Thursday, February 16, 2012

Shino Trick



Many people have noticed that their shinos come out better if they glaze a couple of weeks in advance; unless I am mistaken, this is due the the soda ash having additional time to migrate to the surface where it can do its good, carbon-trapping work.

Due to some family stuff, I have delayed my upcoming firing until Thursday the 23rd, unloading on the 26th, but I glazed my shinos first. That allows a week of ash migration, which is less than ideal.

So, how to encourage the ash migration in the time alloted? I covered the pieces immediately after dipping, so the coat of glaze would stay damp longer, allowing the soda ash freer movement.

I'll let you know if this works.

2 comments:

Hollis Engley said...

Interesting idea, Lori. I usually glaze a day or two before firing, with happy results for the shinos. Wonder what it would be if I took as long as you're talking about. Let us know what happens.

brian said...

I just had a student have a problem adding a second layer of decorating glaze over her shino because it sat for a few days between layering. The soda (i imagine) had built up in some spots which acted as a blotchy resist. It was so bad she soaked the whole pot and started over. It would make sense (like Malcom Davis' wax deco pots) that covering your pots in certain areas would force the soda to migrate to the drier areas creating variation in surface color. I'm interested to see what happens here as well!