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changing reduction glazes to work in oxidation

updated mon 3 jan 05

 

Brad Sondahl on sun 2 jan 05


One of the reason reduction potters think less of oxidation firing is
that reduction glazes fired in an oxidation atmosphere generally don't
look as good, or the same--reds turn green, celedons clear or white, etc.
While they mostly should melt about the same, the color response and
sometimes the surface will vary considerably.
When I started with cone 10 oxidation glazes, there were basically no
recipes to be found, since reduction was the norm except for lowfire. So
it was a matter of trying reduction glazes as bases, and adjusting them
for color response.
I did a quick Google on "Shino glazes" and found that Shino is a
slippery term that apparently describes anything from a highly crackled
white to every shade to black (judging from pictures of "shino"
glazes). If you were to do the same search, you'd find this CM article:
http://www.ceramicsmonthly.org/mustreads/shinofire.asp that has several
recipes (but no pictures of the results) that call for reduction, then
oxidation, and might work just in oxidation if you tried it.
The best advice I'd give you is to glean some likely recipes off the
internet, and mix tests, and combine the tests (there's a page on my
website to tell how to usefully combine tests to get usable results),
and fire them in your electric kiln and see what turns out like you had
in mind.
Brad Sondahl

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