sure to click on the above picture so you can get a close up view. You will see that some of the brighter spots on the pumpkin in the middle are a perfect copper.

More pumpkin posts

If you haven't seen: I have also done a video on making jack-o-lanterns, I have done a general update after the video, I have answered emails about making pumpkins, I have received a picture of a jack-o-lantern that someone made after watching The CodyO Show. I have shown you a pumpkin that my wife and I made in 2008, and I have thrown a 25 pound pumpkin on a potters wheel wearing a zombie mask.

The CodyO Show Halloween Special

Happy Halloween

That's right people, three days til Halloween so it's time to release the long awaited Halloween special edition of "The CodyO Show'. On this episode you will see me throwing a bigger version of my thrown pumpkins than the one that I did last time I showed you how to make pumpkins on a potters wheel. This time I use 25 pounds instead of 5.

Also I was overcome with holiday spirit in this episode, so I decided to dress up like a zombie. And given the fact that I would look pretty ridiculous talking and explaining dressed up like a zombie on world wide television, I decided that I would just grunt and make zombie sounds instead.

Hope you enjoy the show and happy Halloween!







More Pumpkin Posts:

If you haven't seen it; I have also done a video on making jack-o-lanterns, I have done a general update after the video, I have answered emails about making pumpkins, I have received a picture of a jack-o-lantern that someone made after watching The CodyO Show and I have shown you a pumpkin that my wife and I made in 2008.

Horse Hair Pots with Leah

In this episode of "The CodyO Show" we have a guest appearance with my wife Leah. She will be showing you how she gets these cool looking black lines on her wheel thrown porcelain vases using horse hair.

When the horse hair is placed on the glowing hot piece of pottery, the carbon released from the burning horse hair is trapped inside the clay body leaving a perfect silhouette of where the horse hair was. It also leaves a sort of shadow trailing away from the silhouette. Horse hair is ideal because it is so thick. I don't think human hair would work. This effect looks great on porcelain because of the nice contrast between black and white.

Check out how it is done!

The Pumpkin of Halloween's Past

Digging through the Halloween box I found this Jack-o-lantern that my wife and I made in Halloween of 2008. Once again, I just made the pumpkin. It was my wife, with the wild imagination, who turned it into this really creepy looking jack-o-lantern. Pretty scary eh? and those lips look really chapped.


From a top view it looks like this jack-o-lantern has blond hair with surfer bangs. This is because with the raku process; the lid of this jack-o-lantern was taken from the kiln and put into a trash can full of newspaper where it would smolder and create different colors according to which side of the piece smoldered more. This was also done with the rest of the jack-o-lantern, however the lid was put into the trash can full of newspaper first. This meant that it was much hotter when it started smoldering than the rest of the jack-o-lantern.


I have found that when I raku hotter I get more gold, red, yellow and orange colors and when I raku colder I get more blue, purple, and maroon. This piece ended up getting a nice contrast between all those colors.

More pumpkin links:

If you haven't seen it; I have also done a video on making jack-o-lanterns, I have done a general update after the video, I have answered emails about making pumpkins, and I have received a picture of a pumpkin that someone made after watching The CodyO Show.

Kiln Firing 10/4/09

Hooray! Another successful kiln firing! That's right people. I don't need no 220 watt outlet with no 50 amps going to it. I GOT FIRE! and what a beautiful thing fire is. :) It lives, It consumes, it produces byproduct, It dies. Same as we do. Fire could almost be classified as alive.....But... anyway......it took some trial and error to try and figure this modified kiln of mine but I think I am finally starting to get it dialed in (for bisque anyway).

In the picture below you can see the top shelf with the pyrometric cones on all four sides of the shelf. The flame comes in at the bottom right of the picture then circles counterclockwise upwards. I space my pottery out more loosely in my gas kiln for this bisque firing than I would if I had an electric kiln with heating coils.This picture is good science because when attempting to get a perfectly even firing I need to consider #1 how even my kiln fires according to it's design, #2 how even my kiln fires according to how fast or slow the kiln was brought to temperature and #3 how the pottery was spaced out (which matters a lot when you think about the radiant heat that each piece is producing). Lets think about those three factors when we look at the picture below:

And here is the Bottom shelf. There are two types of gas kilns: An updraft kiln meaning the heat flows from the bottom to the top and a down draft kiln where the top is sealed and there is an exit hole near the bottom of the kiln that leads to a chimney. I designed my kiln as an updraft kiln just so I would not have to make as many modifications. Because I have an updraft kiln sometimes the bottom shelf ends up firing a little hotter than the top as you may notice in the pictures.

These next two pictures give a clearer view of the cones. Notice that the cone at the top of the picture which shows the top shelf has been fired to a perfect cone 06 because the tip of the cone is just barely touching the shelf. Knowing that you can see which parts of the shelf were slightly hot and which parts were slightly cold. You can also see where the flame enters the kiln and which direction it circulates. I think over all it was a pretty even firing.

And here is the kiln log for this firing. As with any of these pictures you can click on them to enlarge them:

For a description of how my kiln log works and how to read it click here for an older post about how my kiln was designed.

Electric to Gas Conversion: The Birth of My Kiln

My kiln is a gas kiln that was converted from an old electric kiln. I did lots of research so i could figure out what was going to be the best way to convert it. I found some forums online that were very helpful to me and I was able to avoid many trials and errors thanks to these helpful people. Now it’s time to give back. I hope that this section might help others out there as kind of a step by step demonstration.







First, I completely “gutted” the kiln, taking out all electrical components.








This is what the side of the kiln looks like now, on the side of the kiln where all the outer electrical components used to be.


Next, I marked and cut the hole for the MR750 gas burner and regulator combo that I bought at the local pottery supply store (this hooks to a 9 gallon propane tank).



The hole is about a 4” square on the outside, but I cut it at an angle so that when the flame shoots in it creates a spiral effect which will give me a much more even firing. In the pictures below you can see how I drew a couple different angles before I made my cut.


In the next two pictures you can see how I was able to cut the hole in the fragile fire brick without damaging the parts of the kiln that I wanted to keep.

In these two pictures you can see that I cut the hole so that the flame swirls counter clockwise. This is WRONG because I live in the northern hemisphere. If I lived in the southern hemisphere this would have been correct. I have since changed this and now, because of the coriolis effect, I am able to get a much better swirl and a much more even firing. I have the earths rotation working with me, not against me.

Also, when cutting your hole with the kiln section upside down don’t get confused as to which way the flame is going to shoot in when you reassemble the kiln. When you cut the hole with the kiln upside down, know that the angle you cut will be angled in the opposite direction when you flip the kiln back over. Just remember to cut your hole so it is angled the opposite as what these two pictures show, if your in the northern hemisphere. If you live in the northern hemisphere you want the flame to swirl upwards in a clockwise spiral. Hope that's not too confusing. Email with any questions. And for all you skeptics out there who think the coriolis effect doesn’t matter, I assure you it makes a difference. I have tried angling the flame both ways both ways and I have the pyrometric cones to prove it.

Next, I marked out the chimney and drilled holes to help me start to cut the chimney out.

Then I used a hacksaw blade to carefully cut a rectangular shape out for the chimney.

A rectangular shape is used because the heat is swirling through the kiln in a circle and a rectangular exit hole will require the heat to change direction before leaving the kiln, keeping the heat in longer, and making for a much more even firing.


I made the exit hole bigger than I needed it to be for firing so that I could use an old kiln shelf as a damper.




Another very important part about this kiln conversion is that I used square shelves. This helps me avoid getting cold spots in the center of the shelves.

It is important to leave at least 9” between the floor of the kiln and the first shelf so that the flame is not directly hitting the pottery. It is also important to leave at least 4” space between the top of the kiln and any of the pottery. This is because it is colder towards the top.

By the time I had left space at the top and bottom of the kiln and used square shelves, I realized that I had a lot less space for pottery in my new gas kiln than I would have had in a working electric kiln that was the same size. I don’t mind because now I am playing with fire.

Now I want to find another old broken down kiln that is the same diameter as my kiln so I can add another section and make my kiln taller.

Firing My Kiln

The pyrometer (found at your local ceramics supply store) is a crucial part of firing my kiln. The pyrometer gives me a digital read out of the temperature of the inside of the kiln. In the above picture my wife Leah reads a book while she keeps a sharp eye on the pyrometer. She will turn the gas up or down depending what she needs to do to keep to our predetermined firing schedule.


The hand written note on the left was the ^06 firing schedule given to me by someone from the local ceramic supply store. This firing schedule is normally used for electric kilns that have a built in computer to do the job of turning the heat up or down to meet the schedule. Firing schedules for electric kilns with computers are common and can be found for many different desired temperatures.



From the note that the guy at the ceramics store gave me, I made the firing schedule below. I first decided what time I was going to start the firing filling in the column under “time” and “ideal temp”. When firing the kiln, I check the pyrometer at the appropriate time and fill in the columns entitled “temp” and “max temp”. “Temp” is the exact tempature that the kiln was at the time that I checked it. “Max temp” is the hottest temperature that the pyrometer has recorded since the kiln was started (this varies because through the hour you may have to toggle the gas up and down). The firing schedule below is an example of a successful bisque firing. You can see that the schedule has some tolerance. I keep a schedule like this, sometimes known as a “kiln log” every time I fire my kiln. This way I can go back and evaluate my results and compare them to the kiln log.


The pyrometer is not 100% accurate so it is important to also use pyrometric cones so you can check what the temperature was at in different parts of the kiln. In the pictures below you can see melted pyrometric cones. They are melted consistently in different spots on the upper and lower shelfs. This tells me that I got a nice even firing. I stack my pottery in the kiln evenly and with good spacing for airflow. This ensures an even firing. Also in the picture to the right you can see the probe for the the pyrometer poking in the kiln where I had drilled the hole in the side wall for it. This tells us what part of the kiln the pyrometer is getting its reading from.