Glazing on a Sunday afternoon...

I was sort of lazy today. Slept in, then didn't get motivated to get into the studio until late in the day. I did finish all of my glazing (finally) and I should be happy with that accomplishment. 

 It seems like every year that goes by I make glazing a more complicated affair. The mugs above are carbon trap shino with wax resist designs. That process goes pretty quickly. Below are the platters for the cheese/dip/veggie/cracker platters and they involve a dip in shino, then washing off the interior. Next comes waxing the rim of the plate and glazing the center with gloss green. The bowls that go with the platters get the same process. Actually, all my ginkgo leaf design pieces get the same treatment.

The porcelain plates and platters have black velvet underglaze brushed into the stamps and then the excess wiped away with a sponge. That's the time consuming part. Thankfully they get dipped into a single glaze. I also had about 20 mugs that were stamped and glazed with this technique.

This post is included as a link on Sunday Ceramics, head on over there to read what else has been happening in the ceramics world this week!

Shino & Tea Bowls Workshop

Jeff taught a personalized workshop here at the studio this weekend. Two potters, Ray and Randy from Maryland, came for the weekend to explore firing shino glazes in the gas kiln and the making of tea bowls. Friday was spent glazing pots and experimenting with two shino glazes, layering the glazes, and working with wax resist. The kiln was loaded and door bricked by noon. While the kiln fired there was tea bowl demonstrations and hands on making. The kiln reached cone 10 by around midnight. In between the work we enjoyed good food, tea, sake, and wine!

Ray and Randy toured Seagrove on Saturday and then returned to our studio for an afternoon of trimming tea bowls. This morning we unloaded kiln and were very happy with the results...

Lots of juicy carbon trapping! Randy had some great looking mugs. I can see a face in this one, actually there were multiple faces...

This tea bowl of Ray's got lots of good carbon trap...

Jeff glazed this bowl that Robert Young made while he was working here this summer. I think it's awesome and we are going to ship it to him to enjoy...

The cool thing about giving workshops is that it expands your horizons as well as the participants. After seeing the results, I am excited to give some of these other shino techniques a try.

This post is part of Sunday Ceramics. Be sure to check it out and see what else is happening in the ceramics world.

How to Make a Bead rack for Raku Firing - Sunday Ceramics

 A couple of days ago I posted that I was making some bead racks for raku firing. A few readers asked if I would post some photos, so here they are...

I start by throwing bottomless cylinder. I keep the walls thick in hopes that doing so will make them last through a few firings. Occasionally I have squeezed them into a square shape, this time I didn't get back to them until they were too stiff to alter. I also made two cylinders that will stack on top of each other, therefore creating extra room in the kiln. 

Using a hole cutter, I punched holes all around to support the bead wire. I tested them out and adjusted some of the holes, so that the wire would match up and insert easily. They don't have to be pretty because these racks don't last that long during the raku process. I am lucky if they go through three firings, occasionally they have made it through just one. If you use them in a high fire situation, I am sure they will last longer. We don't use raku clay in our studio. It's too easy to have a mix up and we have found that we had just as much loss with raku clay as with cone 10 stoneware. Something that we did learn after moving to North Carolina is that the Highwater clays we buy don't work in raku. Our locally made STARworks clay handles the process quite well. These bead racks are made with STARwhite with grog. When these are dry I will bisque fire them and then they will be ready for action.

This is a bead rack that has been through a couple of firings. I have started to add a "basket handle" made of discarded electric kiln elements to the top. It makes the ring easier to lift out of the kiln. You can see that this one has snapped off... nothing lasts long through the raku process!

I learned about adding these handles from Tracey Broome's blog. 

What I like about the bead racks is that the heat from the ring ignites the combustible material in the metal can quickly, giving much better results. The beads on their own cool off too quickly on their way to the can and take too long to ignite the paper.

Our potter friend, Sally Cornwall, gave us this pack of high temp wire. She used it at the last workshop that Jeff taught at her studio in NH. She thought I might like to give it a try. You can cut it into the lengths you want. I believe she said it is also less expensive than the straight bead wire. I have a feeling it won't last as long.

I would be happy to answer any questions about the bead racks and/or raku. I would also love to hear if you have a method of firing beads that works well for you.

You can also find this post on Sunday Ceramics. Be sure to head over there and see what other ceramic artists are up to.