search  current discussion  categories  kilns & firing - misc 

last fast firing

updated fri 30 oct 98

 

Joyce Lee on thu 29 oct 98

I just posted a report on my last firing to Steve G., which reminded me
that I'd said I'd tell some Clayarters what happened, too, since I'd
made such a big deal of the speed and the glazes etc. Maybe some of you
will have suggestions that might help...usually do, thank goodness.

1) The Hamada blue was ugly as sin and I didn't like it one bit. I'm
going to give it one more chance to repeat what it looked like on the
very first bowl I glazed with it and if it doesn't square away, out it
goes. 2) The "regular" shino looked nice, especially on a plate/platter
where I'd waxed part of it in a swirly pattern. I'm getting too much of
the lemony look so I may try firing shinos in a saggar since the inside
of the pots always look warm, toasty and rusty as do the bottoms (3) The
"cracked" shino was great - lots of pulling away from the brown claybody
with little white beads here and there, BUT the largish bowl was
horrible. Poorly thrown, I reckon, and returned to its original shape
after I'd forced it to do what I wanted. 4) The Angel Eyes looked
grand. Even another large "bad" bowl looked good with the AE. A couple
of pots were more tan than brown but then they had burgundy, blue and
yellowish lines and specks...AND it's a warm, goldy tan. The twisty mugs
look elegant beyond their humble beginnings with the tenmoku Angel Eyed
look. The fishbowls (bowls with rims cut like fish fins and
face...nothing spectacular but right now I like them) looked very nice
in shino and AE. 5) The untrustworthy blue celadon crazed. Drat. I was
so sure of it that I put it on my few "best" mugs. Maybe it was the
faster firing????????

Joyce
In the Mojave getting frustrated here.