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I still really struggle with the wheel; it's a complete crapshot whether I can get anything at all when I sit down at the wheel, let alone whatever it was that I intended to make when I sat down. However, if I do manage to produce something, I can often use glazing to make it look pretty good if I do say so myself.
These are not all the things I fired, just my favorites. As always, there were some that were disasters and some that were just underwhelming. For the latter, you can sometimes re-glaze and re-fire; for the former, I'm talking about things that lost their shape and became useless for anything but garden ornaments, things that melted and fused to the cookie (a base to prevent them from sticking to the kiln shelves in case that happens), etc.
Handbuilt porcelain with sunlight shining through it.
Small hand-built dish with "frozen pond" glazing. This uses a flux glaze (a glaze which makes other glazes flow) called Running Hot Chowder. To get this effect, you do 2-3 base coats of one color, then dabs of RHC, then 1-2 coats of another glaze. I used a base of obsidian, then a top coat of indigo float. The geometric shapes are an artifact of how RHC flows on a flat surface; the dabs I applied were circular.
A hand-build platter, also frozen pond. The base coat is ancient jasper, an interesting dark brown to red-brown glaze, and a top coat of seaweed, which is brown to green.
Hand-built porcelain bowl with an assortment of metallic glazes.
Very small wheel-thrown vase, glazed in white with a scattering of glaze chips. Those are dried bits that fall off when you open the glaze jar. I collect them for this purpose.
Wheel-thrown tiny vase with 12 coats of glaze in 5 different colors.
Wheel-thrown bowl. This uses a different type of flux glaze, plus obsidian and indigo float again, to make a different type of pattern,
Wheel-thrown bowl. White glaze, turquoise rim.
These are not all the things I fired, just my favorites. As always, there were some that were disasters and some that were just underwhelming. For the latter, you can sometimes re-glaze and re-fire; for the former, I'm talking about things that lost their shape and became useless for anything but garden ornaments, things that melted and fused to the cookie (a base to prevent them from sticking to the kiln shelves in case that happens), etc.
Handbuilt porcelain with sunlight shining through it.
Small hand-built dish with "frozen pond" glazing. This uses a flux glaze (a glaze which makes other glazes flow) called Running Hot Chowder. To get this effect, you do 2-3 base coats of one color, then dabs of RHC, then 1-2 coats of another glaze. I used a base of obsidian, then a top coat of indigo float. The geometric shapes are an artifact of how RHC flows on a flat surface; the dabs I applied were circular.
A hand-build platter, also frozen pond. The base coat is ancient jasper, an interesting dark brown to red-brown glaze, and a top coat of seaweed, which is brown to green.
Hand-built porcelain bowl with an assortment of metallic glazes.
Very small wheel-thrown vase, glazed in white with a scattering of glaze chips. Those are dried bits that fall off when you open the glaze jar. I collect them for this purpose.
Wheel-thrown tiny vase with 12 coats of glaze in 5 different colors.
Wheel-thrown bowl. This uses a different type of flux glaze, plus obsidian and indigo float again, to make a different type of pattern,
Wheel-thrown bowl. White glaze, turquoise rim.
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Anyway, though, these all look great! :D
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Are jasper and seaweed actually involved in the glazes, or are those just the names? (I love that one; it looks the most fossilized and organic.)
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I admire the freedom of the non-wheel pottery the most but of the wheel-thrown ones, my fave is the tiny vase with 12 layers of glaze. So pretty.
Mind you, I have done hardly any pottery ever so I can't really comment on skill level but I just find them so beautiful. ♥
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I LOVE the wiggly porecelain. it looks alive.
ETA and that last one looks like a goblet a serving youth might offer to my icon, full of cool clear wine!
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For the vase that has 12 coats of glaze, does it have to be fired after each coat?
P.S. I've been wondering how you got the circular effect on the frozen pond plate since you posted a photo of it in your write-up on the farmers market. So, thank you for explaining!
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And the scattering of glaze chips down the white vase is gorgeous. It's fun to think that was done with just crumbs that fell from the container of glaze.
P.
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Pretty!
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I let each coat dry out thoroughly before putting on the next, except for the ancient jasper and oatmeal on the rim; I dripped the second onto the first while it was still liquid.
I find that it's often OK if glazes crack while drying - they usually still come out fine. This seems more true with brush on glazes rather than dip glazes.
What glazes are you using? I'm mostly using Amaco brush-ons and other brush on commercial glazes.
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I've only worked with studio glazes (so I don't know a lot about their composition), dipping in 5 gal buckets. They wouldn't fire anything that had cracked glaze - I assume there was trouble with it in the kiln. Brushing makes sense to get the thin coats. I'm trying a different studio for the throwing class and I know they have a spray booth among other things so I should be able to explore more with glazing
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If/when you get to brushed glazes, you don't actually want thin coats. My glazing started going way better once someone told me to think of using the brush to apply and spread it around, rather than to think of painting it on like you would paint.
Have a blast with the spray booth. I've never had a chance to try that.
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