Glaze Your Shinos First

This tip is an oldie but a goodie for reduction firing potters: glaze your shinos first, so they have time to fully dry before the firing. This one was glazed on Tuesday. See the white mottling on the dry glaze surface? That's soda ash, which is the ingredient in shino which does the carbon trapping. As the glaze dries, the soda ash migrates to the surface. The more soda ash on the surface, the more carbon trapping you get - the key to that smoky, iridescent look for which we love shino.
This is one of the mugs for the Central Maine Clay Artists Mug Season fundraiser. I'll post a finished photo so you can see how the carbon trapping comes out.

Shino Experiment Results...Sort of

I tried a new technique in the hope of achieving some nice iridescent shinos without glazing two weeks in advance. It worked, and it didn't. These bowls were side-by-side in the kiln. I have known that one side of the chamber gets heavier reduction than the other - I can tell by observing the back pressure - but I have never seen a noticeable effect on the glaze results before. Holy wow, what a difference!
It doesn't really answer the question of whether keeping the glazed pots under plastic improves the results, but it does serve to remind me how very, very sensitive shino is to differences in atmosphere. I can try to keep all my shinos on the west side of the chamber - yeah, right - or I can maybe toss some sticks in the soda port periodically, on the east side.
Anyway. Interesting. now I have to return to the not-interesting task of editing all these photos. Why do I take them, again?

Thursday Inspiration

Malcolm Davis is not just the name of a glaze!

Phillips Shino Sauce

Who could resist a glaze called "Shino Sauce?" Just making a note of it here so I will know where to find it. I got it from Keith Phillips blog, Mudstuffing Sketchbook, a fun read with a wealth of information for potters. Keith also fires with soda, so I am in hopes this shino will do well. As I may have said before, in my past experience, soda + shino = blah; which is a shame, since my shinos are soem fo my favorite stoneware glazes. Unwilling ot leave shino behind entirely, I am in the process of mixing several test batches for the next firing. Which was supposed to be this weekend, but - April Fool! -  14 inches of snow had a different opinion. The firing has been rescheduled for April 15 -16, unloading on the 21st. 

Shino Sauce/Cone 9-10 Reduction

F-4 30
Spodumene 30
Neph Sy 15
Ball Clay 12
EPK 5
Soda Ash 8
Red Art 0 to 6

To Do Today

1) Mix Bauer Orange Flashing Slip:
41.9 EPK
41.9 OM 4
5.7 Borax
10.5 Zircopax

2) Mix Oestrich Shino for Soda test:
40 Nepheline Syenite
30 Spodumene
17 Kentucky OM#4 Ball Clay
5 EPK

3) Gallery sit. Boring! But it's a short day, being Sunday, and maybe I can use the time to look up a few more flashing slips to try.

4)Trim cat urns.

What I really want to do today is make bourbon cups, with little square trays to carry sets of them; but there probably isn't going to be time for that. Maybe I can sketch them out while I am gallery-sitting, to try to keep the inspiration alive.

Back at it

Just when I think I am done with glaze, that the thrill is gone, I get a couple of nice pieces that remind me how good it can be.



To do this week:
Friday
• Load Bisque
• KRA
• Email Compliments & Maine Gathering
Saturday
• Fire bisque
• Check glaze -- Mix any low
• Mix glaze tests
Sunday
• Unload bisque
• Glaze Interiors
• Throwing day
• Photo Tutorial -- Butter Dishes