Fresh from the kiln
GA 23 with 3% copper carbonate, a dot of Blue Midnight ( clear with Mason stain cobalt)
clear transparent formulated to fit on porcelain (no crazing)
interior is same clear with 3% Burnt Umber
ClayPlanet's Icelia Porcelain and Laguna's Frost Porcelain
left: brushed on Rusty Bronze, inside Robin Egg Blue (Chun base wt Mason Stain)
right: thin dip into Rusty Bronze outside only, dried then full dipped into Robin Blue
light rutile spray on rim
All cone 6.
Over the last three months I tested different clay bodies and base glazes. I still use GA-23, Leitson's Chun, 20 x 5 Clear (Tony Hansen) with different colorants. I also found a very clear, craze-free glaze that fits porcelain nicely. I made up 4,000 grams of it to dip my little sgraffito cups. All glazes I keep at 1:3-1:4 density. The clear I dip for the count of "one-one thousand." The others at 3 seconds. The GA-23 runs if it touches any gloss glaze. It can be tricky, but when it works it is sweet. Lovely opal runs, but be aware. It also likes beige stoneware better than iron rich clay.
I found that although I like how lovely Laguna's Frost feels and looks, it is just too unpredictable. It looks very fancy with its translucent body and wily, talc-y ways. It teases and cheats with s-cracks no matter how careful you compress it with loving attention. Icelia by ClayPlanet, on the other hand, is a bit gray (kind of like me) and groggy (again, like me.) It is not sensitive or tender. There are no surprises---no light shines through---but it is strong and reliable. Nothing magical. That's left to the glazes, the kiln and clumsy me ;)
Now for a very fuzzy video:
Striking glazes, Charlene - the first one I like very much.
ReplyDeleteLove the moving sneaky peek into your studio... Serenity is stunning :)
I was holding my little camera in one hand and turning the banding wheel. I thought Serenity really looked serene in the middle of all the mess and glazes :)
Deletewow, quite a bit of info here, some of your photos I can enlarge to see the glaze colors better but others I can't. Great glimpse into your studio and Serenity is wonderful. I have yet to try mason stains or chemicals in clears but you have inspired me. I hope to get to some more testing as soon as the market is finished at the end of the month. I picked up some clay from Stone Mountain clay in Atlanta and hope to test four new clays soon, a white, speckled tan, darker tan stoneware and a true black food safe clay, we shall see I can't wait to try the black clay. So many folks are doing videos now; I need to train myself to make some, lots of projects on the horizon for winter.
ReplyDeleteThe black clay sounds interesting. I used to soda fire using Black Mountain (cone 10) and did some pears and plinths out of Cassius (cone 5) that turned out beautiful. It doesn't like going beyond cone 5 at all.
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