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
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