more rust

The sea-salt bath I made to speed up wire rusting from an earlier project got left on a windowsill and forgotten... until i came across it again this evening.

The water has evaporated, the salt re-crystalized and the rust has left a beautiful stain in the bottom of the dish. Not sure I can use it directly for anything now but glad to have captured a photo.

rust tile update

I was wrong about these, assuming they might come out too dark or ugly brown - they have come out too pale, almost invisible! I guess the iron oxide was not concentrated enough except in a few spots.

Not what I was hoping for at all. Back to the drawing board on this one. I need to do some pigment research to understand the sort of concentrations needed to stain successfully.

another rust experiment

While doing a batch of glazing today I noticed some left over rusty water from an earlier rust print. I mixed this with some clear glaze sludge from the bottom of the glaze bin and then poured it over a test tile;

It looks interesting! Bet it will fire an ugly dull brown or too dark black but worth a quick experiment...

rust tiles

Its half term so I have a little more time to play with clay this week. First up is an attempt to see if rust prints can translate into glaze.

I glazed two ready made biscuit fired tiles with a clear glaze. Then I placed a rusty and damp wire sculpture on top of the still slightly damp glaze, added a weight and left it all for 30 minutes. The result was ok but the wire a bit too bendy and the tile has no give so the pattern did not transfer completely. It looked a bit stark so I flicked some rusty water over the image and tried re-pressing a few times. It now looks a bit scruffy but more interesting than the first incomplete press. I cant wait to see if the iron oxide stains the glaze successfully...

rust prints

Leaving a wire sculpture in salty sea water for a few days brings on a great coat of rust. Rust, iron oxide, is a stable pigment which can be used to create prints. Here I have pressed heavy paper under my rusted horse jaw wire.

I think this should be able to be used on ceramics - maybe worth trying pressing the rusty and damp wire onto a freshly glazed tile OR rolling the rusty and damp wire into fresh clay to make a tile with an impression and a stain?