(10 January, 2001)
This morning, I took my first actual "I fired this myself" pot out of the 23" L&L kiln. It is a special pot in more than one way: not only is it the first thing I've ever fired, other than a glaze test; but it is also itself a glaze test, and the glaze is Serious Silliness.
Doug Humphrey's boat, Badtz Maru, was recently drydocked for repairs and had to have its bottom cleaned. They sandblasted it with some magical material made from coal slag. Chris Daniel collected a certain amount of the refuse from this operation, barnacle bits and all, and brought it back to the warehouse. He then sifted some of it to get a sense of the way it breaks down in use. I took his finest grit, -150 (read that as "passes through a 150-mesh screen"), added enough of the next-finest (-100) to get 50 grams, and mixed that with 10 grams of a high-boron, low- expansion frit, 38 grams of feldspar, and 2 grams of bentonite (helps it stay in suspension). Sorry about the sludgy pottery-tweak details.
I made a glaze test tile with it, and then I did The
Daring and Stupid Thing: Doug has said on more than one
occasion that he's happy to have experimental items, so
I took out my trusty
Critter 118 spray gun
and sprayed the stuff on a teacup. Here are some photos
of the result.
That's Dave McGuire's cat, Ophelia, investigating the base of the cup. Thanks to McGuire, btw, for the use of his digital camera. (Mine is in a state of disrepair after falling off my lap once too often on the bus in China, and is usable but only with difficulty. It will require resuscitation by the friendly Nikon folks. ...But that's another story.)
You may notice a date of 27 July, 2000, approximately
under Ophelia's nose (not sure whether it's actually
visible in the photo, but it is certainly present on the
cup). That's the date on which I carved the footring.
Yes, I know, I have allowed too much bisqueware to pile
up. As I develop suitable glazes, I fully intend to
reduce the excess. This glaze, btw, is not quite ready
for prime time. It still fusses and pinholes, as you may
be able to see in the third view. It's close, though,
and won't take much to fix. I really like the purple
overtones in the basically chocolate brown, most easily
visible in the second photo and possibly the third.
(10 February, 2001)
I can't dip pieces into most of my glazes, because in order to dip a piece you have to have a big bucket with lots of glaze in it. I don't have lots of glaze, so the bucket is moot. I get around this by putting on my dual-HEPA mask and my goggles, going outside, and spraying the glaze on. (Once I get to the point where I'm satisfied with a glaze, and as long as I have enough raw materials, I'll start making big batches in big buckets. I may still spray, though, from time to time, because the effect is different, and I like having the choice.)
Here, if I can make the magic work today, is a photo of a vase from the collection of Liralen and John and Jet Rostykus that has Badtz Black below, and one of my "magic brick clay" and wood ash glazes above. Hmmm... I didn't mention Badtz Black up there, did I? It's basically just the regular Badtz Brown, but with an additional 3% of cobalt carbonate. Looks about like this:
(20 March, 2001)
Here's another piece, this one using just the black glaze:
Pseudo-mailto: jon [at] bazilians [put it here] org
Last modified: Mon Mar 19 22:10:52 PST 2001
