Re: Heidi's ceramic venture/fermentation vats

[Guest guest]

>Hmm, Heidi, your investigations have planted a whole new seed of

>thought for me--the possibility of making a ceramic fermentation

>vessel myself or getting a local ceramicist to make some cheap, rough

>and raw ones. Since I would be just as happy to have " ugly " ,

>misshapen vessels--and might even find them charming or aesthetically

>preferable--perhaps the cost would be nominally above raw materials?

>Does anyone know if I could just buy some clay and muck around one

>day with my bare hands to make my own special objects that would only

>need to meet the criterion of not falling apart?

Well, 20 lbs of clay goes for $9 or so. Mucking around with it yourself

costs nothing. You do need to know enough so you don't get

air bubbles in your work (they can explode and kill other pots

in the kiln, which makes you unpopular). You can coil-build a real

reasonable pot (as the Hopis did).

The studio I'm talking to will fire the piece for $5 per cubic foot.

There should be a studio or potter somewhere near you too.

Or, you can join a class at your local community college or

club. Or you can build a big fire and make it a low-fire piece (as

many of the Indian vessels were ... they are more fragile but

make good cooking vessels nonetheless, they might be

BETTER for fermenting because they will be more porous).

> Keep in mind that

>the only thing I know about ceramics is that they're made out of

>clay, and I'm not really even sure about that to be honest... I guess

>I never took that class in high school... Hmm, maybe if I befriend

>the right person in the art dept at my uni...

Well heck, if you are in school, sign up for a pottery class!

It really is FUN. But I'm sure there are starving art students

who would love to do a custom job (or teach you).

> Also, I have in mind

>the idea of making two or three quite large vats that would be

>suitable for a full batch of winter-kimchi and spring/summer-

>sauerkraut (maybe 30-40 gallons total), perhaps permanently burying

>them somewhere and being unconcerned about their mobility. Or at

>least something along the lines of the huge Korean vessels. Would

>this be easy? Hard? Does anyone know the cost of the clay? I

>wouldn't even know what type would be suitable or where to start, so

>any hints are welcomed... My half-gallon mason jar system is working

>pretty well, so I'm not inclined to dump too much money into this...

Making BIG pieces of pottery is hard. You'd be better off buying one.

Or burying a Rubbermaid trash can and storing your half-gallon mason

jars in it. I was kind of thinking of doing an ad-hoc below-ground storage

system like this ... bury a trash can, line it with straw, then store your

jars or potatoes or whatever in it. As long as it is air and mouse-tight,

and covered on top with straw, it should be freeze-proof.

-- Heidi

>And I'd have to consider a tradeoff between having Heidi's person

>ship some across the country and finding a local person to do the

>same thing to avoid the shipping expense... It's quite interesting

>to ponder the notion of having Heidi's person being able to offer a

>good rate by getting a busload of us Egroupers to order the same

>thing...

>

>So let me get this straight--is it that the crocks commercially

>available are all glazed, and unglazed would be better for continual

>fermentation and cheaper? I wonder if the traditional Korean

>thingies were glazed?

>

>So many possbilities blooming forth, just like some the plants at

>this time of year (as I enjoy the first 70 degree day of the year!)...