My recent two firings didn’t contain any of my own work. I finally decided to pay attention to the advice from ‘Totally Ceramics’ and my pottery neighbour Ysabella and used a commercial glaze. I had been trying to save electricity by firing my red earthenware pots in the same firings as the plates made with Wonder White earthenware but it seems I need to fire each clay to different temperatures. This time I just fired the white pots.
With less than perfect results using various low-fire clear glazes that I’d mixed up from recipes, I decided to try out Mayco’s commercial glaze. The bucket label for this dipping glaze (not brush-on) suggests that I bisque the clay to cone 04, and then fire the glazed ware to cone 06, with the thought that cone 05 might make it brighter and clearer.
So with some trepidation I did that with all the recent plates painted by Mina, Pierre, Michelle and Cindy, having tested it in a previous firing. This time I bisque-fired all the ware to cone 04 and I worried about how the glaze would adhere to a more matured clay body. I rinsed all the bisqued work to remove any dust. Next day I dipped each in the wide bowl of blue coloured glaze and am pleased with how it covered evenly. I took the glaze firing to cone 05 with no extended soak at the end, and then yesterday was SO pleased to find that all the pieces are smoothly and evenly glazed with the underglazes nicely enhanced.
I shall fire my own work as I always do, with a bisque firing to cone 06 and a glaze firing to cone 04 with a 30 minute soak at the end, so, without Raiders’ plates I must accept waiting longer to fill my kiln.
My most recent Raiding visitors were Mina, Michelle, Cindy and Pierre.
Pierre stayed with his black and white theme, the big plate is D in his series.
Mina really likes the square plates so finished two more. I have to show the backs of them as they’re just as wild as the fronts. I like her choice to use green on the round one. There’s a photo of all the work on the day I took it out of the kiln, showing that all but Pierre chose to paint designs on the backs. So I glaze the plates all over and use stilts rather than wax resisting the bottoms and leaving those plates unglazed underneath.
Michelle and Cindy had a day of choosing subtle quiet colours.
We already have another Raid scheduled for next Friday so I’ve been making some more slab platters. Today I threw a large circle of clay to bisque fire and use for a mould for the large round plates. That’ll be easier than trying to use a glazed commercial plate to slump the slab into.
After an afternoon in the cool of my basement studio attaching handles to a number of jugbirds, I must now take myself down to Port Moody Arts Centre for the opening of Ceramic Artist in Residence Malory Tate’s year-end show. I’m really looking forward to seeing what Malory has been up to during her year here. There are two other shows opening tonight as well.
