Babs

Well I never thought I would be at this for 50 years. It all started with this one show-its turning 50 this weekend in Arcata Ca . It will be my 50 show as well as the shows 50th year (we missed one for covid)
Its been a local event for my whole adult life. I should add a disclaimer that I'm one of the folks who is on the board and helps put the show on. We are called the same old people with lots of meeting budgets etc  over the course of the whole year. I am the only artist left who has done all 50. I have been on a corner for so long  selling pots thats its almost an institution . Now the local paper has a write up by our founder which spells out how the fair started and how it is a total community event (non-profit) Its a good read as Jerry is a great writer. Enjoy the history of this small town festival -Samba Parade on Sunday all speices parade on Saturday Both at 1 pm. Town is 15 k in size and has a town plaza (square) We get a huge turnout and some come from SF about 6 hours south as once you have seen on you always come back.
A Bridge Across the Years: The North Country Fair, 1973-2024
 
At the time of the first North Country Fair there hadn’t been a public event on the Arcata Plaza for three years. In spring of 1970, Henry Kissinger’s bombing of Cambodia had ignited “campus unrest” across the nation. Like now, administrators panicked, cops over-reacted, beat and jailed protestors. At Kent State four students were shot.
            At Humboldt State students brought their protest downtown, where the Kiwanis were having their annual barbecue. Amid the conflict of cultures and generations, a young man started a fire at the entrance of the Bank of America—now the Cal Poly bookstore. (Students had recently torched Isla Vista’s B of A because they were financing bases where bombers re-fueled.)
The fire scorched the bank’s entry, the young man went to jail, and Arcata’s chief of police declared no more public gatherings on the Plaza.
 
So Arcata was already divided when the freeway cut it in half. City Council members—five old white guys—were solidly behind it. So was HSU’s administration. Strange people had moved into town, opened shops that sold strange things. They mingled with students and faculty, became part of the college radio station. Students graduated, but didn’t leave. Started strange businesses of their own. 
These new people were against the freeway and organized to stop it, but it was too late. It was reduced from eight to six lanes, but still the middle of the town disappeared: entire blocks of old houses, a church, a restaurant, trees and gardens, apartments and residence halls. A neighborhood connecting college and town.
Stop at Six had a final meeting. After that bitter defeat, what could they do? One person-she was calling herself River at the time-said: We should give the town a party.
Inspired craziness. Just what we needed. But where?
Now it was 1973. Things were changing. The draft ended. 18-year-olds could vote. The endangered Species Act. Ethnic Studies at the College. Liberals on the City Council. But Chief Gibson’s rule hadn’t changed.
 There was another battle, but this time we won. The first North Country Fair was on the Autumn equinox of 1973. The plaza filled with music, food, crafts and services, businesses and nonprofits, and the townspeople and the students partied and shopped, ate and danced, and saw themselves as one community.
 
The biggest obstacle was again presented by the City: a million-dollar insurance policy and a whopping bill to pay the police to watch us. But eighty booths paid twenty-five dollars each and the Fair broke even, mostly by not paying ourselves anything. And there was this profit: lots of local artists, musicians, services and food places had their beginnings in those twenty-five-dollar booths and on that play-for-nothing stage. 
And there was also this, at the bottom of the mimeograph poster and application form: We believe the basis of our life and economy is cooperation and mutual aid.
Half a century later, the North Country Fair goes on for two days, with two stages, two parades and over two hundred booths. Its budget seems enormous, but it still runs on a shoestring. Crafts people and artisans and nonprofits still struggle to stay solvent. Musicians play for a small honorarium. This year there will be a chance for fairgoers to help pay the bands and keep the music going. Please contribute what you can.
 
Yet all these years later, the freeway and the college administration are still a divisive issue.
Caltrans has offered to atone for some of its massive ecological and social damage— $148 million divided with San Diego and San Francisco to compensate for engineered apartheid. Arcata’s share will be small, but there is already a plan for more engineering—The Arcata Cap-to put five-acres of reinforced concrete over Highway 101, from 14th to 17thStreets.
But the administrators and trustees of the State University, on the other hand, are still using every means possible to isolate itself from the town—and from its own faculty and students. There is far more interest in power than education. More than ever we need a college that is not afraid of the town, and a town that doesn’t try to fix all its problems with cement.
I call upon all of us, students and townspeople, to recognize and
 celebrate the spirit of the North Country Fair. Please join us on the Plaza on September 21 and 22. Happy Equinox,
                                                                        Jerry Martien
                                                                        Director Emeritus 
The North Country Fair 

There is some where a black which iz  acheived by a mixture of iron oxide, cobalt and Manganese dioxide. 
This doesn't discount the above info but certainly gets to a black black. Some primitive and ancient potters get a great black.

If painting on glaze I wouldn't use clay  on its own incase it hinders the onglaze marrying into the glaze.  I just use cobalt and water, or for a softer blue a bit of iron. To make it painterly a tad of CMC ...
I make up my glaze from ingredients but the recipe is one of Janet de Boos's 
Google Gerry Wedd an Aussie potter, Brilliant on glaze blue decoration.
@Min can I post that here?
Some folk sinter their pieces first to harden glaze surface then decorate, some spray with starch I believe. I wpnder if spra ying  after initial paint at one strength, then paint again, spray again at a different dilution would affect anything

It’s fine to write out glaze or wash, slip, claybody etc recipes  @Babs

Interesting that you use just cobalt and water, I guess I'll need to have a go at making my own glaze down the line.

Thanks for the heads up about Gerry Wedd, I love the surf themed pots and his illustrative style. 

If painting on glaze I wouldn't use clay  on its own incase it hinders the onglaze marrying into the glaze.  I just use cobalt and water, or for a softer blue a bit of iron. To make it painterly a tad of CMC ...
I make up my glaze from ingredients but the recipe is one of Janet de Boos's 
Google Gerry Wedd an Aussie potter, Brilliant on glaze blue decoration.
@Min can I post that here?
Some folk sinter their pieces first to harden glaze surface then decorate, some spray with starch I believe. I wpnder if spra ying  after initial paint at one strength, then paint again, spray again at a different dilution would affect anything

Search Linda Arbuckle, she demonstrates and gives recipes for majolica techniques. Very generous with info and technique.
I do basic brush strokes on a majolica base glaze to cone 5-6
with no movemene. Your glaze chem composition is key to no movement.

Hi, tired potter?
I have v late at night early morning glazed only one half of bowls ..light not the best, brain fatigue...if rest of kiln perfect, human error?
But worth investigating.

Search Linda Arbuckle, she demonstrates and gives recipes for majolica techniques. Very generous with info and technique.
I do basic brush strokes on a majolica base glaze to cone 5-6
with no movemene. Your glaze chem composition is key to no movement.

Search Linda Arbuckle, she demonstrates and gives recipes for majolica techniques. Very generous with info and technique.
I do basic brush strokes on a majolica base glaze to cone 5-6
with no movemene. Your glaze chem composition is key to no movement.

Hi, tired potter?
I have v late at night early morning glazed only one half of bowls ..light not the best, brain fatigue...if rest of kiln perfect, human error?
But worth investigating.

Hi, tired potter?
I have v late at night early morning glazed only one half of bowls ..light not the best, brain fatigue...if rest of kiln perfect, human error?
But worth investigating.

Hi, tired potter?
I have v late at night early morning glazed only one half of bowls ..light not the best, brain fatigue...if rest of kiln perfect, human error?
But worth investigating.

Hi, tired potter?
I have v late at night early morning glazed only one half of bowls ..light not the best, brain fatigue...if rest of kiln perfect, human error?
But worth investigating.

Different cracks have different reasons. @Mark C. has narrowed in on some principles behind your troubles. I see in the first group of photos a bisque that was too fast in its earliest stages along with pieces joined that are too dissimilar in their drying states. The work in this first group of photos is large and thick at the base. I see evidence of explosion from steam, it was not dry enough. Candling the kiln (around 200°F for 4-8 hours) prevents steam explosions. Clay contains moisture from atmospheric humidity, even after being dried for an extended period of time. 
The other photos also suggest attachments made of clay that is too different in drying stages to be confidently joined without cracking. Perhaps also the relative thickness of each section created tension that manifested as cracks. 
Paper clay and magic water/slip have their limits. Some principles of clay craftsmanship: Attaching clay to clay is best accomplished when separate pieces are at the same state of dryness/wetness. The dryer the clay is, the more difficult it is to join pieces without cracks forming. The larger the work, the more difficult everything is. Consistency of thickness is important to avoid stresses building up due to uneven drying.
It may not be relevant here, but for good measure I’ll mention this in relation to managing the stages of clay drying: rewetting a too dry piece does not revert it to leather hard. This practice tends to introduce more complications than it eliminates. I have seen many pieces ruined by the misuse of a spray bottle. 
Your work is beautiful. The flaws are manageable and relatively small, you will overcome them. Bravo, freshman. 

From what I can see they are most all connection issues and also to wet and to thick issues for the speed of the firing cycle.
More slip and scoring when connecting (more pressure and both pieces need to be same moisture) less thick walls will help. get the work dryer and slow firing is best especially for thick work.

You convinced me!!! Comes from not doing as many maths probs now.

For line drawing either cobalt oxide or carbonate will work-the only difference is strength of color-all other factors are the same.

As above, both! And the conversations and diversity in problems posted and processes followed.
Reading much and putting in a little over  the years have taken me to different depths of understanding of why working with clay is never boring.
So please keep the forum as it is.

As above, both! And the conversations and diversity in problems posted and processes followed.
Reading much and putting in a little over  the years have taken me to different depths of understanding of why working with clay is never boring.
So please keep the forum as it is.

Either-or;  both-and; yes-no. All-round value, entertainment, education, opportunity to support/assist others, respect & inclusion/all levels, ideas, connection, community, & a healthier place to be than at the mailboxes arguing w/the wrong-wing extremist from down the street.

Great, bringing back memories, all those "old" posters!
So free with recipes and advice.

Great, bringing back memories, all those "old" posters!
So free with recipes and advice.

Great, bringing back memories, all those "old" posters!
So free with recipes and advice.

I found two previous postings of HT 51, embedded in related discussions.