In Between

white stone with black engobe; sgraffito; leather hard stage

In between arranging the new apartment, and packing the rented house, I also try to work from time to time. The gaps are bad for my technique skills, especially when I have been trying to work with porcelain. It all began because of the bad weather in the States; there was No shipping of materials for a long time, and therefore no B-mix clay, and no raw materials like fritt 3134, or flint for mixing new glazes. I looked for white soft clay, in order to be able to continue with my decorations, but the only clay I could get here was white porcelain, which was too much for my abilities.

porcelaine- a trial

It is probably a good time to use all the stock of clays I  have already had, and also to get back to the regular white clay, till mid June, when a new shipment of B-mix arrives.

Laguna buff clay with colored engobe plates

white stone clay; black engobe; sgraffito; leather hard stage

The firing went better than last time, almost no cloudiness on the transparent glaze, as I fired with quicker cooling according to Kitty's advice. these bowls are fairly large size; between 25 cm to 40 cm. diameter.

The largest bowl (40 cm) that needed dubble dipping because of it's size

Turbidity

It is as if my bowls felt my ambiguity concerning them, thus the opening of my second kiln was a bit of a bad surprise. Many of the bowls came out foggy, or turbid. I used Hensen's Transparent Clear Glaze recipe, one that I am mixing and using always and somehow, this time it didn't work well. Although in other times I double dipped half and half of the bowl without any traces; this time it shows very unclear, where the layers were overlapped. Pottery work could be so frustrating sometimes.

My beautiful butterflies are drowning in a milky glaze

so much work, and such a big disapointment

at least on these ones the fogginess is all around

these are of the few that came out great, can't see why?

I did like the rest of the tests with the brushed glazes though. Especially the ones I brushed with Gold Tenmoku. It did make some craters holes, but it was only because it probably didn't work well with the turquoise glaze. The color itself, is very beautiful, I can't wait to see it on a whole pot.

these are the plates with the right recipe of Saphire Blue