firing 15th august

this firing was full temperature – cone 10/11 – and I needed those blues, greens and oranges, so a less heavy reduction than the last one. there were a couple of re-fires from that firing too – the grey unlovely under-fired piece, and the blue bowl …

after 1100 C no flame, but a desirable amount of reduction indicated by the black smoke drifting out of the side of the flue.

it seems to have done the trick at first glance, although the bowls at the bottom left are rather under-fired – I suspected they would be, tucked away down there. ominous cracking noises turned out to be from the big pot at the front, which split open when I took it out. the pyrometer said 80 C before I opened it – I suppose this was a little hot. next time perhaps I’ll leave it another day to cool. the top part of this pot is rather thin, and as it is made of two layers of clay, a white stoneware full of molochite over a well grogged buff stoneware, I presume that put some strain on it as well. shame, the glaze was rather good.

in fact the firing was perfect, except for those two small bowls, which included the re-fire small blue bowl. the blues and oranges are beautifully clear, the black clay mixed with buff stoneware, glazed with barium carbonate and china clay, seated on sand to stop them sticking to the shelves, behaved this time, no cracking.

the “saltwater” glaze, a version of the dolomite/copper glaze with much less copper and a little bit of cobalt, was the star of this firing. especially this pot, one of those messily layered with sticky porcelain slip and china clay powder. perfect mixture of crusty and intense colour.

a simple little piece, but one of my favourites, the glaze becomes blue over the thin porcelain layer on the outside, and brown on the buff stoneware inside.

I refired this one – the unlovely grey – and it has become much more interesting, and warmer. over reduction and under-firing made it cold.

this large coiled bowl had black iron oxide painted on the inside, which gives a rather luscious rust colour under the copper/dolomite glaze.

another little treasure from the saltwater glaze, with the rust accretion ash glaze on the bottom and overlapping. this is one of those with porcelain layering over a dark buff stoneware, which is almost metallic where it shows. the contaminated porcelain gives a sort of robin’s egg blue, speckled greeny-blue.

two bowls were right at the bottom of the kiln, but next to the burner, so they got enough heat. these small bowls are pressed and beaten over a mould and then pinched into shape.

I found a bin of an old shino which I had stopped using ages ago, and tried it in February. it does some quite interesting things over dark clays, so I tried it on the black – it is glossier than it looks here, but the different shades and the pitting are quite pleasing, I think.

I feel I have found two ways of firing – one with less reduction to cone 10/11 as here – and the lower temperature heavy reduction firing, which gives me more monochromes. I like both and will continue to work both ways. the rest of the firing can be seen here

4 Comments

  1. thanks, Deepak – you can suggest all you like, but I suggest you do your own experimentation:D! this is not meant to be an instruction manual, more of an aesthetic sharing, and a record of how the firings work.

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