New Raku
A couple of weeks ago, before it got to 106 degrees in Atlanta I did a raku firing with a few other brave souls at Mudfire. This was an experimental firing for me, sometimes they all seem like an experiment. For this firing I had three pots that I made using High Water's Phoenix Clay, this is the clay body that I normally use for raku and for cookware because it's designed to withstand thermal shock. The experiment was with the surface. After taking the workshop with Jenny Mendes I decided to have some fun with the terra sigilata and try to do some interesting colors for the background of the horse carving. I really liked the way these pieces came out.
I also tried using High Water's Stans Red, it's an earthenware clay that we used in the workshop. It's rated for ^02 - ^06 so I thought that the pieces might be able to hold water even with the low temperature of the Raku firing. The problem is that the clay has very little grog which I thought might not handle the thermal shock too well. I was right, all three pieces cracked a lot. It could be because they weren't thrown very well. I didn't find the Stans Red to be very fun to throw, it didn't seem to be as plastic as the clay bodies that I'm used to using. I know Ron Philbeck uses Stans so it's possible to throw nice pots with it, I might just need more practice.
I loved the way these looked, the red clay is pretty and I enjoyed the carving, both doing it into a non-groggy clay and the way the caving looked unfilled. I normally inlay a black slip into the carving on the white pots. Now I'm thinking about inlaying other colored slips into my carvings.
Check out the gallery page - Future Relics Gallery
I also tried using High Water's Stans Red, it's an earthenware clay that we used in the workshop. It's rated for ^02 - ^06 so I thought that the pieces might be able to hold water even with the low temperature of the Raku firing. The problem is that the clay has very little grog which I thought might not handle the thermal shock too well. I was right, all three pieces cracked a lot. It could be because they weren't thrown very well. I didn't find the Stans Red to be very fun to throw, it didn't seem to be as plastic as the clay bodies that I'm used to using. I know Ron Philbeck uses Stans so it's possible to throw nice pots with it, I might just need more practice.
I loved the way these looked, the red clay is pretty and I enjoyed the carving, both doing it into a non-groggy clay and the way the caving looked unfilled. I normally inlay a black slip into the carving on the white pots. Now I'm thinking about inlaying other colored slips into my carvings.
Check out the gallery page - Future Relics Gallery
I used phoenix for awhile, I like throwing with it, but much prefer raku clay for hand building. I have also used stan's red and agree with you, I found it weird to throw. I liked throwing lyman red but I had a lot of pop outs with it, and got tired of all of the ruined pots. I would love to go back to using red clay, but my white raku clay is so much cleaner :)
ReplyDeleteYou can get a beautiful black surface if you apply white terra sig, burnish really well, and raku fire, get a really good reduction, great black shiny surface!
Hi Tracey, I was thinking about lyman red but now I think I may pass. You're right about the nice getting the nice black that way, of course horse hair decorating doesn't lend itself to getting great reduction so I don't mess with that.
DeleteOther colors would be nice, at what hardness do you apply the inlay and how do you keep it from staining the whole surface. When I was doing my stained tiles if I got any black out of the lines, it always showed up as a smudge after firing even if I wiped it off.
ReplyDeleteLinda, it's a bit difficult to see in this photo but this pot actually has a few colors on it. It may be a bit cumbersome to post the process here in the comments so I'll write an article about it. Thanks for the question.
ReplyDeleteoh thanks so much
ReplyDeleteI just caught up on my Ceramic Arts Daily reading and saw this by Lorna Meaden re mishima - I think I'll give it a try and see
ReplyDeleteTo create very fine lines, I use the sharpest knife I can find-a disposable scalpel-to draw on leather-hard pots. Then I fill in the etched lines with black slip, allow it to become leather hard, and scrape it off with a metal rib.
This isn't exactly how I do mine, I'll do one with pictures taken during the process and post after I return from visiting my parents. Look for it in a week or so.
DeleteI am interested in seeing how your pieces look using this process.