F72111

I fired the kiln yesterday, the hottest day of the year, so far. Just would figure that would be the intersection between plans made and nature. It was brutal firing the kiln and the cat was even giving me these looks like; “what the h*ll were you thinking”. In my mind, I wanted the kiln fired to get some orders unloaded and packed and shipped out right away. Good customer service goes a long way and it is always a relief to have some things finalized. The other reason I was so stubborn was I wanted to see a couple pots in particular and a group of pots that were testing a new glaze.

As may be apparent for anyone on the outside looking in, I have a hard time leaving any one glaze alone. I seem to have a compulsion to tamper with, tweak, tear and re-assemble a glaze to see what I can get it to do. Sometimes this works and, well, sometimes it doesn’t. The positive results don’t necessarily make for a good glaze, the ones that don’t work, sometimes are dull, uninteresting or fail catastrophically. That is probably what makes this chemical tinkering fun and keeps me on my toes when it comes to glazing.

This firing had a half dozen pieces with a radically altered iron glaze that I have been working with. At first, a few of the tweaks were entirely random, then after a few firings I decided it was time to “engineer” an iron yellow glaze. It didn’t work over the temmoku as it used some of the iron and copper from the glaze and just came out like the iron glaze I was using. After thinking about it, I decided to try it over the clear glaze that I use. The first pod test was rather promising. In for a penny, in for a pound, I threw a group of pots this last cycle destined for the new Iron Yellow tests, glazed them up and waited for the results. The results are varied and show some promise and are directly related to the glaze thickness. Overall, it has given me some things to think about and certainly some ideas for the next firing.

Illustrated is a paddled stoneware water jar with clear and iron yellow glaze applied rather thin.The second pot illustrated shows two views of a stoneware bottle with hakeme slips under a clear glaze and the iron yellow glaze a bit thicker. It is immediately apparent, this is a really runny glaze, so glaze breaks will have to be planned into the pots I intend to use it on and secondly, it still maintains that Karatsu influence and style that I am currently playing with.



THE RESULTS ARE IN

I fired off the glaze kiln last Thursday and finally got it cool enough to unload by late Friday. Overall the firing was pretty good, though it was pretty hot at the top of the kiln and some pieces ran a little, at least not off the pot, except one larger covered jar. As my wife remarks, I need more glaze diversity in the kiln as this one was mostly temmoku and partridge feather iron with a few medieval green and haiyu pieces mixed in. I get in the groove of working with a new glaze combo and tend to forsake other possibilities.

The larger pieces and all of the serving bowls came out rather well, excepting the one runner. There was another very seriously close call on a larger covered jar as the glaze ran all the way to the foot and just crested the angle where the foot touches the shelf, but there it stayed.


Illustrated is wespeglas covered jar about 14” with long cascading trails of the partridge feather glaze over my temmoku. The close-up illustration is a group of three “lip-bowls” in the same glaze combination with pulled lips and stamped decoration around the bowls.

TEMPUS FUGIT

I spent yesterday prepping a small group of pots for glazing and then glazing them. Glaze, wax and more glaze as well as getting my group of new soda spar tests all lined up and on pods and rings. My glazes are a bit testy as the base glaze must be very dry prior to applying the second glaze. I think that is mostly due to the high clay content of the glaze. It has it’s issues, but in the end, I feel it is worth while. I have set up the tests for every conceivable use of the clear glaze, including uses I do not currently use and probably would not. I need to figure out if the Minspar 200 and the NC-4 will be a suitable substitute for the old F-4.

In the midst of trying to get everything done, phone calls, emails to answer, the wife comes home for lunch and I need to get a pot photographed to show a customer a time zone away. Though it has given the first glaze time to dry, things get rushed and time flies. It always seems to be the way, busy days get busier and down days are dreadfully slow.

I loaded the kiln last night and fired it off at a slow pace today. I am trying to control the cooling so it goes down as slow as I can make it for the best results. I hate this time, now the kiln has been fired and I can watch the intense fire color subside and I still have to wait until mid-morning tomorrow to see the test results as well as the pots and a small commission. Everyone says “patience is a virtue”, I would sooner have a ton of F-4!