DRIFTING IRON

Once again relying on an old tech stainless steel glaze atomizer, I have been running tests using my iron clay stoneware, stoneware slip, clear glaze and a good even coat of the sprayed oxide glaze. Though the iron/manganese/cobalt overglaze was sprayed on as a thin even coat, it seemed to run, drift and pool at various spots on the surface where gravity played as much a role in the final appearance as anything that I did. As you can see in the detail shot, the oxide rich glaze just seemed to drift down the natural channels created by the slip creating an interesting tiger stripe style pattern which of course echoes the contours of the surface. Overall the addition of the overglaze gives the piece a rather earthy, gritty appearance that accentuates the texture and form and plays well in a variety of light sources. Truth be told, the use of this technique is going to take some getting used to as there doesn't seem to be any way to control the surface or determine a predictable outcome and of the group fired where one piece had to much glaze sprayed over it came out very dark and quite honesty a bit dull. I have a few other oxide combinations that I have in mind and we will see what other surface are possible, I suspect that if you start adding up all of the possible combinations of two, three and four oxide/carbonate mixtures that I have a lot of work ahead of me. First step, I'll need to make a lot more test pods.

"If life were predictable it would cease to be life, and be without flavor." Eleanor Roosevelt