Time to look for a new camera. The love affair
has ended with my old Canon Powershot. Lately it's been distorting my
photos, making whatever pots are at the end of a short row look
lopsided. They're not! My guess is that the lens is damaged or just worn out or????
I'm actually grateful that I've had to resort to using the tiny test kiln for these test pots. It's allowing me to refine the slip, under glaze and glaze applications. What I've learned so far, is you'd better get all the white slip off the areas you want to leave with raw color. Even the slightest shadow shows up. Some of the under glazes have to be applied a bit thicker as evidenced by the thin areas of the yellow trim on the handle mug on the right. I call this pattern the birthday cake, because that's what it looked like to me after I decorated it. It does make me smile.
Found out happily, that my glazing all the way to the base stayed put - no grinding needed. The combination of a stiff glaze and bisquing and glaze firing to the same cone seemed to do the trick.
I also got these few pots decorated yesterday and will glaze them today. This process is taking a lot of time - deciding which under glazes colors to use, mixing the colors (some brand new ones were very thick and lumpy), doing the actual decoration and then making copious notes on each pot. It should get easier once I get more familiar with these colors. My next testing is going to be mixing some of these tests for a wide color range. So far I've only added white to tone done some of them.
Some garden work and making dinner (this perfect hot weather Nicoise salad), topped off the work day, which these day usually ends after dinner, or an hour later. Then it's time for some lean back TV or movie watching, reading and email - sometimes two or more simultaneously.
Time to head to the studio for a bit. It's pizza night at our sons ranch so I'll only be getting four hours of studio time; but tomorrow is another day.
I'm actually grateful that I've had to resort to using the tiny test kiln for these test pots. It's allowing me to refine the slip, under glaze and glaze applications. What I've learned so far, is you'd better get all the white slip off the areas you want to leave with raw color. Even the slightest shadow shows up. Some of the under glazes have to be applied a bit thicker as evidenced by the thin areas of the yellow trim on the handle mug on the right. I call this pattern the birthday cake, because that's what it looked like to me after I decorated it. It does make me smile.
Found out happily, that my glazing all the way to the base stayed put - no grinding needed. The combination of a stiff glaze and bisquing and glaze firing to the same cone seemed to do the trick.
I also got these few pots decorated yesterday and will glaze them today. This process is taking a lot of time - deciding which under glazes colors to use, mixing the colors (some brand new ones were very thick and lumpy), doing the actual decoration and then making copious notes on each pot. It should get easier once I get more familiar with these colors. My next testing is going to be mixing some of these tests for a wide color range. So far I've only added white to tone done some of them.
Some garden work and making dinner (this perfect hot weather Nicoise salad), topped off the work day, which these day usually ends after dinner, or an hour later. Then it's time for some lean back TV or movie watching, reading and email - sometimes two or more simultaneously.
Time to head to the studio for a bit. It's pizza night at our sons ranch so I'll only be getting four hours of studio time; but tomorrow is another day.
June, Your new pots are delightful.
ReplyDeleteThanks for the positive feedback. I'm certainly learning a lot from these first test pots.
ReplyDelete