FASCINATED by this surface! thoughts?

[HeatherArtLife]

I have a deep and enduring fascination (infatuation?) with Japanese ceramic surfaces, but modern matte ones get me weak in the knees. I have been crushing all over Hashimoto´s black crackle slip/engobe, metallic cracks, and overall textured slip surfaces (check out those interiors) for about a year. Hive mind, how does he do it?

Composition ideas? Kohiki "light" with manganese? Double firing? I´d love to experiment with similar textures... but don´t find much info out there on formulating this texture. 

Cheers and love from Chile!

xo - Heather

[HeatherArtLife]

up 

[Magnolia Mud Research]

I don't use slip. 

 I use either dry clay or a paste.  

I gave up slip because the drying time was too long, and slip did not allow me to create variable thickness which adds effects on the appearance.  

wet the form, then apply, sometimes treat with heat gun, or stretch to produce the surface cracks, or both.  The dry materials soaks up the wetness. 
very simple, takes practice to find the timing between steps; 
each material has its own optimum application thickness and timing.  

I work at cone 10 but the technique works for all firing levels.  
I sometimes use powdered low-fire clay bodies on the cone 10 substrates.   Works fine.    Have also added sand from a road or a sandbox; crushed bisque ware also added to the paste makes interesting surfaces.   

LT

[Callie Beller Diesel]

I would venture that whatever they’re using, the formulation might be reliant on Japanese materials that may or may not be available elsewhere. If he’s not publishing his recipes, that means you’re going to have to backwards engineer it yourself. While a lot of work, it’ll ensure you’re making your pots, not someone else’s.

That black slip looks like it’s some kind of refractory surface, with something more fluid oozing through. It could be a material (some kind of low fired clay?) that’s subjected rapidly to some kind of thermal shock at a given temperature that hardens/shrinks the outer layer while the stuff underneath continues to flow somewhat.

It might be a layer of clay added over top a thin layer of something more fluxed. Not sure I’d go as far as to call that last a glaze. 

If I was trying that last suggestion, I’d try painting some sodium silicate onto bisque, and covering it with a thin layer of  dark clay slip that has iron/manganese. Think about how LT describes using paste or dry clay. You could also run some experiments applying that same at different stages of dryness. 

It would not be my personal choice to put that matte/manganese surface on the inside of a drinking cup, but I have North American sensibilities, not Japanese ones. I’m not sure how folks view that sort of thing in Chile, or even if you’re planning on making any kind of functional ware for anything other than personal use.

 

[HeatherArtLife]

Thank you Callie and Magnolia. I’m definitely interested in experimenting to find my own expression of textured surface, but loving the flow of ideas as we consider options to help start in a close approximation.

 

What I do know based on things Hashimoto has shared is that this is only slip. And the demo videos show a very liquid glaze-like consistency poured and brushed.  I have the sense in the case of the black that he slips, it crackles before or during the first firing,  then he slips again and wipes. At least that’s what I’ve seen in videos.

 

Like any deeply interested student, I’d love to closely replicate this to grow it in my own direction and see what I truly enjoy with this kind of surface. I am happy to start with recipes and experiment from there. I don’t have much access to generous well-taught American-style teachers where I live. So ya’ll are my “call a friend” ha ha.

 

I have a lot of supplies ie colorants, fluxes etc from the states (where I’m from). But I’m very much a novice so hoping some generous person here will share their insight regarding this from a slip perspective. 
 

Also, I’m just geeking out.

Thanks all!

Cheers!!

 

[Pyewackette]

You know I used to stress a lot about being "original".  Then I finally realised, creativity in human endeavour pretty much precludes true originality.  Somebody somewhere is bound to have had the same thought and applied it, and most likely hundreds or even thousands (or more) of times. 

I insisted on equating "original" with "unique".  You can have a thought that is original TO YOU even when that thought has already made the rounds of other creative individuals for the last ten thousand years.  Learning a new technique doesn't make you a copycat.  Because once you have learned that technique, you will be applying it with different hands, a different mindset, a different aesthetic, different materials, different equipment.

It is yours simply because YOU are different than whoever you learned the technique from.

[laughlin]

I bet John Baymore would know.

[HeatherArtLife]

On 5/8/2022 at 11:15 AM, Pyewackette said:

You know I used to stress a lot about being "original".  Then I finally realised, creativity in human endeavour pretty much precludes true originality.  Somebody somewhere is bound to have had the same thought and applied it, and most likely hundreds or even thousands (or more) of times. 

I insisted on equating "original" with "unique".  You can have a thought that is original TO YOU even when that thought has already made the rounds of other creative individuals for the last ten thousand years.  Learning a new technique doesn't make you a copycat.  Because once you have learned that technique, you will be applying it with different hands, a different mindset, a different aesthetic, different materials, different equipment.

It is yours simply because YOU are different than whoever you learned the technique from.

Love this and totally agree!