Shinos Coming Out As A Rather Flat White. (Gas Kiln Cone 6)

[Polydeuces]

Hey y'all,

 

I've been running some tests on a few shino glazes. It seems like shinos are more traditionally fired to cone 10, but I've heard they're doable at 6. I've tried a score of recipes and the majority of them appear smooth & white. It's attractive unto itself, but not quite what I'm going for, so I'm wondering what I might be doing wrong -- this last firing was in pretty heavy reduction from 1550 onward to cone 6. I suspect that the thickness of application may be in question, but even then I've applied the majority of them relatively thin. 

 

Thanks for your help!

 

Best,

Kevin

[Guest JBaymore]

Remember Japanese shino is actually a pretty white glaze.  American Shino is not.

 

Generally, cone 6 shinos that are trying to replicate American Shino look are not all that great.  One aspect is that the body interface layer does not develop as well as it does at higher cones.  The clay reacting into the glaze has a significant impact on American Shino.

 

See a very recent issue of Ceramics Monthly for a GREAT article on duplicating a high-fire shino look with cone 6 shinos.  It takes layering two glazes....but is pretty nice.

 

best,

 

...............john

[Dick White]

As John points out, there is shino and there is shino. If you are looking for the American style with orange and rust colors, 2 things are required - thin application and a some iron from the body, i.e., a brown clay. A thinner application can be achieved by slightly dampening the ware before applying the glaze. You can also spray some iron oxide wash on the piece.

[GEP]

Shino glazes used to get their orange/peach tones from an older, discontinued Spodumene, which contained some iron and other impurities. It had a very soft powder texture and was slightly gray. This Spodumene mine closed in the late 90s, and the stock ran out a few years later.

 

The new Spodumene is bright white and has an almost crystalline appearance, looks like fine sugar.

 

If you are using new Spodumene with an older recipe, you will only get white.

 

The shino fans I know have switched to recipes that contain a little iron from other sources, such as Goldart clay.

[glazenerd]

Great...just great. Now I have to develop shino clay. Why do you people do this to me?

 

Nerd

 

John, your input is not accepted at this time: after what I saw you doing to your clay.

[Marcia Selsor]

I have used Malcolm Davis' Shino successfully at ^6 reduction. It is not white.

Marcia

[yappystudent]

I have an easy ^6 cheat for this, sort of, since I also love the way 'American' shino looks; but this doesn't include the peachy blush bit: Slip paint your piece with a speckled buff clay first, then use your basic white glaze; I use a fairly inexpensive food safe white that is supposed to be an opaque classroom underglaze, in two layers brushed on with a hake brush. How much speckling and variation comes through depends directly on how thin I apply it, but it always comes out with that sort of pleasing ancient Japanese Wabi look. If I were going for the 'blush' effect, I might try and brush on an area of slip with more red oxide in it. If fact now I'm going to have to try this.

[Joseph Fireborn]

I have an easy ^6 cheat for this, sort of, since I also love the way 'American' shino looks; but this doesn't include the peachy blush bit: Slip paint your piece with a speckled buff clay first, then use your basic white glaze; I use a fairly inexpensive food safe white that is supposed to be an opaque classroom underglaze, in two layers brushed on with a hake brush. How much speckling and variation comes through depends directly on how thin I apply it, but it always comes out with that sort of pleasing ancient Japanese Wabi look. If I were going for the 'blush' effect, I might try and brush on an area of slip with more red oxide in it. If fact now I'm going to have to try this.

 

Can we see pictures of the final product? I am always interested in application techniques. 

[Dick White]

Lithium in a glaze can generate some toasty browns, and spodumene is a lithium source. Soda ash is also in many shino glaze recipes. Here is a recipe that works well for us, using the current Australian (Gwalia) spod.

 

OM4 ball clay - 17

EPK - 5

Neph Syen - 40

Gwalia Spod - 30

Soda ash - 8

 

Dissolve the soda ash first in some hot water, I even nuke it in the microwave while measuring everything else.

[Marcia Selsor]

https://www.pinterest.com/pin/532058143448252928/

Malcolm's Shino just uses the soda ash.

[Marcia Selsor]

 

Here are 2 examples of Malcolm Davis shino.

The left pot was smother on styrofoam popcorn for 2 weeks before firing. The outgassing created the dots in the glazed as a result on the soda ash merging to the surface while smothered. The one on the right had wax on the surface of the glaze to encourage carbon trapping. This was  during my time with access to a reduction kiln at UTB. and fired to ^6.Obviously much more work needed to get it down on the wax carbon trapping.

 

 

 

 

https://www.pinterest.com/pin/532058143448252928/

Malcolm's Shino just uses the soda ash.