Friday, March 20, 2009

redux.

I fired off the gas kiln the other day and had quite a few pots in it. I needed to fire a dinnerware set and I had a student that needed to fire some work for a show but between us we still didn't have enough so I glazed some demo pieces from last semester, some more plates, and brought some pieces from the last woodfiring that had some pinholing issues. The firing was successful though I lost some pieces to runny glazes.

Here is an interesting enigma: both of these teapots have the same glaze from the same bucket. The one on the right was slightly underfired from the wood kiln and had some pinholing so I thought I'd pop it in the gas kiln and see what would happen. The extra pooling I credit to being fired twice but I don't understand why the glaze comes out so much darker in the wood kiln. They're both nice though I wish they could all look like the one on the right. The plates in the background are part of the dinnerware set.


These sideways plates are with the new batch of ash glaze. Same formula as the previous photo but with 1% less red iron ox. This batch of glaze is much runnier than the previous. Half these plates are going to need some grinding and will probably end up on the seconds table, that's ok-it's looking pretty empty right now.

That's all I have for now, everything else in the firing was pretty bleh to me, some of it will end up on the seconds table as well. Oh well. I guess I'm proving yet again that the gas kiln is not my calling. Woodfiring on monday so you may not hear from me for a few days, cross your fingers.

Cheers!

3 comments:

Craig Edwards said...

Good firings!!

Ron said...

I like that teapot on the right for sure. Maybe just the different atmospheres in the firings. The clay looks much darker. More reduced?
Don't forget to have a PB&J before your firing.

Tracey Broome said...

I like the ash glaze, but I think you're right, your forms are just made for the wood fire. love your teapot shapes!