Showing posts with label clear glaze. Show all posts
Showing posts with label clear glaze. Show all posts

Friday, January 18, 2013

Responding to Leigh

I want to respond to a question from Leigh that I just noticed in a comment from October, sorry about not answering earlier. About what clear glaze might work well on Little Loafers clay body...
I live in two different places-- savannah, Georgia and Saskatoon, Saskatchewan, and so I work with two different clay bodies, and in two different studios with different kilns....
I am most happy with the clear glaze that I have been using on the clay I use in Canada. It doesn't craze and is really glossy, plus it is pretty user friendly during application.
I am wondering what it would be like on little loafers, and so I brought back a piece of greenware from Savannah that I will try glazing with it. Haven't got a glaze fire load ready yet, so I will let you know how it goes.
The glaze I'm using is 1215U by digital fire, the glaze site from Plainsman Clays in Alberta

Friday, October 12, 2012

Notes on some Glazed stuff

Hello, If you arrived here from the Mud Colony site, thanks for the visit.  If you don't know what the Mud colony site is, you can go to it here.  it is a round-up of some other pottery blogs, and it is fun to see what others are up to each week.

I arrived back in Saskatoon on Tuesday, so I have switched back to the pottery that I do here, and left the clay that I was working on in Savannah there. 
In my absence Richard had picked up the new elements for the kiln, so I immediately installed them on Wednesday morning, and did their first firing as a bisque fire.  That went well, so yesterday I did a glaze firing. 
the unfired glaze makes them all look a uniform white,

It was nice to use the whole kiln, even though it is a little kiln. 
This morning I unloaded it, and these are some of my first impressions. 

the unloading of the kiln, minus the bowl that is stuck to a shelf.

the one on the left was fired earlier, up to a cone 5.  It seems that at the little bit higher temperature, the yellow is a bit less intense.

I like the little scene.  I find that this green turns into a muddy kind of green. I think it is the Amaco velvet underglaze, Leaf Green.  I hope to find a better green that stays a bit more cheery.
Handbuilt mugs.  On the whole, they seem all right.  I like the hollow handle on the cup in the foreground. 

A thrown mug.  The silk screening turned out well on the light blue background.  The pinky red is Amaco's Dark red velvet underglaze.  It is more of a dark pink.

The pinkish area on the mug on the left is the dark red underglaze lightened by adding a bit of white to it.  The one on the right is straight out of the jar.
I like the way this pattern turned out.  I must remember to use it again. 
 Well, those are the little memos to myself. 
I have another glaze load starting to warm as I write. 
On the whole, I'm pretty happy with the new clear glaze.  I had items in the firing where the glaze was applied quite thickly, and others where it was more on the thin side.  You can't really tell the difference, so that is good.  There is only a wee bit of pin-holing, although I tend to be pretty careful to check for that before putting the pots in the kiln, and wiping any air bubbles over. No crazing in sight, so it does seem to fit my clay body really well! Hurray! 
I read an article yesterday about how to take better photos, and so I will be trying to improve my set-up soon.