Way to much glaze

Of all the steps, glazing can be the trickiest in making pottery. 

"Ocean" glaze on colander made by a Drop-In potter

Color can make or break a piece.  Each glaze seems to have its own personality, some are runny, some like a thin application while others need to be thicker and others look best with a very even thickness.  My favorite glazes "break" on texture, those which are one color where then and another where thick.

Too much glaze- no matter it's charactorists, is NOT a good thing. 

 Glaze was applied to thick- it ran right off the colander during firing, welding the piece to the kiln shelf.

A good rule of thumb- glaze should be the thickness of a postcard after application and before firing.

Happy Glazing!  Teresa

Navajo Wheel Clay (Red Clay) by IMCO

Yep, the rumor is true.  T Pots Pottery now stocks a red clay called Navajo Wheel by IMCO.

We tested the clay for a few weeks, everyone who threw with it, really enjoyed the smooth, creamy feel and loved the deep, rich color.  Testers felt the clay was easy to center and throw with, so easy, may found themselves with the top portion of their pot suddenly unattached to the wheel and in their hands at the end of a "pull".  Using less water than with the white clay (B-Mix) really helped with the "flimsiness" feeling of the clay.

I found the clay to be easy to throw, softer than B-mix.  Navajo Wheel is much less tempermental in respect to attaching handles and "S" cracks.  A few pieces were intentially left with a thick, uncompressed bottom and left to dry right side up.  - no "s" cracks.  Handles stay put, even with slightly dry clay.

Navajo Wheel on the left, B-Mix on the right= same glaze on both

The best part is the clay will wash out of clothing!  The shrink rate is 15%, a little more than b-mix at 12%.  so far the studio glazes all have a nice fit with no crazing and they look gorgous on the darker clay.

I'll add updates about the clay as they come out of the kiln.

Happy Holidays

Teresa 

New Glaze Tests- Cone 5 Oxidation

Even though it takes a lot of time, I love playing around with the computer and chemicals to come up with new glaze recipes.  I recently mixed up 6 new attempts at various colors and came up with two I like.

The first is based on a very stable base for a matte glaze I already use with two of my colors "Sage" (formally Carribean Sea) and "Ocean".  With the new still unnamed glaze, I added 2% Red Iron Oxide resulting in this wonderful glaze.  The second picture is the new glaze on the top rim of a glossy transparent honey colored glaze I am playing with.  Love the two together, especially the way the they run together.

The other one I like but, will tweak some more is from recipe given to me by Hawaiian potter, Dean McRaine. I told him I have been working on a purple glaze for some time with out much success, he gave me Randys Red and said to add cobalt.  

Here it is on both light and dark clays.  I like the violet color, will try it with a little more cobalt for a darker shade.

Here it is with light blue dribbled along the edge

On  top of dark blue it has a slight pink cast

Enjoy!

Playing Around

I've had a blast just playing around in the studio the past three days!  So often, I get caught it with all which must be done; cleaning, organizing, marketing, pricing, working on special orders, replenishing inventory and more cleaning that I forget the pure joy of just working in clay with no deadlines, no specific project and no time restraints.

Friday, I decided to play hookey from "the biz" to enjoy myself, play and create whatever happened.  I threw 150 lbs of clay (3 boxes, 6 bags) yes, I am physically tired!  (Not to tired to got to Squaw tomorrow though :) )

Suddenly I realized another day had flown by... only took pictures of one piece before coming home.

I feel so rejuvenated! I hope you too can find some time to do something really fun, "all about you", this holiday season.