Becoming familiar with the glaze room
I have been spending an hour in the glaze room most days that I am in Preston, testing or applying glazes to finished work. I feel very comfortable weighing out and mixing up a glaze, I have a process, ticking off items as they are added. I know where most items are, and the UK names of US ingredients, (a useful skill when using glazy.org recipes). This seems like a pretty basic level of achievement, but having a process and knowing what and where things are means I can work quickly and accurately mixing and testing a glaze.
Sourcing Glaze Recipes
I have found it difficult to find glaze recipes using the colours I want for my project. I have used a number of sources for glaze recipes. I have made recipes from Glazy.org, and pinterest.co.uk , and in fact my favourite glazes came from here. I have also used a number of books, and chosen recipes I think are relevant to my project. I started by buying Greg Daly, Developing Glazes which is organised by oxide, copper, cobalt etc, the problem with the book is that some ingredients have slightly different names and chemical compositions in the UK, and the glazes are mainly green and blue and are not very 'urban'. A second book by Daly , Glazing and Glazing Techniques, from the library was very good for glaze application methods. I have not enjoyed glazing in the past, so want to improve in glaze application techniques. I then tried Emmanuel Cooper, most of the glazes were white cream or grey, tasteful but a bit boring. I tried the Linda Bloomfield book, Colour in Glazes, the recipes in this book use UK ingredient names and reliably reproduce the intended colour. Unfortunately most of the colours are pretty pastels, not ideal for my theme. The Potters Palette is also organised by oxide, with a few unusual ingredients and modifications. There are more recipes that have an urban feel, in particular those containing nickel and Ilmenite. I plan to test a few of these recipes, and then maybe add these ingredients into other successful matt, satin and clear base recipes I have already found..
Brighter Colours?.
I like colour, but have been using mainly black and white, and have been thinking about whether a minimalist approach is right for me or my concept. There are a number of artists that I admire, like Lubna Chowdhary, Lauren Mabry and Lisa Orr, who use bright colours. I am edging away from a minimalist approach, and have tested some bright stains, but am not yet ready to embrace bright colours. I think the way to proceed is to complete this assessment and then test a few bright glazes on a slab-built form to see what it would look like and whether it would reflect the busyness of a central urban area, maybe in the context of bringing in an aspect of people in the city. It might not work at all, but the best way is to try it and see, at least then I can move on.
Dry, Matt, Satin or Shiny glazes
I have made more progress with this aspect of glazing. I want to use a mix of glazes to have some parts shiny and others with a satin or dry finish. I have identified several satin glaze recipes that work well, a nice black, brown, green and pale blue, as well as the Uclan titanium white. I have a good dry glaze from Chris Malins, using Ilmenite for colour, this is very reliable, I also have a green version of this. I have a semi-transparent dark blue and green at stoneware, and now at long last a good clear shiny green at earthenware. The only issue now is to change the oxides used as colourants to get the colour palette I am looking for.
Environmental issues
Anna Lambert's lecture, last year first made me think about environmental issues with ceramics. Since that time I have noticed more debate about sustainability, and it is an important current issue, where I recognise that my knowledge is only superficial. There are surely things I can do now to learn about the processes and materials I plan to use in the future, so that I can be more environmentally friendly.
Since Annas lecture, I have since attended a Crafts Council online discussion 'How can ceramics clean up their act?', an NCECA talk on recycling studio waste, and read a Linda Bloomfield (2020) paper on eight ways to make studio pottery greener. There are two environmental aspects of glazing I am thinking about at the moment. I am wondering whether I should consider medium or low fire glazes, and I am also thinking about eliminating or substituting the most toxic ingredients.
Glazy.org, has a tremendous variety of recipes available, and many of them are cone 6 or thereabouts. I have enjoyed watching John Britt glaze videos on Youtube and found them very informative. He produces many cone 6 recipes and has a book Mid-Range Glazes, which is not in the university library. However, I did find another book in the library called Cone 6 glazes by Michael Bailey. I spoke to Cath, and she said that most work is fired at stoneware, but I can have any temperature I like, it just might take a little longer.
Linda Bloomfield (2020)has suggested that potters should avoid using glaze ingredients that are toxic, in use or in waste water or even due to leaching. I know that colourants are all toxic and need to be handled carefully, Bloomfield mentions lead, chromium, manganese and barium, (the latter she recommends substituting with Strontium). Whilst I don't plan to make functional ware, I do like satin and matt glazes, and strontium is a regular components of recipes. Cath has confirmed that we do not have strontium at university, she suggested that I look for a UK supplier and try to get a sample. I have found this raw material is available in the UK from Potterycrafts for about £5. Other harmful raw materials Bloomfield discourages are Lead, Chromium and Manganese.
Bloomfield, L., 2020. How to make your pottery practice greener. [online] Craftscouncil.org.uk. Available at: <https://www.craftscouncil.org.uk/stories/how-make-your-pottery-practice-greener> [Accessed 14 July 2021].
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