Josie Walter, raw glaze firing.

We had a visiting ceramicist Josie Walters from England giving a 2 day introduction to studio potters life. She also made different thrown vessels explaining all the way how and what to do. The pool of experience is so vast. She made throwing a pot  or bowl look so easy. Learned some fascinating techniques.

Big plate, clear glaze.

So next batch of glazed pieces out of the kiln.

Used transparent glaze on all of them as well as some grind glass on the big plate.

Quite happy with the results, though I am still more partial to the turquoise tone with my neriage and nericomi pieces. It works better with the terracotta tone.

Glaze tended to get stuck and brake at where it was attached to the little supports. 

Throwing square pot.

Nice example of how to make thrown pot on a wheel and trim it back by turning.


http://ceramicartsdaily.org/pottery-making-techniques/wheel-throwing-techniques/how-to-whack-your-wheel-thrown-pottery-into-shape/

9th of May 2013, green glass.

Live and learn.

This bowl is one of the first mishaps on the wheel. I quite like how the shape and color balance out.

Raku fired with turquoise crackle glaze. 

Layered red earthenware and white stoneware clay. Carved thorough, raku glazed using transparent crackle glaze and crushed green glass in the slopes.

Great experience, I have used the same technique on the pig plate but with normal glaze and heat up to 

1140 degrees. As the raku firing was only up to 1000 degrees the results may be totally different.

Tea bowls theme.

I made a sequence to my first tea bowl in neriage technique.

I still have a long way to go in throwing pottery and controlling the shape of it.

Tried out different placements of red clay.

Raku 8th of May.

So yesterday we made some more raku crackle glaze, reduction fired pieces.

I got some interesting results using finely crushed green glass along side with transparent turquoise crackle glaze on black professional clay body bowl. It had been fired to 1260 degrees beforehand so it did not want to absorb the glaze so I had to heat it up(on tutors suggestion) to help it along. That did the trick.

Black clay with green glass inside, transparent turquoise crackle glaze.

Red earthenware and white stoneware clay plate with transparent turquoise crackle glaze.

First thrown bowls made with Karen.

Perth and aboriginal art influence.

Black and white.

So the black clay and porcelain pieces turned out interesting but did not do what I expected. There was not much bulging and shrinking going on. I'd say I would have to try different clay combined with the porcelain next time. I was really looking forward to see the pieces come to life and do their own thing in high heat.

I can see a little progress in this piece as in it has changed shape.

The black clay does leave beautiful rough surface.

Some of these will be in tomorrows raku firing. Some copper crackle glaze on the black little bowl would be magical

Throwing larger pots.

Some tips how to throw bigger pots, the tricks to center the clay.

http://ceramicartsdaily.org/pottery-making-techniques/wheel-throwing-techniques/three-tips-for-throwing-smarter-and-stronger/

How to make ceramics ladle.

Found this nice video about making a ladle out of clay.



http://ceramicartsdaily.org/pottery-making-techniques/handbuilding-techniques/video-of-the-week-how-to-make-a-wheel-thrown-and-handbuilt-ladle/

May raku firings.

When it came to what techniques to use in finishing the ceramic pieces and glazing them there was no question, some of them had to be raku fired. It is beautiful way of decorating, giving your work kind of time worn look. Of course the surprise element is important as well, one never knows the final outcome.

Red earthenware and white stoneware clay. White raku crackle glaze.

The red clay is almost invisible under the glaze.

The blue bowl: used white stoneware clay covered with light blue crackle glaze.

Lovely outcome. 

White and red bowl: red earthenware, white stoneware clay. Glaze: turquoise transparent crackle glaze.

Female figure.

Red earthenware clay, turquoise transparent crackle glaze.

1st of May.

I have been trying out mixing different types of clay's to experiment on how they fit together and what kind of pattern movements come out. So far it has been very rewarding. The layers have somewhat life on their own.

End of last week I got a great opportunity to work with porcelain clay and professional black chunky sculpture clay. The work is inspired by Rafa Perez experiments with different clay's. The black clay is supposed to start bulging and pressing out the cracks as it has very low shrinkage, whilst the porcelain shrinks and warps between and around it. They are both high firing clay's.


Found this webpage looking for porcelain shrinkage proscentage. It is very smooth clay that is stiff out of bag but turns into very plastic once wedged. It is fired up to 1220  to 1280 degrees. It is not suitable for casting.
Proffessional black chunky crank sculpture clay fires from 1180 to1260 degrees.
CTM Potters supplies
http://www.ctmpotterssupplies.co.uk/New_Folder/WebCTMclayandglossary.pdf

Here are some of my pieces.

Before getting my hands on the black an porcelain clay, made some experiments with paper and watered down glue. 

The different clay needs to be wedged and rolled out on different surfaces not to contaminate them too much. I used the making clay slab by tossing it to the flat surface, method. I cut the piece in half and carefully laid them onto each other as seen below. Every time doing that you have to slap the air bubbles out from between 2 lairs slapping the clay by hand from the middle towards to the sides.

I cut out even strips and placed them on a piece of strong fabric so I could have support to manipulate them.

I rolled out a piece of porcelain and turned it around a stick. Then wrapped the layered clay strips around it. Lets see what happens to it once fired on high temperature.

Some smaller try outs.

This little guy went into regular bisc firing and as seen on this photograph, not much happened to it except for some color change. The black clay looks very dark red to begin with.

All my plates and bowls are starting to come out now from bisque firing and they surprise me. Each and every one of them have their lovely earthy colors and as I hoped for orange is the main tone as the full of iron earth.

Here is one of the bowls that I made out of black clay. The color changed some in the bisque firing but I put it in again to see what happens if it gets to the real intended temp.

Packing the kiln.

 Color difference, black chunky sculpture clay before and after regular bisque firing.