What I am doing on my Spring Break

 This is my plan for the week.
How about you all?
Beach?
Mountains?
Or, Seagove?
 Whynot come on over.


I will try real words soon.

It's pretty busy around here.

Pots are getting glaze!

Time to get out there.

Tiles and such

Tiles are in all stages of dry right now.
Allison's tiles are glazed and just waiting for Mark and me to finish up ours so we can fire.
I have done some of the pillow pots, from the nightgown series.
I was inspired by a nightgown which was hanging in my bathroom.
It is electric blue with these wild flowers all over it.
The flower got stuck in my head and needed to go somewhere.
They decided to come out on tiles and these pots to hang on the wall.
People keep asking what they are for.
I tell them just to look at- they have no use.
I think you need some pots that have no real purpose.
Just to add that splash to a room.
Mark had someone ask that other day and his response was, "to make you happy."
Nice- something to brighten the day.

While I am carving on my tiles Mark has picked up the brushes.
He had planned to carve the tiles below, but after laying down some red slip on the white clay body this is what came out.
How could you not like this?
It made me smile and think of how different we approach the tiles.
Me, I am all over them covering and carving.
I have plans for bright glaze.
Mark he takes his brush and with some well placed strokes......
Well- these tiles should make someone happy.


Allison's.......just waiting

I'll post some of the tiles finished but it is December.

Things move a lot slower here then other months.

A note on the white clay.

Linda Starr, the soon to be traveling potter, living in an RV and getting ready to hit the blue highways and visit potters all over the USA, asked about colors on the two clay bodies.

The glaze colors are completely different.

The iron in the red body adds color to the glazes, where the white body does not interfere with the true color of the glaze.

For different reasons I like both.

I will do some side by sides of the colors after I fire again.

I told you it's December- things slow to a crawl in December.

Visions of sugarplums and all that stuff.

Cheers!

Clear results

I want to thank Mike for his information on the commits page.
From Mike:
"A year or so ago I wrote a free website to allow people to store recipes and calculate the unity formula for your glazes. The site is http://www.glazecalculator.com/.Also, you can post your recipes. Here is the info on the glaze you posted as an example:http://http://www.glazecalculator.com/"

If you have not taken a look do so.

Not much here but the results.

The winner to date- Ron Myers.

The younger Kate cone 6



This is the shiny White out of an old ceramics monthly- 1982


Time to check the garden, fix some food and later check out the night sky and the

moon flowers!

A night for star gazing, kiln unloading and more moonflowers

I unloaded the latest batch of test last night around 10 pm.
As I went out I saw the sky was full of stars.
It was one of those clear nights you get in September.
The stars were enough to draw me back outside after unloading the test.

I took the test inside the house and Mark and I went over them all and then I said ,"you have to come out with me."

He was not interested as he was reading a book. so I grabbed a lawn chair and went myself.

As I sat out there watching the night sky, I heard the door open and Mark come out.

We walked further away from the house and enjoyed some time taking in the stars.
Beautiful- sigh.
Food for the soul.
I was happy with the last results and I promise pictures.
This last test I used white slip with some color slips on top.
Good melt again with Meyers and Younger glazes.
Little melt on another cone 6 I stuck in for one more try.
So I need to line up all my tiles for a photo shoot.

I know you "need" one more picture of moon flower!
Just humor me, there were 20 one last night!

Clearly we are getting somewhere

When I came out of school and started doing glaze test I did not know anything about testing glazes. I meant not one thing!
I would read a recipe, look at the color and mix it up and I would get yuck.
Then I would quit.
I would rather throw pots.
Now I know there are some factors in getting the glaze you want.
First off what clay body do you want this to fit on?
What atmosphere are you firing in?
What is the color of clay body?
How are you firing and what is the temperature range you are looking for.
With all this in mind I went after the clear glaze.
The clay body I am using is Highwater's Red Stone.
Firing to 2185-2190
I wanted a good melt which would work well with slips.
Before the studio fire I was testing and working with slips at cone 5.
The fire took all the slips with it.( darn fire!)
I have finally had some time, let's rephrase that.
I have made some time to work on slips again and I wanted a really good clear glaze.
I tried Ron's clear glaze and it just did not have quite the melt I wanted- close but not quite there.
Thanks Ron!

I looked at a very old Ceramic's Monthly, 1986, and found a clear there using Gerstley Borate. Good melt, but with that blue tinge which come with Gerstley. Maybe for some thing else....

I then moved out on the Internet to find a glaze for slips by Kate the Younger.

Kate the Younger Clear Glaze
Cone 6
Raw Material
Ferro Frit 3195
70%
EPK Kaolin
8%
Wollastonite
10%
Silica
12%
Total
100%
Add:
Bentonite
2%
And in digging through my notes and such from past workshops I came up with a clear glaze from Ron Myers.
The Kate Younger and Ron Myers have won out.
Both had a good melt with good shine on the clay body.
I will fire yet another group of test today.
Red stone, white slip, color slips and see what comes out.
I'll also post up the other recipes, but I am in the basement office and the recipes are out in the studio.
I have to get them back here to put in the computer file with some notes.
I do have one more clear I came across which we used many years back.
I think it might need testing too.
It has only three ingredients.
3134 frit and something, something.... I'll post it up as well.

Cone 5 clear

So it is fall and we should be doing nothing but making pots.
But then there is that kiln we are working on- and we are testing glazes.
I am looking for a really good clear for cone 5.
Yep- 5 not 6.
I have tested two and I have three others to try today.
What I would like is for the glaze recipe to include what temperature the glaze fires to.
I have a target temp of 2185-2190.
The clay body I use does not like to go to 6 and is happy at these temperatures.
So anyone with suggestions for a cone 5 clear shout them out!
I can add them to my list for test.
Meanwhile- it is time to get back on the wheel and make some pots for the next gas load.