August Glaze Load

Some new work from my recent glaze load. I've been trying to get mysterious blue (floating blue) to the colour I like (more blue than green). The last new load was using a new schedule with slow cooling and I fired it close to 2200F which was really cone 6 and of course mysterious blue turned green.

This time around I fired my kiln to 2188F and mysterious blue still wasn't very blue. And cones showed the kiln was a bit hotter than cone 5.5.

Left cone was placed at the lowest shelf whereas the right was placed on the top shelf

The not so blue mysterious blue

New glaze (brushed on)

This is supposed to be the same glaze as the one above


new mug

New glaze (brushed on)

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It has been a busy first month of 2015...

It has been quite a busy month for me. I've been doing some overtime at work but also managed to make new pieces (mostly mugs). Also to fulfil my list last year, I made 2 teapots during the last few days of December and assembled them in January. I think they need to have a couple of teacups to accompany them. :) I will need to make a new lid for this teapot as the gallery is quite small for this teapot and the lid can easily slide into the pot. I will be making bowls this weekend, hopefully I will have enough to fill the kiln soon.

Another disappointment :(

I was firing up my bowls for Ottawa Guild of Potters' annual event: The Great Bowls of Fire last night. I made 7 soup bowls, was thinking to use them to try out different glazing techniques with Ron Roy's Black and Mysterious Blue. When I was potting at the Nepean Visual Art Centre (NVAC), I had this lovely combination of NVAC's black with Mysterious Blue (as seen on the right). However, I've been having trouble with the NVAC's black recipe, so I went with Ron Roy's Black. It looks pretty smooth and all. However, it just doesn't have the same effect as the NVAC's black and mysterious blue. It's quite disappointing. Also, I might have made too thick of a layer for the black, it cracked a little too. notice the chip - this one is with the same technique as shown above) this one is done by pouring in mysterious blue on black Unfortunately, since the chipping is in the inside of the bowl, I can't tak...

Glaze and Chemistry (or should I say glaze chemistry)

Until last weekend, I wouldn't put chemistry and glaze recipe together, because I'd been just following the recipes and didn't think much about the reaction to the glaze between those chemicals. But Ron Roy (the author of Mastering Cone 6 Glazes) workshop had totally changed my perspective. It was a very informative session. Ron showed us how to use INSIGHT and GlazeMaster to analysis glaze recipes and how we can fix it if there is a problem with it. It was a bit like going back to high school Chemistry class and the chemical symbols....NaO, KO, CaO, Al etc...and my brain almost exploded at the end of the second day. :p I have now purchased INSIGHT and my plan is to put in all the glaze recipes I have now and see how stable they are in cone 6. That should be fun. Inventory update: I managed to make my 6 pieces before the end of April. They are mostly plates. For May, I will be making mugs again. :)

Prudence's Pottery

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