Clay Mask

Isn't "Rocky" adorable?

We've always wanted a studio cat...Cory made him for the studio at Convention.  Until he came out of the kiln, she decided to keep him....

Oh well, we will be making more masks this winter...

About.com

About.com is a wonderful resource for potters with tons of great articles, techniques, definitions, pottery projects and more.  I have used the vast resources many times.

Beth Peterson, a potter, writer and teacher is the Guru behind About.com Guide to pottery.

I am excited that Beth has posted and commented on a picture of my Flower Power Casserole Dish in the gallery of her Impressed and Incised article.  I will definately do more of her projects in the future, they are a fun way to try new techniques as well as a great motivator for those times when I feel stuck doing the same thing. 

Creatively, Teresa

Slip Test Tile Results

Hummmm, not what I had expected... 

The picture actually shows the colors pretty well- they are very light and look washed out.  

The green is an olive green where as I was looking for a hunter green.  Except for the dark blue and green, I was hoping for bolder colors.

The vertical lines are a thick coat of each of the slips and the vertical lines are a thinner coat so I could see what the glazes look like on top of each other.

Back to the work.  I loaded a bisque load this morning and will do a little clean up before Drop-in tonight.

Teresa

Flower Power Pots 2

Flower Power finished pieces

Casserole Dish- the "pink" flowers were suppose to be lavender... seems the purple underglazes all lighten quite a bit at cone 5.

My favorite is the dark blue one with red flower.  Since the flower is raised, I have it opposite the handle of the mugs so you can drink left or right handed.

 

Mountain Scene using underglazes and Cream Rust glaze

Close up of a mountain scene, glazed in Peacock.  Beleive it or not, this is all one glaze; blue where thicker and green where thinner.

 

The flower was painted on using a purple underglaze.  You don't have to recaliprate your screen- it faded to blue while in the kiln.

All in all, i really enjoyed putting the flowers on, painting underglaze was a kick.  I like the way most of the samples turned out.  What do you think?  Which are your favorites?

Painting pottery.... I never would have thought...

Teresa

Colored Slip Decoration

Yesterday was a terrible day in the studio.... just one of those days where nothing went as planned.  I could not even throw.  Today was fun, I eased into the day by mixing up some batches of thick slip for decorating.

Slip is just a fancy word for way watered down clay to the point of being a thick liquid.  My goal is to have colored slip stored in small, airtight containers for painting on pottery.  Since ingredients for slip (and glaze) and based upon dry weight in grams, I had been saving scraps and letting the clay dry to "bone dry" and brittle.  I mixed 8 small (100g) test batches today using oxides and stains. 

Stains are put on pottery while the clay is still wet so the clay in the slip shrinks with the piece.  The B-Mix we use in the studio shrinks 12%.  Above is a picture of the test piece I made today using the slips.  Once dry, it goes in the kiln for the bisque fire, a clear glaze will be applied over the entire surface then back to the kiln for the second glaze firing. 

A picture of the results along with details of which oxides and how much were used will be posted after it comes out of the kiln.

Teresa

Low fire Commercial glaze at Cone 5?!

I've been playing around with some commercial low fire glaze and underglaze as decoration and addition combining with my Cone 5 glazes.

Color Chart- (by Cory Moore)

Commercial glazes lines up and down

Cone 5 glazes were painted on from left to right on top of the commercial glazes

(Top to Bottom- Purple, light blue, raw clay at "underglaze", celadon green, white)

It is really a lot of fun to see the spectacular results, especially the vibrant screaming red under my grassy green celadon glaze.

The purple (my favorite color) seems to fade to either violet or a dark blue, depending upon which low fire glaze I try.

When fired at low temperatures (04-06 range) these glazes stay in place with very little to no movement, on vertical surfaces at cone 5, they they run or "smudge" some.  I like the effect.

Element Chunkies look completely different at the higher firing temperature!  I love the way they still make crystals yet, they really run and "smear" creating wonderful effects, especially on texture!

I'll be playing with glaze effects more.... what do you think of the colors?

Positive thoughts for you today, Teresa

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!