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Sunday, February 14, 2010

Secrets And Lies


I suppose I'd better start by showing you the video of one of the secrets I've been working on. It hasn't really been a secret as it is not an original idea (hence the lies) but it has been one of the things I've planned to make for ages and has been an interesting project. If you are a potter who doesn't own an extruder this is a very cheap and effective option, which I can recommend trying.


Ok, next: Secret glazes! Woo-hoo...or rather, flat laughter. These have not been successful. I thought it was a great idea to see if could use recycled glass to make glazes. You can see the logic, can't you? But here is the result:

All the little white bobbles you can see is where the glass melted (strangely). I'm not sure if this result is down to the firing, the recipe or the glass itself (I just smashed and ground up a glass jar). I may experiment a bit more before I give up on the idea. It would be great if I could use normal household recycled glass and it would be a good Green selling point.
I also fired a whole load of other glaze tests, searching for a good slipglaze combination. I'm not there yet, but am getting closer. I didn't want to bore you with dozens of extra pics.



Above is the little beaker I used to test my T.sig mix. It fired well and I am satisfied with the result. If I applied it to a smoother finished pot it would work very well. Here is a detail showing it next to another unglazed fired pot:
The surface of the T.sig pot is noticeably smoother and shinier.

    
Here are two pics. showing the big vase I spoke of in my last post. You can see just how badly it cracked and how much the glaze ran. I still like the colour though. I'll put this down as a successful failure.


Finally I thought I would take another pic. of some of the brush rests; this time in daylight. I'm still pleased with these. I know that they are incredibly simple but that is often the way isn't it? Simple is best.
Thanks for visiting.

2 comments:

  1. Great post seeing the before and after photos next to one another, especially the terra sig. Every time I see a brush rest I say I'm going to make a few for myself to use and I never seem to do that. I just love them. For the glass I have seen others using glass to good success so it must be the temp or the cooling time. I think they used a bigger piece of glass and were firing to cone 10, and it ran as an accent on their pieces with beautiful results.

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  2. I will try a few more experiments with the recycled glass. It may well be down to the recipe I used that it failed.
    Thank you for your comment Linda.
    Mark.

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