Suitable glazes for highly textured pots

[jafa5]

 Hey guys,

More of an aesthetic question really but I was after some direction on the best glazes for highly textured pots.  I've made a few bowls like chawan but about 150mm across at bisque - see attached image.  I was looking to use a tenmoku or similar but think it's going to fill in all the lovely textured surface.  

So have made up a few iron washes and iron saturates (firing to cone 6) but was wondering if peo pl e had ideas for other sorts of glazes that would also suit a rough textured pot?

Cheers,

Liam

[Pres]

 Just Thoughts. . . . . Wood fire without glaze. What temp clay is it? What resources for firing do you have?

 

Otherwise,

A transparent semi matt glaze, Maybe even a black.

 

best,

Pres

[Magnolia Mud Research]

Spray with a solution of baking soda in water.   Works fine at cone 3 and above for me. Glaze will be a thin clear.  Twenty mule-team borax solution or tri-sodium phosphate solution also works. The TSP solution can produce a red color on some clay bodies. Do NOT use super-saturated mixtures. The glaze will be toooo thick!

LT

 

[Callie Beller Diesel]

An amber that breaks and pools would highlight the texture nicely. If you get the right recipe, putting it over your iron wash will help it grow some pretty crystals. 

[preeta]

How much effort are you willing to put in this project?

cone 6 electric?

studio glazes or store bought glazes?

sunshine cobb uses a store bought glaze that she overfires. She spent a lot of time testing to get her gorgeous results. 

Does every single texture have to show?

for your style of ware I actually prefer oxides - rutile or copper usually.  I put glaze over the lip.  

In general the test tiles usually tell you. Which break over texture. Which glaze is translucent. However every time you use any glaze no matter how they break you lose some texture. 

I also like using a light oxide wash under a translucent glaze. 

But I am with you. I too would like to achieve pleasing glazing on a pot that would look good in a wood kiln without it looking like false wood kiln finish. I haven’t figured it out.  

 

[LeeU]

To accentuate texture I like to only partially glaze with color, and leave the rest either unglazed or w/just a light clear. This is a commercial matte/elec. ^6.  (It's a card/letter holder for a desk top.)

 

[jafa5]

Cheers guys

I'd love to try wood fired but only have access to gas or electric kiln options for now.  This will be fired in one of the gas kilns to ^6 and oxidation.  Firing with a mate for this one and that's how he wants to fire.  Slow cool down, he is firing tenmoku and tea dust types so I might match that and run with oxides for the high textured pots and tea dust tenmoku for the rest.

I've only made my own glazes to date, as I have a lot of glaze materials that came free with my first kiln, so seemed a good way to go.  Unfortunately I have very limited experience but learning every day and every firing  this is my second batch of textured pots, the first I used a tenmoku but it covered a lot of the texture and was a little under fired.   They are going back into this firing and hoping for a better result.

I've made up a few textured tiles Magnolia and will look to test those, they look very interesting.  Might start raiding the kitchen cupboards to find some more haha.

This morning I made up a semi matte Pres and will try that on a textured tile.  It's from John Britts  mid range glazes and can be used as a base for tea dust and iron oxide speckles so I should be able to get a few tests out of it.

Pretta I'll check out Sunshine Cobb (thank you) and i'm going with the oxides for the textured pots, simple white glaze inside or a speckle tenmoku.  Seemingly quite a few use oxide washes under and over tenmoku glazes so seems like a good match for me with my mates firing next weekend.   I've made up 6 washes to test including a rutile and copper.

Yes Lee I like leaving the raw clay out too, especially red and buff clays, makes for a great feel in your hand.

Thanks guys!  I'll post the finished item if it doesn't explode.

[preeta]

Not to scare you but in a gas kiln you will get a range of results just from the flame itself. So take pictures of how you loaded the kiln. 

The washes will add another flavour. It might be hard to tell if the kiln or wash gave that look. 

[synj00]

On 5/26/2018 at 12:49 AM, Magnolia Mud Research said:

Spray with a solution of baking soda in water.   Works fine at cone 3 and above for me. Glaze will be a thin clear.  Twenty mule-team borax solution or tri-sodium phosphate solution also works. The TSP solution can produce a red color on some clay bodies. Do NOT use super-saturated mixtures. The glaze will be toooo thick!

LT

 

Baking Soda Eh? That idea is going into my next test batch. I hadn't thought to look into soda firing techniques for usable materials. Got any pics of ware glazed like that? 

 

Thanks,

Sebastian 

[Magnolia Mud Research]

the use of soda ash, borax, or trisodium phosphate solutions, or mixtures, or "A" over "B" layering depends on your application skills and technique.  I use a hand operated spray bottle with an adjustable nozzle that can be either a mist or a straight stream.  The spray pattern does matter.  
  
  
all pots are with a cone 10 stoneware fired in school studio reduction gas kiln.
  
image #3298 cup with shino inside and rim.  outside sprayed with soda ash without trying to get a 'uniform' treatment.  The dry areas are lighter hues and are less glossy.  
  
image #3333:  cup with raw kaolin crackle on a buff cone 10 clay body
the reddish spots areas were sprayed with soda ash solution.
  
  
Image #3449cropcrop-x4  shows a pond clay crackle; left shiny side was sprayed with soda ash, right side no spray
  
  
image #3449cropx-4-3-2 shows heavy coat of shino on rim, a swash across right with shino from a sponge, areas without (lighter hues) and with (darker red hues) soda ash spray. 
  
image #3451 closeup of dry area a bottom of 3449 showing contrasts of dry and sprayed areas.  Note the shino mark in top right.
  
LT
 

 

[curt]

Nice work, LT.  

Jafa, since the highly textured surface is in fact the main decorative element, you don’t want any other surface treatment that gets in the way of this.  To me, that means either

a) something very dry and thin as suggested above, applied all over, possibly changing the colour and tone,  which removes any visually distracting glare and shininess, thereby leaving the surface texture very proud very visible.  Do not use distracting colours or layers since these detract from the richness of the surface texture which is what you want people to see.  Or 

b) a breaking glaze that accentuates and highlights even the tiniest bump, adding zing (!) Or,

c) some process, eg wood firing, that accentuates the unevenness by colouring up the high points  while leaving the valleys bare, creating strong contrast between high and low, or 

d) hand applied stains or washes that are put on and then rubbed back to create contrast by making high points bare clay while leaving colour in the valleys.

[jafa5]

Fired pot linked below

Glossy white inside and over lip with an iron saturate on the outer

Fired to cone 6 gas in oxidation

Not the best photo but all I have until I pick it up on Tuesday. Fired at a mates place and called to wake him up at 6 am  to open the kiln and send me pics haha

 

[jafa5]

Really like the soda firing photos LT and will look at that when I'm back home.  They look neat on textured surfaces!

Thanks for the insights Curt, my previous textured bowls were all dry finishes and look ok, just not giving me the feeling of satisfaction that I wanted.   I think I like the tactile quality when I touch the piece as much as the look of the item.  I made a small textured pot along side this with a thin matte glaze that looks good but have to wait to feel it.  The other oxide pieces look awesome, but I have to wait to feel them.  Like burnished bronze with orange speckles and blue highlights in the deep cracks.  

I don't think I gave it enough thought as to how the glaze and the piece would work together so i'll take that onboard and apply that to my next series of pots.  Especially I now have 6 good test glazes from this firing and 5 oxide washes.

Fun stuff!

[oldlady]

very nice.   if this was not what you wanted, you were given a reward by the kiln for hard work or deep thinking or something.  beautiful finish.

SAVE THIS ONE!

[Magnolia Mud Research]

two other approaches I overlooked:

 1.  If a clear glaze is acceptable, is to use a low fire (cone 04) clear or clear matte glaze.  I have applied low fire clear with a sprayer to cone 10 work to seal the surface and gain some gloss.  I apply it thin with a sprayer and have never had the glaze to run; I think that because the glaze melts just above bisque temperature there is enough pore surface to "sponge" excess glaze. 
 
 2. Apply sodium silicate to the bisque either by sprayer or by brushing.  The sodium silicate will melt and react with the clay to form a glaze.  I haven't tried it except on test tiles as part of different set of experiments.  Control of application might require diluting the sodium silicate with water -- straight out of the bottle may be too viscous.  
 
LT