Vince Pitelka on sun 27 sep 09
Kelly -
This is something I've had some experience with. In Massachusetts I starte=
d
teaching a workshop that evolved into "Ancient Clay" one of the workshops I
do now. At first, I was not doing any bonfiring in that workshop, so the
emphasis was to create ancient/weathered effects at low-fire temperatures i=
n
an electric kiln. I devised a set of oxide/frit patinas that worked very
well. You can find the recipes at
http://iweb.tntech.edu/wpitelka/syllabi-handouts/handouts/patinas%20and%20g=
l
azes.htm. If the link doesn't work, go to my website and click
"syllabi-handouts," click "handouts-information," and click "patinas and
glazes." We got really wonderful results with those patinas. Obviously the=
y
are not appropriate for food-contact surfaces, but ideal for the outsides o=
f
vessels and for sculptural forms.
I taught for three years at NDSU in Fargo, and we never did have a high-fir=
e
kiln. Our whole ceramics program was based on earthenware and Raku. At
this point, Raku has been done-to-death unless you come up with something
more imaginative than white crackle and copper flash, but it's still fun fo=
r
the students and you can stress some of the more-interesting raku effects
like colored terra sigillatas.
For our earthenware work at NDSU we used a terracotta body with Linda
Arbuckle's maiolica recipe, Jaquie Rice's lithium glazes, and a few others =
I
came up with including a nice clear amber that works great with overglaze
oxide decoration.
You can find the Arbuckle maiolica recipe and a lot of other low-fire glaze
recipes in Linda Arbuckle's maiolica handout at
http://www.lindaarbuckle.com/handouts/majolica_handout2007.pdf.
Linda Arbuckle also has a great handout on earthenware clays at
http://www.lindaarbuckle.com/handouts/clay_earthenware.pdf.
I do not have the clear amber or Jaquie Rice recipes here at home. On a
Google search I did find the Jaquie Rice recipe in an August State
University PDF handout at
http://www.aug.edu/~artpxh/Class%20files/Ceramics/LowFireGlazeList.pdf, but
I believe that we reformulated our Jaquie Rice glaze to replace the Gerstle=
y
borate with frit. The Rice glaze gives semi-matt surfaces with nice visual
texture at cone 04 or 03, and simple oxide additions give a good range of
colors. This glaze work great with overglaze oxide decoration, and oxides
stamped or spattered on the surface can give very rich visual textural
variations.
- Vince
Vince Pitelka
Appalachian Center for Craft
Tennessee Tech University
vpitelka@dtccom.net; wpitelka@tntech.edu
http://iweb.tntech.edu/wpitelka
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