I have relocated

I haven’t posted here in a while, because I have been posting over on instagram instead. Find me at @kimmacat or The Wild Clay Club on FaceBook.

Southern Ocean

Some test bowls glazed with my latest glaze, Southern Ocean. It’s inspired by another glaze I’d used a lot, Blue Skies. But soda feldspar, which is in the other glaze, is not available in Australia at the moment, and the tin oxide in it is expensive. So it’s been reformulated with potash feldspar and zirconium instead.

These bowls were sprayed with glaze, which is how they have the pretty gradient on them. This glaze is very sensitive to thickness which makes it not very good for brushing. Dipping will work if you’re careful.

They were sprayed on the bottoms and then wiped, with only a tiny bit of bare clay but they didn’t run or stick even a little bit. I do like being able to glaze inside the foot ring.

These bowls were fired at Cone 8 in oxidation. I don’t recall whether these bowls were PB103 or porcelain, but this glaze should fit porcelain or stoneware.

Salt Pigs

I got a request for a salt pig from a guy I know. I’ve never made one before and didn’t even know what they were before he asked. A little research though tells me the pig part is a Scottish thing meaning earthenware jar. The pig is meant to be unvitrified and unglazed so it will absorb moisture to keep the salt dry.

It does not mean it’s meant to look like a pig, which a lot of people miss which is why most salt pigs are ugly as sin and why my friend didn’t just go buy one.

I wasn’t sure if it was better to use high fire clay and low fire it so it didn’t vitrify, or earthenware clay, so I did both. I did 2 from porcelain, 1 from white earthenware paperclay and 1 from a high fire wild clay.

The first 2 were closed forms with holes cut in them, which would require spoons, and the last 2 are round bottom bowls topped up and bases added, which should allow for pinching the salt.

Icy Blue and Southern Ocean

These are a copy of Blue Skies, except:

- I have added a specific frit that I actually have access to

- had to swap out Soda Feldspar with Potash Feldspar because it's still not available to buy

- for Southern Ocean I have subbed Zircosil for Tin.

While I was at it, I adjusted the flux ratios, but it is at exactly the same place on the graph as Blue Skies.

So not really the same glaze at all.

Blue Skies: https://glazy.org/recipes/22228

Icy Blue: https://glazy.org/recipes/38238

Southern Ocean: https://glazy.org/recipes/38239

Wild Clay Test Tiles

From 12 different locations around SE Queensland and northern NSW, resulting in 12 different colours. The biggest surprise was YR, which was dark chocolate brown to start with and came out almost white. The other pics are some flaws that happened during the firing. The are just bisque atm. Fired to 1100°C or approx  Δ02.

Next step: methodically testing the firing temps of all the wild clays I have. I have 14 of them so far, and I’ve made test tiles for 5 so far. You can see I’ve stamped each tile with the cone I plan to fire it to. On the back I have initials for each clay. That way I can’t forget what each tile means.

I’ve been commissioned to make some cups. She wants the sort that have an indent for your thumb instead of a handle. She has asked for 4, but to be safe I made 6 from porcelain, and then 2 more from Kedron Brook wild clay, just to see how they turned out.

For the glaze, I suggested one I tested before but have never used on anything. It’s meant to be for porcelain. 

I made these little bowls for a friend recently. I was doing a class at a place that provides glazes, so I used some of theirs. They crazed really badly and when I mentioned it to the teacher he said “Don’t all stoneware glazes do that?”. I’m like “No, none of the ones I make do...” It’s a bit crazy that they are there teaching ceramics and they can’t even get their glaze fit right. Admittedly it’s a recycled clay which is a mix of lots of things, but they could at least try to get it to fit better than this, and not tell students that crazing is just to be expected. /rant

I have been so busy working with my wild clay I haven’t had a chance to post about it. This is 3 different wild clays fired to bisque. Samford Grey, Cooroy and Kedron Brook. Samford Grey is a dark, grey-brown clay when raw. It bisques to this bright orange and fires a dark, changeable, reddish brown to about cone 6.

Cooroy is a peachy colour when raw. It bisques to a very similar colour, and fires to a creamy stoneware. I haven’t finished testing it yet, but it’s at least cone 8.

Kedron Brook is a milk chocolate brown when raw, bisques to this bright orange and then fires to a dark chocolate brown at around cone 6.

Turquoise glaze tests

More details coming

Green and red utensil holder

Made from very groggy reclaim clay and fired to cone 9/1280C in oxidation.

Glazed in 3 glazes - Moss, almost all over and inside. The rim dipped in Buttermilk. Not sure if it was over or under the Moss, but it looks like under. And then Ohatu red on the base. This would have been painted on since the container I have of it is quite small.

The Ohatu was meant to be fairly vivid red, but it came out brown instead.

Ohatu Red

This recipe is supposed to be a way to get a bright red in oxidation. It came out quite bright on some of my test tiles and on my test bowl, but when I have used it on larger things it has just come out brown - basically rust coloured.

The key to it is to high fire and then refire low. These were re-fired with a load of bisque. So cone 9 first, then cone 04.

The test tiles are:

1, 2 and 3: 1 to 1 with water, 2 dips. BRT, reclaim mix, PB103 4: water added, 3 to 4 with water, 2 dips. PB103 5: 3 to 4 with water, 1 dip. PB103

The Recipe

The recipe didn’t specify potash or soda feldspar, so I tried both. The first photo is soda feldspar and the second is potash feldspar. I don’t recall which is on the test bowl.

48.7   Feldspar 21.6   SIlica 9.9     Bone ash 7.2     Calcium Carbonate (whiting) 6.3     Kaolin (eckalite) + 11   Red Iron Oxide  

I was told it comes up amazing on porcelain, but I tried it and it looked like trash. Maybe I didn’t put it on thick enough though.

Delft etched utensil holder

The vessel was etched with lines while leather hard, and all the blue around the bottom is a results of turning, as it was a very groggy mix of clay. I quite like it though - it makes me think of a field of flowers. It has a sense of perspective from the marks getting smaller toward the ‘horizon’.

The blue is an oxide mix:

5  Cobalt oxide 4  Red Iron oxide 1  Manganese Dioxide

Contrast this with my previous cobalt washed bowl, which just had cobalt carbonate in it. This mix gives a deeper, midnight blue. The oxides were mixed with water. I brushed it on, wiped off the excess and clear glazed over top and inside.

The last pic is to show the scale, and how it might look in use.

Cumulus

A glossy white glaze which is the base for Blue Skies (hence the cloudy name). It is very sensitive to thickness, and break orange like Blue Skies does. When it’s put on evenly though, it’s lovely.

The bowl in the front in the group of 3 is porcelain and it’s come up particularly nice on that. Everything is fired to cone 9/1280C in oxidation.

The Recipe

45   Soda Feldspar 17   SIlica 15   Frit 4106 (Borax Frit) 13   Calcium Carbonate (whiting) 5     Kaolin (eckalite) 5    Tin oxide 

I ran out of the previous frit so we’ve witched to 4106. It works just as well. Anyone who was paying attention might have noticed in previous Blue Skies versions of the recipe that it didn’t add up to 100.

That’s because originally I forgot the silica. I did a test, and it came out very similar whether I put it in or not, except that it didn’t hard-pan the same way with the silica in it. Plus it’s cheaper to make overall since it means less of everything else. 

Guest Bowls

Here we have 2 bowls made by other members of my club that show very interesting glaze interaction.

Bowl by Ian

Ian tried layering Apple Jade Green over Moss Green. It’s given some very interesting colours and effects, but as you can see it’s run like nothing else. Good thing he put it on a biscuit

Bowl by Gayle

Gayle has put Buttermilk on first, then dipped the rim in Moss Green and finally put a tiny bit of Pewter on the rim. Just the right amount, since I stressed to her how runny that glaze is. Over Buttermilk (and Moss too it looks like) Pewter goes quite brown, but it still has some metallic highlights where it is thicker. It’s also got some nice diffusion, a bit like the mocha diffusion we’re going to do soon.

Spikey Grey Bowl

Another test of how well the grey glazes go. This had 3 glazes on it. Silver grey all over the outside, Midnight grey on the inside and Storm grey layered over the SIlver around the spikes at the top.

They were all brushed on, and it seems that Silver has to go on much thicker than I put it on, but it still came out satin. The Midnight grey on the inside though is lovely. Dark and glossy, but distinctly grey and not black.

All the recipes are in my post on the test tiles for these glazes. The bowl is PB103, a white stoneware, and it was fired to cone 9/1280C in oxidation.