QothW: What is your favorite technique of glazing and decorating?

[Pres]

Late this week, or early next week folks, but no new questions in the QotW pool, so I will pose another question.

When I started glazing in college, I had usually about 8 different cone 9-10 glazes to choose from in a studio that had a gas burning kiln that I believe may have been around 30 cu ft. The glazing was done with dipping, pouring and brushing with some splattering, but not much else.  I continued much with this form of glazing while teaching, but added some atomizers to the work especially when working with ^6 in the HS I taught at. I still used the other techiques at PSU when doing grad school work. Then when I started my own studio at home with the purchase of a kiln and a motorized kick wheel I did much more glazing with the atomizer over a base matt white glaze and finished with calligraphic brush work. These pieces were one offs, and worked well with a few base glazes, and underglazes used as inglaze. However I changed direction as the glaze I used for a base proved to be unstable in my firings, and I found the zinc often dulled much of the color. I moved to a glaze with tin as an opacifier, and played with tin/chromium flashing for a while. Somewhere along the way I lost the feel for the previous work, as the glossy glazes moved too much and the colors were not the same. Of late I have been moving towards more texture in the piece allowing the glaze to break the thin and thicken as it breaks over the clay textured surface. I still am not happy with the results, but everything is a work in progress. The atomizer has been replaced by a spray gun, the inglaze replaced by glaze colors over the base glaze that is buttery white with the addition of 1-3% rutile. All of my firing for the last 30 years have been electric oxidation  at ^6.

QothW: What is your favorite technique of glazing and decorating? Does texture of the piece play into your choice of glazing and decorating? What atmosphere and cone do you fire to?

 

best,

Pres

[Mark C.]

Just glazed two kiln loads  (35 cubic car kiln and 12 cubic updraft kiln) and loaded them for a 5 am start.Been glazing for a day and a half. Just like last week and the 6 before.

Been at this for 6-7 weeks straight now in a row. Just received my largest  natural gas bill I have ever had in a 30 day period in 49 years. That means I'm working  way to much

I brush (skunk and deer hair brushes) and dip the glazes and use a ear syringe as well. Dipping is faster and with this many wares its all that makes sense.

I am using aboiut 15 different glazes now-firing to a soft cone 11 gas reduction.

Only  28 days left until clay vacation  starts-that means stay out of studio and do paperwork and trim fruit trees

[rox54]

I accidently came upon a technique that buyers seem to love; I love it too. I was a real novice and just playing around on one piece in which I scraped off some glaze on a bisqued and dipped piece resulting in texture and a view of speckled clay. I tried avoiding the dust of dried glaze by using wax as a resist for slip instead, but the look isnt nearly as beautiful. For now, I'm wearing a respirator and performing the task outside, changing my clothes after. I am not a mass producer, so I am ok with this til I find a new aesthetic; not always easy to do!

[JohnnyK]

When I took my first Learning Exchange pottery class, brushing was what we were taught. Then I went to college and dipping was the way to go although I still did brushing at home. Once done with the college classes, I stuck with brushing. Right now, just about all my glazing is done with Amaco Potter's Choice and a few Celadon glazes, and layering is my method of choice. All are fired to ^6 in my electric kiln. However. I am experimenting with a ^5 black clay to see how it works primarily with the Amaco C-1 Obsidian. The next glaze firing will be dropped to ^5 to keep the black clay from bloating and, since the PC has a 5-6 cone range, it will be interesting to see how the glazes react on the black clay. I think I will fire the black separately and at the same time run some test tiles with the glazes that I normally fire to ^6 to see how they react at the lower temp. B-Mix ^5 is my current clay of choice, but I'm going to do some work with ^5 B-Mix w/grog to see how it throws with larger pots...

[Min]

On 11/26/2021 at 7:53 AM, Pres said:

What is your favorite technique of glazing and decorating?

Honestly, some days my favourite technique would be to get someone else to do it. 

[Mark C.]

4 hours ago, Min said:

Honestly, some days my favourite technique would be to get someone else to do it. 

I'm getting there myself

[oldlady]

plant materials are used in 90% of my work.  and the glaze is green, normally.    was really surprised by my adult daughter's reaction to seeing a butterdish with citronella leaves and the typical dragonfly.   she was walking through the studio when she spotted it and actually stopped in her tracks in excitement.   neither of my children are interested in making pottery, a disappointment to me but she was amazed by the depth of the green glaze.    actually took several minutes for her to adjust to the normal sort of "so what" reaction.  thank you, Min.  i would help you glaze if you were a little closer.

i single fire to cone 6 in an electric kiln.  sometimes a refire is necessary because i spray the glaze and sometimes miss a corner or a side.   refiring to cone 6 with a slow glaze allows those pieces to become sales.

[LeeU]

I like making textured objects-stamped, incised, carved, run over by a cat----whatever produces nooks & crannies, rips, cracks, scraggly edges, holes etc., and then brushing glaze just across topmost surface  so a little--or a lot---of the bare clay shows. I also single fire electric at cone 5 or 6, with a slow cool. The sample pic is a spoon holder. 

[GEP]

Lately I’ve really been into hakeme.

 

[Hulk]

Cone 5, ox

Texture, yes, chattering; turned cuts, burnished; sometimes freehand carving through brushed on slip.

Mostly one or two tone exterior, liner glaze, sharp boundry at the lip, all dip and pour. I'll use tape, where the incised and burnished cuts offer a guide.
I'm keeping it fairly simple at this point. 

[JohnnyK]

Old Lady and LeeU...are there any special considerations to keep in mind when doing single firing? I'll be doing a glaze firing in the next couple of days and I have some greenware that didn't fit in the last bisque firing and I'd like to give the single firing a shot with one or two pieces to see how it works out.

[LeeU]

On 11/29/2021 at 11:01 AM, JohnnyK said:

special considerations to keep in mind when doing single firing

Alice (oldlady) is the expert here & she turned me onto it. Steven Hill  is a major master, easily accessed online. A comprehensive book is Single Firing by Fran Tristram. There is an area of my life in which I deliberately seek "the easier, softer way" and that is ceramics--so I stick mostly to the L&L firing program and don't mess with it-tho Hill's firing schedule is real easy to do.