third firing this month

the third and last glaze firing this month is for me the most exciting. I made the pots during the firings of the last two weeks, so all is fresh and new, except for the little brown pot which is a refire

01kilnopen

the first thing I saw was the top of the big brown bottle. I am so pleased with this. I have used this glaze before, but always much thicker, and it’s very hard to get it to reach just the right point with enough reduction and enough melt but for it to still have the very dry suede-like texture, but with good colour.

01redbottle

this is the first of the tall bottles I made from the pink grogged stoneware two weeks ago, and when I made it I decided to go for totally plain because I like the shape very much. this was a good decision,

01suedegrande

there will be more of this kind of thing.

01littleblueoak

all the small bottles came out well. there is less slip on them, and the chun has started to melt off the top of the bottle so lots of lovely things are happening, though no bidori droplets this time. I put the slip on thinner, so it hasn’t reacted with the glaze and cracked and crawled at all this time.

01runnystuff

the tall bottles had to have the slip and the glaze poured on, as the bins aren’t full enough for dipping, which has given them a completely different character. you can’t get it on as thickly as with dipping, after a point the pouring liquid pulls off what is already there.

01grandclematis

 

I’m also very pleased with this clematis impressed bottle. it nearly came apart when I was making it.

01clematiccloseup

this lower part was at the back of the kiln; the chun stays very grey and opaque there , but that’s interesting in combination with the stem impressions and the oxide runs, and the iridescent blue higher up.

01spot

the other bottle I glazed with the ash/china clay glaze (it is a glaze that Carlos Versluys invented, I found it in Phil Rogers’ book on ash glazes) was made from the clay body I mixed up in March, part crank, part “lavafleck” with extra coarse sand with some black grains in it. this has a spot in it which doesn’t show much under the slip and chun, but with the ash glaze it is really nice. I’m very glad I brought this glaze out of retirement. I make it with unwashed ash and it takes a month or two to mature; this has been at least two years in the bin.

you can see photos with dimensions etc in dropbox at this link

 

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