Ev's pottery project.....2009

I looked out a very old pottery book that was first printed in 1934 to check out how to make moulds..... and I don't think that is my game! Anyway I was distracted by the Glaze section.... especially this part:

Mottled Glazes:
The effect produced when colours put over one another at random run together in a fluid glaze is sometimes pleasing, but beware of overworking this trick and turning out ware which is 'arty'.
Early American potters covered their pieces with a bright lead glaze and then used a pepper shaker to sprinkle colouring oxides over them before they were fired. Ware treated this way would come out of the kiln covered with mingled flecks of green, blue, yellow, brown and orange. This type of glaze, called 'Flint Enamel' was actually patented by the Bennington potters.

Oversprays:
The action of borosilicate glazes can be used to advantage by spraying a glaze of a different colour over a borosilicate base. Again the bubbling action will give texture to the colour on top. Quite different effects are obtained by spraying a fairly viscous glaze on top of a highly fluid one. During the firing, the fluid glaze will run and will break up the glaze on top of it into patterns which may be pleasing.

Mottled glaze is a great way to describe the Specials Department glazed wares!
Maybe they even read this very same book???

I am making a batch of test pots to do experiments of my own....
and this is my learning project for 2009.

continued.....
This is going to be a long learning curve as all the glaze recipes in this old book
mainly use LEAD based glazes that have a low melting point!
We use leadless glazes now thank goodness!
But as my other half worked at Ferro in Oz and had to have tests for lead limits
on a regular basis - it makes me wonder if the fritts are really leadless o_O
So I will be experimenting all along the way....
using what I believe are leadless glazes of course!

The guys got us a new kitten/cat from the spca today....
one of the youngest there at a year old!
I call her Mooshy

Aw... Mooshy sounds lovely - picture when you can Ev! Those glazes sound interesting, I hope you have contacted Mr Wharetana Bottle...

It was interesting indeed to see notes yesterday that they glaze fired to 1060' in 1967 -
The old book I have mostly has 1060' glazes....
and the sample photos of the glazes in the book have a YELLOW glaze on the inside of the vases....... which so reminds me of Crown Lynn.

However the Making of Crown Lynn Dinnerware Poster -
stated that the bisque firing went to 1200'
and the glaze firing was to 1140'
There was no date on the poster - but the dinnerware was from the 70's.
The high bisque firing would be to vitrify the clay so it would be durable...
but this would make the putting on of the glaze difficult as the ware needs porosity for the glaze to 'stick'.

Hmmm my 133 hasn't vitrified....
I put some dahlias in it the other day and it left a damp ring on the coaster!
NOT GOOD!!

The RQ/Portage collection includes an internal CLP training manual which uses the phrase "running glaze". Once this becomes accessible you may be able to read a description of how those glaze effects were created.

Some of the first trials are going into the kiln tomorrow.........

First test fired....
it came out more like a Jova Rancich 'majolica' [?] type glaze...
three different glazes were used ..... some squirted randomly - one poured and a base glaze...
here for you to view -