Understanding Core Materials

April 13, 2015April 13, 2015 ~ Sebastian ~ Leave a comment

Years and years ago I got up the courage to develop my own black and white film after reading an article that gave me the very basics in a way that I could understand. That understanding only took place after researching over the period of many months.

I’m experiencing the same thing with glazing. After seeing the results of cone 10 glazing and seeing the depth that it creates I’m ready to take it on.

Cone 6 in oxidation just pales in comparison. It looks as if there is a film of glass on top of some clay. Sure some of it looks good but cone 10 just has something that makes it sing. It’s as if the glaze is a part of the clay itself.

This article from Ceramic Arts Daily, along with John Britt’s excellent books on mid range and high fire glazes just pushed the right buttons for me and I’m ready to go.

I had previously bought chemicals for some cone 6 testing so I have a lot of 2 gallon buckets with a lot of the chemicals I need but cone 10 calls for some specifics. So I’m off to my supplier in a few days to pick up the rest of what I need.

I’ve made up some small pinch pots to test without fear of melting stuff to the kiln shelf. These will also be to test the creation of a black englobe to go along with the buff white clay body I’m using. I want to get 2 complimentary glazes, and with the color of the at body and a black englobe I will have a decent start for decorating and making functional wares with my OWN glazes.

I’m very excited to get some good reliable glazes:

Temmoku
Celedon
Oribe
Cream White
Nuka

🔥🔥 I’m fired up! 🔥🔥

Motif

March 30, 2015March 30, 2015 ~ Sebastian ~ Leave a comment

From Wikipedia – In music, a motif or motive is a short musical idea, a salient recurring figure, musical fragment or succession of notes that has some special importance in or is characteristic of a composition: “The motive is the smallest structural unit possessing thematic identity”.

In my last firing I started thinking about decoration of my vessels. After a decade in photography I realized that I had an enormous amount of knowledge and was able to solve just about anything that came along. I had my own language.

So now I have a template to go by for learning and mastering what I want to create in ceramics. The template is repetition, the ability to solve problems and exercising your imagination. Once you get it rolling you are able to create a motif of your own with infinite variations.

Small guinomi / shot glass from the recent firing. Nuka over Temmoku on white clay body in cone 10 reduction.

“Repetition is the mother of learning, the father of action, which makes it the architect of accomplishment.”
– Zig Ziglar

You start with the basics: Color & Texture.

Single Solid Color
Blending of two or more solid colors
Floating colors
Creating Breaks
Where do you create the delineations of colors / textures / shapes
Color Combinations – What looks good together
The breaks can be on any part of the vessel, what parts look good?
Patterns, both in color and or texture
Other things I cant think of at the moment

The sketchbook is out and I’ll try on paper each variation and combination and see what suits me. The happy accidents are the deviations that can lead you down a new path.

Celebrating Failure

January 5, 2015January 8, 2015 ~ Sebastian ~ Leave a comment

Pretty much everything that could have gone wrong with this last firing has gone wrong.

OLYMPUS DIGITAL CAMERA — Crazing reduces the strength of the vessel by up to 80% A short drop to the wooden floor split this right in half.

Even a bit of reduction in part of the kiln. Although I must say the reduction looks beautiful!

I’m picking up some dry materials to start testing my base glazes. At least I know that my chosen clay body tolerates overfiring very well.

I’m getting some witness cones (5, 6 and 7) to stack on each shelf and see what they do. I don’t understand whats happening yet. Olympic says that the kiln usually underfires if something is wrong rather than overfiring. The company that makes my clay body says that blistering happens from overfiring. The cones should tell the tale though. I need to get that straight before I drive myself crazier than usual.