Out of the kiln - or not
This last week started well, Rob had fired the gas kilns and my beautiful celadon glaze emerged flawlessly from the kiln, on a couple of very basic test pieces. I wish I had glazed some of my serious pots instead, but was not expecting success at the time.
My cone 5 glazes came out of the test kiln, but had not worked at all, they were runny and transparent instead of opaque and matt. At least last time they were buttery and thick, the problem had then been with the colour and not the finish. I don't know how the test kiln fired, and Cath has not mentioned the firing. I need to ask her to see what can be done to try to make this glaze work. I will check back to see whether there is a firing schedule with the recipe.
My two greenware pots had not been fired to bisque, one has been there for two weeks now, the other a week.
Making
I made two further pots this week. The first was a porcelain stoneware pot using the PF700G. It was difficult to build with, and the joins opened up several times whilst building. The pot is very big, (I made a mistake whilst cutting the slabs). I dried the pot with the intention of water etching it, but I am not sure the pot can be handled without opening up the joins again. I will have a go, but maybe I should get it fired to bisque whilst it is in one piece.
The second pot used ES40 so was a lot easier and quicker. I tried to make a round ended pot but without narrowing the width after the join to the half circle. It looks too big, and is not very elegant. I added clay strips to the outside surface, to raise the lines. This is not quite right, the lines are too thick and clumsy. Maybe they should have stood on edge rather than lie flat.
I'm not happy with either pot, although repeating the same basic form has been helpful.
Formers
Unfortunately the flexible MDF for my former is no longer stocked by local suppliers. It has been phased out, Wickes had some but it would not bend sufficiently to make the tight curves I need, and it broke in the store. On Thursday I bought some 110mm half round guttering, which will have to do for the smaller curves.
Nigel will try to cut the large 240mm pipe in half if I can mark it up. Unfortunately the small piece I have is not flat, so cannot be marked accurately, but there is a larger piece that might be ok, I need to check.
I have also emailed three companies to see whether they can sell me a couple of offcuts of industrial guttering, (this is 200mm diameter).
Learning
Yesterday, an Instagram post by Brian Hopkins, explained that as he has become older he has produced fewer pots. The pots he produce are however of higher quality, largely because he has planned in advance what he will make, and has accumulated the skills and knowledge necessary to bring them to fruition.
I was thinking about my two pots, as well as clay body tests and glaze tests that hadn't worked when I listened to Brian Hopkins. He said that earlier in his ceramic career he had made a much greater quantity of pots. He needed to do that because he was 'learning through quantity'.
I want lines on my pots, I have tried it out with tape and I like the effect. I don't know whether I want the lines on my pots to be etched, carved, or coloured. If they are coloured should they be slip, inlays, oxides underglazes or onglazes. I have to test them to decide which I like best. I have tested most of these effects on test tiles, although a few methods have made it onto pots. Making the forms has been a similar process, the same is true of clay body choice and glazing. It has been a frustrating week, and I had hoped to be further ahead, it seemed to me like another week wasted. But maybe if he is right, I am just learning through quantity, and this week has not all been wasted. On a positive note I made a beautiful celadon, at long last, and I have now made clay body test pots to evaluate. I have tried the lines as texture, carvings and inlays, and the only choice left to try is onglaze. So decisions have, or can be made more confidently.
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