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dipping pots into glaze / waterfall brown

updated thu 23 may 02

 

Bob Leek on tue 21 may 02


Original message: "I am only now beginning to try and dip pots into one or
two glazes that I know I like. However, I seem to be getting the glaze coat
too thick to suit me."

I recently mixed up my first batch of Waterfall Brown, and last week did a
test firing. I dipped the pieces and left them in the glaze for a couple of
seconds, recalling the authors' comments about the challenge of applying it
thin, to avoid running onto the kiln shelf. One thing I noticed was on the
test pieces, the taller the piece, the more glaze collected at the bottom.
The small test tiles of about an inch and a half height were very uniform in
thickness, while the taller vessels had a bulge at the bottom where the
glaze nearly ran off the pot. So, I think next time, I'm going to dilute
the glaze near the bottom by spraying the bottom couple of inches of the pot
with water before dipping, to reduce the amount of glaze that can be
absorbed into the pot. Using a spray bottle rather than dipping into water
will "fan" out the effect and not leave an obvious line.
I am so impressed with that glaze! I was really amazed at how good it
looks. I used a tan clay which fired buff, and now I'm going to use a
darker clay, Standard 306. One of the tests I ran was on Campbell's black
clay, and it looks awesome. I don't know where you all are, but Campbell's
is in the mid-Atlantic states. I'm really looking forward to more tests on
that black clay. It has a lot of potential.