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Dippers, I Need Glazing Ideas For Many, Many Bowls


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there is going to be an empty bowl supper in st petersburg in march.  a large number of bowls have been bisqued and are waiting for a glaze application.  there are several colors of glaze in buckets but i am not at all familiar with them beyond looking at the test tiles hanging on the wall.  the tests are of single colors on various clays, none show an overlap.

 

using white with colors overlapped has worked for 50-75 or so of them.  after dipping the white, the opposite side is overlapped with waxwing brown, something called mottled blue or black and a final splash with a bright color finishes them. they have not yet been fired so i have no idea if they will look good together.  will the bright yellow spots show up on black?  

 

what other simple ways can i do the several hundred more?  they vary in shape and size plus skill level.  i have used cat, star and heart shaped sponge stamps on a few of the smaller ones but that is hard on curved surfaces.

 

my problem is that i want to keep it easy and yet attractive and not use up all the glaze in the buckets since making more is someone else's job.  and the real stumbling block i have is that these bowls will sell for only $10.

 

any advice is welcome.

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You can pour the insides then do the outers with another-or use one glaze then lip dip or three dies so the overlap is in three places or slash glaze them randomly .

This reminded me about 20 some years ago being hired to trim a 48 hour marathon throwathon of greenware fund raiser at a local high school. They where so overwhelmed with pots that needed trimming they hired two pros to trim it all-we did it in one day. What I learned is trimming 100 different potters work is not easy and its not for the weak of heart.

Good luck

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thanks, mark.  finger wiping came to mind when i read your post.

 

(some look like cowpies that have their sharp!!! edges turned up an inch.  i am buying some that i cannot possibly allow to get out of the glaze room and smashing them.)

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Dip the whole bowl in a solid color. Line up about 10 of these bowls and then carefully pour a little different glaze down the line -- best at the 1/3-ish spot. Each will be unique but the 10 will work together as a set. If the line is slightly staggered very little glaze will be wasted to the table on the pour.

 

$10 is too low of a price. $20 should be the minimum.

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good idea, matthew.  will try that.   i absolutely agree that $10 is an insult to the potters and to the public invited to buy something for charity.  some of the pots are well made and it seems a shame that they are not being respected.  

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I  remember a short clip of a potter glazing bowls by swinging a pendulum in an orbit above the bowls onto which a glaze trailer was attached. Like Mathews, glaze your bowl and place them close in a square or circular patten, fill a couple of glaze trailers and whoosh them randomly over the bowls. A family of bowls should emerge....

 

Also I f you haven't already waxed the bottoms, you may be able to save on glaze and time by just glazing the interiors and dipping outsides to part way down the sides, leaving an area free of glaze.

I am not familiar with the Empty Bowl appeal?? what is it about Oldlady?

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I have had to do a lot of bowls at one time, and used two colors, poured a thin coat on the inside of the one, then dipped the outside, and then dipped the first color on the whole thing, or 3/4. By suing two very compatible colors you can get some pretty good glaze breaking effects.

 

best,

pres

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both ideas sound good.  i have done some with the white on the inside and colors on the exterior.  splashes of another color, a bright red or yellow to liven them up go on the half/half ones and i used the shaped sponges on the others.  just wish i could see the fired colors before i do any more.

 

Babs, i believe the empty bowl started in denver, colorado many years ago and has spread all over.  each group of potters who support a bowl event sets up their own rules.  the one i do in virginia supports a shelter that deals with abused mothers and children.  we potters make the bowls, usually 20 or more each and deliver them to a very large church which donates its huge hall for the event.

 

 the local restaurants contribute containers of soup of all types, (a little rivalry has been observed) and the girl scouts act as hostesses for the visitors.  the tickets for the supper, soup and some rolls, a can of soda and a cookie for dessert, are sold by the charity in advance of the event, in our case for $35.   there are over 450 bowls ready by the time the crowd arrives.  people pick a bowl, change their mind several times and hand over half of their entry ticket at the end of the line. 

 

they get their soup in a clean plastic bowl and then they sit at large tables set with napkins, etc.  then the fun begins as each person, proud of his or her choice, shows all the other diners at the group table what a beautiful bowl is going home with the happy owner.  a separate silent auction of donated items or services from the local business community happens in the corner.  our last event brought a total of $18,000 in for the charity.  

 

we have been doing this for over 15 years and are well publicized in the area.  the st pete event is only in its second year and i think people just pay for whatever bowl they pick up and hand the money to someone at the clay studio.  the charity feeds homeless people in the area.

 

florida is a destination for many homeless men from all over the north and there are many of them here during the winter just like me.

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oh, no doubt i will bore all of you with results.  long ago, i had an experience with a bowl with no food in it.  that was a very long time ago and i hope it never happens to anyone else.

 

so if someone asks you for an empty bowl or maybe you see a notice at a clay supplier someday, you will understand why. 

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Sponsored by the NH Potters Guild, the (annual) Empty Bowls event raises money for New Horizons for New Hampshire (homeless and women's shelters/food pantry/soup kitchen). Empty Bowls is an international project to fight hunger. NH Potters Guild members make and donate ceramic soup bowls. For $20 guests choose and keep a handmade bowl and are able to sample soups donated by 16 local restaurants. 

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good idea, matthew.  will try that.   i absolutely agree that $10 is an insult to the potters and to the public invited to buy something for charity.  some of the pots are well made and it seems a shame that they are not being respected.  

 

I've been contributing bowls to the Manna food bank in Pensacola, and if I recall correctly, they charge $30.00 for the bowl, which includes soup from local celebrity chefs.  This is a good deal for the chefs, who raise their profile, and for the customers, who get soup and a nice bowl.

 

Here's a thought for decorating:  Have you thought about using resists made out of plastic sheet?  I've been doing that for 20 years, mostly for reserving slips, but it could also work for glazing bisque.  You take a simple design, print it on plastic, cut it out, then apply that to the piece.  Dip the glaze, peel off the resist, and dip on another over that.

 

Working with glaze, I wouldn't recommend getting too detailed, unless your glazes don't move at all.

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finished the last of them today.  w i p e d  o u t ...................  i must be getting old   have been in the recliner for 2 hours.  

 

when i arrived to start glazing, i found that the ones done before had finally been fired and put in boxes, all sealed up.  did get to see some of them.  disappointing results, the white was not very white and where the black overlapped it was green.  the splashes of color were inadequate, to my eye but the owner of the studio thought they were fine.  did not get to see any other colors.  

 

i just hope they will bring in some money and make buyers come back next year.

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glazing lots of bowls at once for empty bowls.

 

This works for me:  I usually choose bowls that are similar in groups of five or six for each technique (I get bored easily when glazing)

 

technique 1:
chose a glaze that is not fussy.
dip the bowls in the glaze.  Wipe the bottoms.
Make marks with a sumi brush on the glazed bowls with a second glaze that works well with the first.
Check the bottoms and put in the kiln.

 

Technique 2:
Chose a glaze that is not fussy and that changes character with glaze thickness.
Dip the bowl and then make marks with the same glaze using a sumi brush.  Clean bottoms and put in the kiln.

 

Technique 3:

Chose two glazes that are not fussy and play well together.

Dip part of the bowl with glaze A and then dip with glaze B with overlap.  Clean the bottom and put in the kiln.

 

Technique 4:
Chose two glazes that are not fussy and play well together.
glaze the inside with  the one glaze and then dip the outside in the two glaze. Use a brush to make marks on the outside with the one glaze over the two glaze. 

 

Technique 5; used when I know that the clay body is interesting fired without glaze:
Choose a glaze for the inside that is not fussy and plays well with others, especially iron oxide or rutile washes.
Glaze the inside of the bowl.  Make marks on the outside with an iron oxide or rutile wash  using a sumi brush.
Spray a solution of TriSodiumPhosphate from a spritz bottle sprayer on the outside of the bowl in a random pattern. The TSP solution will add some color to the raw clay surface - generally orange to red with a faint sheen depending of the texture of the surface. 
Wipe the bottom clean and put in the kiln.
Works well at cone 10 in a mild reduction gas kiln.

 

LT

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