Porcelain finishing experiments

[catta 0]

Hello, 

I am making some porcelain work for an exhibition and I am hoping to achieve a finish on the porcelain that slightly resembles the Japanese sand wall plaster technique:

https://habitusoutlet.com/portfolio_item/wara-juraku-wall-finish/

 

I was wondering if anyone knew of any techniques of adding plaster/sand/grout to fired porcelain? Or if not if anyone knew of any glazing methods that could help me reach a similar effect. I would quite like the finish to be quite textured.

 

Any help would be appreciated, 

 

Thanks

 

[Bill Kielb 583]

The texture appears to be simple so any texture mats etc.... work fine. On glaze techniques or underglaze without a final glaze gets that flat appearance. I assume you want a sandy finish with the various accents so no need to glaze with anything glossy actually.

Just one idea though.

[Denice 604]

You might search around on U-Tube for the technique that is used for this sand finish.   They may not speak English in the video but you can figure out what they are doing.  Denice

[Magnolia Mud Research 591]

9 hours ago, catta said:

I am making some porcelain work for an exhibition and I am hoping to achieve a finish on the porcelain that slightly resembles the Japanese sand wall plaster technique:  ...

I was wondering if anyone knew of any techniques of adding plaster/sand/grout to fired porcelain? Or if not if anyone knew of any glazing methods that could help me reach a similar effect. I would quite like the finish to be quite textured.

 

My assumption is you are making items that are decorative art rather than utensils for food or similar functionality. The following are approaches I have successfully created texture:  

0. the texture most likely will NOT be easily obtained with glaze; therefore, accept the surfaces will be unglazed ; a wash with baking soda at the final firing might provide some shine to the surface after firing without significant change to the texture.  

1. Add fine sand to the surface layer of the porcelain; various sand sources and grain size are available from almost everywhere; I get mine from the street, around the ponds and water holes, and occasionally from a sand pile.  Mix the sand with a little thin porcelain slip, and smear on at the leather hard stage, or even at the bone dry stage. 

2. use a cone 10+ porcelain and fire the ware to several cones below the maturity .  the surface will be porous and can be textured with coarse emery paper to produce a an even rougher surface; pastel art sticks or colored chalks can be used to add color to the surface after the final firing; if you are firing with say a cone 5 porcelain, use a cone 10+ porcelain slip as a finish layer where the texture is needed so that the surface will remain porous.   

3. apply a kaolin or fire clay slip (or dry) layer to the surfaces of the where texture is needed; application is done at the wet leather hard stage;  

4. use a piece of coarse sand paper as a 'stamp' to impress texture to the surfaces at the leather hard stage.

5. Sandblast the surfaces either at the bisque or mature fired stage to raw (unglazed) areas.  

6. use rough concrete surfaces as "stamps" to create texture at the leather hard stage.  

7. combinations of the above. 

LT