last casts

Last batch of litter casts in porcelain, glazed in stoneware clear with an iron oxide rim. Waiting to go in kiln the matt chalky surface of the unfired glaze looks good - must try out a bright white matt glaze at some point;

Fresh from kiln, happily sucessful. All the tests seem to have paid off and I have just the right amount of run from the rim. Rushing back to Brighton so only a quick snap, will photo property soon.

final glaze tests

Last batch if glaze tests came out of the kiln today. Lots of work to do on the colours and what forms they fit (I tried the tan and the green on some deep bowls - the tan looked awful but the green great).

I used slip casts from a squash bottle lid found on the beach for the tests, each colour was single and double dipped;

As expected some more successful than others. I reworked the green and the turquoise a bit and they are improved. The red is still bad. The pink is terrible as is the yellow but I dont think I would like them however they came out, they are not my colours...

Final iron oxide rim test. Inner pot with old batch of clear glaze, outer with new batch. Both batches seem to perform the same. Both fired to 1260 degC with a 30 minute soak. Previous firings went 15 deg higher which seems to be crucial for maximum running. I however am beginning to prefer the more subtle line and running of these pots as opposed to the last batch 

easter holidays pt5

easter holidays pt4

Glaze testing. Mostly glaze recipes made from scratch using oxides for colour. A couple of glazes made by adding commercial stain to ready-made clear stoneware glaze. All are transparent glazes. 

Mixed results. The midnight blue-black is beautiful. The rutile tan yellow is good although the glaze crawled - maybe dust on the pot or may have been too thickly applied? 

The chrome green and pale blue both came out way too dark. My scales cannot measure below 2g and so I guessed the oxide quantities and was obviously a bit heavy handed...

I have a soft spot for the pale blue (commercial stain in ready-made clear glaze). The iron oxide and flux rim quite exiting. May try and combine the two, a rusty rim on a pale blue bowl?

I will be photographing the litter cast pots in the surroundings where the source material came from and want to glaze the pots in a way which will help them to look transformed. Pale blue is a colour rarely found in nature / on the beach which would help to make distinctive photos. The rust rim is beautiful and would help unify the different shapes in the group of pots as well as allude to rubbish, decay etc.

easter holidays pt3

Not sure what to say about these pots yet. The colours are not my thing. And I find the shapes inelegant. The red and the black too pale and so have come out grey and pink...

The top photo shows the least unsuccessful vessel. This is cast from an aerosol can lid so its appropriate that its decorated with graffiti inspired imagery. Before putting this idea down to experience I may cast a few more of the aerosol lids to see how they look in a small group - tow or three, and increase the pigment levels so that I create proper red and black.

Its not all a loss however as the japanese tissue transfer patterns worked well and I like the contrasting texture between the glazed and the wax-resist non-glazed areas.

easter holidays pt2

Extension to enclosed top casts from a few weeks ago - I modified the mould slightly so the cast has a small chimney too. Not sure where going with this but its an interesting side-line at the moment..

These pots are in earthenware and I decided to be a bit more spontaneous with their decoration. I wanted to allude to the grafitti I have seen around Brighton while hunting for litter. Using a feather I have layered different coloured slips, added some transfers and then scratched through everything with a sharp needle. Then I added some wax resist with the feather before dunking in clear glaze. Bit of an experiment! Colours not really me thing. Hope the red and black are strong enough, they look a bit pale on the unfired pots.

Against a while background and with only a little colour showing I am quite pleased with the results. A bit nervous about how it will turn out under a clear glaze...

easter holidays

Two weeks in one place over easter means time to crack on with some pots at home.

After assessing first set of earthenware casts I have selected best shapes to take forward and cast in porcelain. These have now been made and biscuit fired. Next they need sanding with wet and dry paper to make smooth and finally glazing...

...glazing never really been my thing. However, I am trying to challenge that by going back to basics and learning how to make glazes from scratch and only using metal oxides for colour. Based on how much I actually enjoyed painting in the first year when I made my own natural paints I hope this will get me into glazing.

I am following recipes from Linda Bloomfields book and carrying out the tests on spare small cast shapes (if I was making the recipes up then I would use little test tiles). I am also trying a few rim treatments with iron and cobolt for special effects. Hope to fire on Saturday so will see results on Sunday.