Oribe Green Glaze Test

I don't know why I never just make test tiles, but I don't. Maybe someday when I have my own kiln... In the meantime, I just experiment on my own work. Here, I'm trying to devise a relatively authentic Oribe green glaze. I started with a tried and true clear glaze that fits our studio's stoneware body, Baccerra clear, and added 3, 5, 7, 9 and 12% copper carbonate to 100g test batches. I'm most satisfied with the 5%, however I suspect that I either mixed the 7% batch a little too thick, or dipped the test pot for a little too long, as it seems to be as dark (or darker) than the 9% batch.

Oh Sweet Temmoku

In this most recent firing, I experimented a bit more with the carved decorations I've been doing.

I had some encouraging success glazing similar pieces with my Shino recipe, but I was a little less impressed with the results from this firing with the same glaze. It's not that I'm unhappy, but I liked the stark contrast of orange against white that I achieved last time.

Thankfully, I also tried using the studio's Temmoku on a heavily faceted piece, and loved the way the glaze "broke" along the edges. So I tried it on a few of my new carved pieces (shown to the right) and I couldn't be happier.

Interestingly, the carved diagonal lines, I realize, are reminiscent of the Jomon-style rope impression technique that was often seen in the work of Tatsuzo Shimaoka, one of my favorite potters of the Mingei movement.

Finally, the tiny ochoko shown at the bottom right was glazed with a Temmoku recipe from Malcolm Wright's website. The recipe is quite different than Mark's Temmoku (used on the other three pieces) as it incorporates wood ash, high-iron clays and relatively little pure red iron oxide. If you look very closely at the piece, you'll see variations in color and pattern in the dark, blue-black glaze. I'm now anxious to test it on a carved piece. Stay tuned...

Shino, Shino, Shino

Apparently they say every potter has their dalliance with Shino. And why not? The mysterious glaze is both stable and reliable, yet beautiful and somewhat unpredictable. You can be reasonably certain it won't run, but you never know exactly how it will look. Will it be white? Will it be orange? Will it have carbon trapping? And it's easily decorated with iron oxide, or with gosu slip underneath.

I've been making a lot of work in the past month or so, and glazing most of it with a Shino recipe that I modified. I honestly can't recall where I got the original recipe, but I've went and added a little more silica and a little less bentonite to reduce the crazing, and a tiny bit more EPK and a tiny bit less OM4 to make it more white and less orange. We'll see what happens after the next firing...

A few more recent pieces...

I've posted a few more images of new work to my Flickr photostream. Go have a look see and let me know what you think.

Success!

Here is what my shelves look like after this recent reduction firing. I was very productive this winter, and so there are two full boxes of work that aren't on these shelves.

One of the things I'm most proud of is this set of Kotler's Orange-Grey mugs and serving platter. I made these upon request and they became some lucky lady's Valentine's Day gift.