Brian Thompson

Thanks again. I think I am going to go darker as suggested. I brushed some into the cracks and I like that I can wipe it away from the surface now without it staining - I mean, its helping me get the recess dark easier! One last round of questions for the community- If I'm applying Iron Oxide to a vitrified piece, how is it going to respond? And what is a good temperature to re-fire to just so the Iron Oxide adheres on? I can't seem to find the information on the internet in a way I trust.

Thanks for the responses! this is what I'm working with here. I sanded that little area on the medallion on his chest off. the surface was real smooth there and it sort of came off in an abrupt swath. I guess I'm worried that sanding it will make the piece patchy, but its largely all the same tone value now. It was a pretty light wash.

Hello, I have a figurative sculpture piece in a cone 5 white stoneware that I made poor Iron Oxide choice on. I put a fairly light Iron Oxide wash on over the entire thing as bisqueware, then fired it to cone 5. I'm O.K. ( or fatalistic) with about 90% of the surface, but the region of the head, which is a distinct area, is bothering me. There are some medals on the figures chest and i ran some super fine sandpaper over one and some of the oxide came up, the sanded area looks white. However that surface is closer to a burnished surface then the face is (I think) - so maybe the face absorbed more Iron Oxide? So I was thinking if I could sand off the face and... I don't know, some white glaze, or even try to underglaze and re-fire? My problems are a) I don't know how deeply Iron Oxide permeates a bisqueware piece, and b) I don't know when to stop messing with something. It may be I should just leave well enough alone. Just tried to put an image up but I'm not sure how to have a URL for an image, my carbonmade account isn't helping. Anyway, any sage advice would be appreciated .