Hi Fire Ceramics project

12/16/02  I mailed the pieces for the annual Pottery Lottery last week.  Every year, after all the presents have been opened, we have a lottery of my pieces.  Everyone draws a number, and then the lowest number gets to go first etc.  I have 4 sisters, 2 brothers, Mom and Dad, one teenage nephew, and a few extended family members who participate.  Here is this year's pottery up for grabs:

12/16/02 I got the very first Albie bowl back.  The firing it was in was  unsuccessful for anyone who wanted a reduction environment, but it didn't matter for my bowl.  That's the beauty of my system: the firing can be reduction or oxidation, and the piece will still come out.  I don't don't have a picture of the finished bowl, but I'll add it as soon as I do.

11/30/02  The "woodcut" look sort of blended in the high fire.  It's also a deep blue.  It's just okay, really.              

My second experiment was much more successful.  I painted the image with slip that I made up.  the slip is 150 grams of Kaolin, 50 grams of silica, and 20 grams of Cobalt Oxide.  I used that for my dark "paint" and a porcelain slip from my slip bucket for my white.  I like the blue a lot, but I may add black to the next one to have a little more contrast.

here's my new project.  I'm still working on the painting...

10/28/02  I'm trying to develop a method to paint on high fire ceramics with slips.  It's a way to incorporate my interest in fishing with my interest in ceramics.

I've done a few test tiles with B3 Brown, which fires to black at cone 10, but it might melt.  I haven't gotten those tiles out of the high fire yet.

Then I made a porcelain slip from scratch.  it's 100 grams of Kaolin, 50 grams of silica, and 20 grams of Cobalt Oxide.  Don't know if it will be black or blue.  I carved into the slip to make it look like a woodcut, reminiscent of the pictures in Moby Dick.

Check out my Los Altos Vase with a slip design too.