Friday 4 January 2013

January 2013

It's the beginning of a New Year - and the end of what felt like a long 2012..
I am new to potting - I started a few years ago and am now doing a Masters in Visual Art at Australian National University.

I'm focussed on using groggy clays (Keane's Toast and Bennett's Terracotta) and also digging some clays at my farm near Bermagui on the far South Coast of New South Wales.

Here are some of my latest pots - these all became Christmas presents for the big family Christmas we just had.




They are single-fired to Cone 8 with dry glazes painted on and rubbed in. 

I also made some larger pieces for last semester's assessment - again with the dry oxide stained glazes.





The terracotta burns off to a dark brown at Cone 8 and the Toast seems to hold it all together - no cracking so far.  I am using two main glazes, brushed or sponged in usually. One is 30:30:30 - so

Potash Feldspar 33
China clay 33
Whiting 33

with different combinations of copper, chromium, cobalt, rutile and bone ash.

The gold is a Gerstley Borate wash:

Gerstley borate 150
Rutile 20
Titanium dioxide 5

I am trying to get as much as I can from a single firing - the glazes blend in with the dry raw clay a bit and although that dulls them down a bit, I think they look like they are more part of the surface of the pots.