The weather has been such a joy that I enjoy strolling to the bottom of the garden to feed the chickens at lunch time. I was very disappointed this morning to find that my glaze firing was on the dry side. After all Hannah's troubles with firing I could hardly believe my eyes. I had a lot of trouble with my glaze when I bought my new kiln and in the end as I couldn't solve the problem I changed glazes. I have been very pleased with the new glaze even though I have been fine tuning the colour achieved through the glaze and the colour I add to the slip. My slip is quite cream as I add some of the clay body to it and some stain.Anyway.I was so pleased with the glaze I decided would mix up an extra large amount! So last week between other things I mixed a whole load more glaze. Although I stuck to my glaze recipe I used raw materials from a different supplier. The most likely thing is that I have mixed the glaze wrongly (unlikely) or that the raw materials were poor. As soon as I can I will go to my usual supplier-Clay Cellar, in Kent-get a new batch of materials and start all over. At this stage I can't afford to loose any work
As I have been decorating all week I thought I would show my favourite tools. From the left they are-tooth pics, a hair grip, pencil, nail set in a wooden dowel, metal modelling tool, brush and felt tip pen.Whew. I'm keeping an eye on Ron's sgraffito work it looks so lively and spontaneous. I must try and do some more fun stuff.
Sorry to hear about your problems, I had trouble with mine recently, was it Lead bisilicate?
ReplyDeleteThe same thing happened to me. I made a jam jar size sample glaze in green, which came out fantastic, very shiny so made a bigger batch, and now every time it comes out matt and dull. I now just paint it over a clear glaze and it works ok.
ReplyDeleteMargaret
ReplyDeleteSo sorry to hear about the glaze problem. That's a nightmare we all anticipate with dread.
Here in the States in Idaho, we are still experiencing mini-snow-blizzards - but in viewing your blog today, it gave me an idea of putting up a greenhouse (like in your picture) and trying to some firing techniques in one outside.
Since you already have the large glaze batch made up - is there any way you could modify it to still make it work?
Hugs
Chae
Hey Margaret, I've been a bit behind visiting and enjoyed catching up on all your posts. Sorry to hear about the firing. Hope you get it worked out soon. I'll be checking in more often.
ReplyDeleteBest, Ron