can this glaze be saved?

The last month and a half pottery-wise summed up:

•  Glaze tests on new glazes, but also layering old ones to see what works- still have a couple more I want to get to.
• Working out whether or not certain glazes I've had around a while are worth keeping.
• Trying out a couple of new (to me) hand building and wheel throwing ideas.
• Plans to pick a couple of directions glaze and decoration-wise to be my main "lines".  I know I've said this before but I'm serious this time.
• Some major studio clean and purge action.  Sometimes a hammer was involved.
• Ordering supplies, including some items for a printing technique I want to try.
• Reading almost endlessly about various printing techniques.

But I'll stick to just talking about glazes here. If there could be a positive to losing 99 % of my inventory in a fire it might be that it allowed me to let go of some things that weren't working so well, like glazes.  Fresh start, I guess. 
I have a propensity to experiment with new glazes.  Sometimes these little glaze tests (I usually mix up 200- 300 grams or a little more if I'm testing various coloration combinations) look great when fired on the test tile. But....sometimes the glaze doesn't meet expectations when used on actual pottery: The impact of the color and texture isn't as obvious on a test tile that measures only about an inch and a half wide by two and a half to three inches tall as it is on a cup or bowl.  Or, if it is prone to defects, such as pin holing, maybe it won't happen on that little surface.  In fact, I think it's guaranteed not to happen on a test tile. I had a few of these problem, or semi problem glazes taking up space in my little work area so I embarked on a Can-This-Glaze-Be-Saved project. Of the glazes I was considering for termination I saved one because it worked well when layered it with another glaze (pictures below), and one other which is still giving me problems but is so yummy I have to figure out how to make it work.  I don't make really large batches anymore so what was left of the few I tossed wasn't huge.  I used to make 5000 grams at a time, as in the better part of a Burger King pickle bucket.  I mostly mix 2000 or 3000 grams now.  If a pot is too big to dunk in that amount then brushing on the glaze usually works better for me. 

Here's one glaze, Blue Hare's Fur Variation in the Fetish Ghost's blog, although I actually found it first in Clay Times.  It is a nice iron blue with some variation where thin, but that's a very particular degree of thinness- too thin and it doesn't work.  And, for me, where it was thicker it was mostly a drab olive green.  One thing I haven't done is play around with the colorants, but playing around with layering it with other glazes has yielded some promising results.

Here it is alone with Randy's Red inside and on rim. A little overlapping of the two glazes where body meets the rim. This is not bad- less olive drab than usual.

 

 This is the Blue Hare Fur Variation over Licorice Black.  I like it. Subtle mid to dark blue variegation on a black ground, except for the brush swipe of a light blue opaque glaze which put a little violet in there! 

 

This is same light blue glaze over Blue Hare's Fur Variation.  Interesting.  Cloudy with a chance of...?

Tests, some new (of course), some variations of my existing glazes.  Ran out of test tiles so had to grab a knob.  Still some things to work out to get the results I want.- Always some things to work out.

 

 

sample board, new bowls, other stuff

I took a quick picture of this sample board before heading out to the market Saturday morning to meet the customer it is intended for.  The tiles are about 2 inches square.  Since they are only glaze samples I didn't take great care with exact size.  The end product will be 6 inch square tiles. I attached the sample tiles to this drywall board with Velcro so the customer can move them around to experiment with color combinations and streamline her choices.  These are some of the glazes she was considering, plus a couple of extra I threw in.  I was a little confused by some of the glaze combinations the customer was talking about so I thought this might help to clarify things for both of us.

 

Below are some bowls I've been making for the Empty Bowls Project.  I have made most of these in a chawan tea bowl style.  I would have liked to have gone a little looser with these if it were not for the fact that they are supposed to function as soup bowls.

Used two different clays- a tan stoneware and an almost white stoneware.

It's been slow going.  These bowls have been the first things I've thrown since the wrist problem.  I soon found out, even though the clay I am using for each bowl is only 16 - 18 ounces, that I had to limit myself to throwing 6 or 7 per day.  And it helps to take a day off to trim and take pictures for my Etsy shop now and then.

 

Salt pigs out by the kiln. I don't have many salt pigs left and had a request for one with one of my green glazes so made a few while I was at it.

I listed part of the succulent planters on Etsy and took the rest to the market. I found some inexpensive plants at Lowes and kept the rust colored planter in this picture for myself.

there's no place like home

That ran through my head a couple of times at the farmer's market Saturday.  I've been absent from the market for several weeks because of the shows I was doing.  It was quite the project getting set up again and I feel very lucky we have a building so I don't have set up and tear down every time. Business was great, which I was amazing because of the complete disarray my stuff was in.  People were buying before I was even 10 percent set up.  One couple asked if I had honey jars, which I hadn't unpacked yet.  I managed to find one pretty quick and was going to look for the other one I knew I had, but they said they were happy with the first one.  Decisive.  I like that.
I do have my slow days at the market. Wish I could predict those so I could just stay home and work.  It was completely unexpected that I would have such a good day in the middle of that setting up mess.  Nice welcome back.
Here's some vases from the last firing.  Same shape, different glazes-

I have another of this glaze combo at the market. Something I noticed when I looked at the  Harvest Moon show pictures was the dominance of decorative pieces.  I very much appreciate functional pottery and hadn't realized I was leaning so much into the decorative area until seeing those pictures.

Ahhh......Weathered Bronze.  I have a customer who wanted to see more pieces made in this glaze so I'll put these aside for him.  This is a very strong glaze and is not appropriate for just anything.  I lined these vases in a clear glossy glaze for easier cleaning and to make sure of the seal.  I am still learning with this glaze.  Every glaze has it's special characteristics:  how it acts where it breaks over texture, what it looks like where it's thin or thick, and how it reacts when it overlaps with other glazes or coloring oxides.

Focus, focus.  It seems I focused on the Japanese Lanterns and not the vase.  The Japanese Lanterns are very worthy so that's O.K.   These lanterns are a couple of years old but since I store them in a dark place when fall is over they retain their color pretty well.
Nice turquoise glaze.  I'm always thinking of phasing it out, though. Looks very anemic if applied thin, tends to crawl it it's  the slightest bit thick.  Customers like it, which makes the phasing out thing difficult.

I neglected my etsy shop all summer.  Mostly, I was unhappy with my photos so I let a bunch of stuff expire.  I did experiment with a different photography set-up but wasn't especially pleased with that, either.  I'll probably never be completely satisfied with my pictures.  I'm thinking of eventually taking it in a different direction:  I'd been kicking around the idea of carrying only decorative items instead of functional in my shop even before seeing this little trend in my show pictures.  I do have a number of non-functional items listed already.  Anyway, whether functional or non-functional, I've started the slow process of getting it repopulated.   





mystery albany slip

I made some more mugs in this plum glaze I like.  Some are for a customer, the rest will go either to the market or etsy.  There's something very attractive to me about this glaze.  At first glance, you think it's black, but then you notice the warm plum tone it has.  I mentioned this glaze in a former post, plum.  Now I'm trying to decide whether or not to mix it in larger quantities and how I'd like to use it.

 I find it difficult to capture the true color of this glaze with my camera, so here's two of my attempts. 

I found this glaze on a Clayart thread:  

Plum Gloss (cone 6)

Albany Slip     70

Yellow Ochre  10

Frit 3134          20

Isn't it great to only have three ingredients to weigh?  One problem- I no longer have the recipe for the Albany Slip substitute I used in this glaze.  I used to rely heavily on Albany Slip based glazes.  The real Albany Slip, that is.  When it got mined out I turned to making substitutes, trying to find one that would work with my glazes. I also tried a couple of commercially made Albany subs. The only one of my glazes that worked with the substitutes was a gunmetal color.  Eventually I gave up and started testing new glazes to replace the old.  About a year ago I cleaned out some stuff in my work space. One of the things I tossed was some Albany Slip sub recipes.  I figured I'd use up the sub I had left, then rely on commercially prepared ones if I ran across a recipe that calls for it.  Problem is, when I tested a Laguna Albany Slip in this Plum recipe it looks quite a bit different from my mystery mix.  

 These test tiles are (1)Licorice Black,  (2)Plum with my mystery Albany sub, and (3)Plum with Laguna's Albany sub.  It's very difficult to distinguish the first and second test tiles in this picture. Laguna's is slightly transparent and more glossy. These tiles all have a brush stroke of white slip going across the middle.  You can see that white slip through the Laguna tile.  I brushed Rutile Green from Bill Van Gilder over the Plum on the mugs and across one corner of the Licorice.  The Licorice (Ron Roy's) is a nice glossy black.  There's a swipe of white glaze under it- barely visible. I tested it because I wanted a good black glaze.  Another reason for testing it is I may be talking myself out of widely using the plum. When someone picks up a piece glazed with this plum I feel I have to tell them it's not black.  I know if they happen to have black granite counter tops, they might be in for a surprise when they set their new pottery piece down. 

I had this test tile in a previous firing. This is Graces yellow under Plum (top) then swiped across the middle over Plum.  I thought the interaction of the two glazes on the top was interesting.

Since that test looked promising I thought I'd try it with a couple of other Grace's based glazes.  Not the results I hoped for.  Something about Grace's yellow being high in rutile?