pushing a little too far

another firing; rather mixed results – overconfident glazing and I pushed the thickness of slip and glaze too far on some pieces.

cone eleven caught me by surprise at the end of the firing and started to go before I was ready for it, that is, before I had done the short oxidising soak at the top of the firing.

this big bottle, which I had originally intended to glaze with the barium and magnesium overlap, worked really well.

and you can see the glaze test of the dark pink glaze, which worked properly up high in the middle of the top – a reliable spot for reduction.

disaster for the porcelain piece, the temperature was too high for this glaze on porcelain, and chipping it off the shelf ruined the foot. I got the glaze off the shelf without too much trouble, and filled the ring it left with calcined alumina.

the main problem was the thickness of the crackle slip and the chun glaze, producing some spectacular crawling.

under control, this is great, I love it on the mid section of the big bottle

borderline on this flagon

and sad on these two little bottles. there were four that I ruined this way. the slip and glaze were trying to crack off as they dried, and when this happens I MUST scrape back and start again, it’s no good hoping it will be okay.

some pieces were absolutely fine

I am very pleased with this piece, it is the best attempt at this shape I have managed for a long time and the “black ice” effect suits it perfectly.

these two oval boxes as I have decided they are rather than lidded jars, are fine too, though I could have drawn through the slip and brought out the original scoring more.

a close up of this new dark pink glaze. it has copper carbonate and iron oxide doing a balancing act between celadon and copper red; it needs to be on thick to get the red coming out.

 

on this piece it did not mature properly, due to its position in a cooler place in the kiln – too hot for the black porcelain piece behind it, too cool for the stoneware glaze.

another bowl in unwashed ash worked well.

almost my favourite – the one little bottle I did scrape back and reglaze.

you can see the whole firing here

I am off to Potfest in the Pens tomorrow, at Penrith cattle market on the southern edge of the Lake District on Friday, Saturday and Sunday ten to five daily, post code CA11 0DN, map here.