Finished Non-Soda Pieces : Bubble Glazing and Other Techniques

With both a soda class and a regular throwing class this term, I got a lot of pieces.  I was glad to be able to pick up most of my non-soda pieces last week.  The first one was already posted previously.  Here are the remainder :

B) This is one of my bubble-glazed pieces, and I think it turned out spectacularly.  This vase was the one I threw in Jay's class, as an exercise, following another student's drawing, and then I added the carving decoration around the middle.  It was thrown from 1900g of 570 white clay.  It was glazed Deep Blue in the middle band, then white above and below, and inside.  Then bubble glazed with Deep Blue.  I had help from my friend Cindy, who turned the vessel and caught the bubbles, as I focused on blowing them without laughing (which was tough for me).

C) This was another bubble-glazed vessel, thrown from 1000g of reclaimed mixed clay, with a bit of 440 brown clay swirled in.  It was thrown with a thin bottom, so not requiring trimming.  It was glazed all over with White, and then bubble glazed with Deep Blue and Amber Celadon.

D) Continuing with my bubble-glazed pieces, this one was thrown from 1800g of white clay.  It was glazed with Gordon's Shino, which pretty much went white everywhere except on the rim and inside, where there are hints of orangy-brown.  It was then bubble-glazed with Deep Blue, and I added Deep Blue to the little rectangular accent in the center (which makes for a nice finger hold when picking up the vase).

This one made a nice house-warming gift for my friend Helen yesterday.  I filled it with peonies from my garden (complete with the usual accompaniment of ants) before taking it over :

E) I really love this one.  The colors remind me of chocolate syrup on maple ice cream.  It was the bowl which I originally threw (1900g of grey clay) to be a foot for my enormous dragon bowl.  But when I assembled the other two pieces, they already looked large enough, and they seemed too heavy to rest on this open bowl.  I have since learned, at the Tony Clennell workshop, that a closed foot would be a better choice (such as that provided to my big vase).  So I ended up taking this big bowl, and carving some texture on the side, and then glazing in Bamboo, with Amber Celadon sponged onto the texture, and bubble-glazed onto the remainder of the bowl.  I love how the glaze ran a bit, and pooled as a rich dark brown in the center, on the softer yellow/brown of the Bamboo.

F) I had 6 little yunomi or tea cups I had thrown and textured from the soda clay.  One had made it into the soda firing (see #1 here), and the others were glazed and sent to the cone 10 gas firing.  This is my favorite non-soda piece.  It was glazed with Amber Celadon and Deep Blue, which were gently wiped off, and then sprayed with Clear Glaze (including on the Inside).

G) This little yunomi was dipped in Amber Celadon.  It is our best glaze for breaking and highlighting texture, and never seems to disappoint.

H) This little tea cup was dipped on one side in Amber Celadon, and on the other in Deep Blue.  I love that color combination.  You can see how the Amber Celadon highlights the texture so much more than the Deep Blue.

My notes tell me that I have two more little cups to track down, next time I'm at the studio.

I) This planter / vase was thrown from 1500g of mixed clay, with a bottom which didn't need trimming (one of my early successes with this), but instead it was just compressed with my hand and soft rib.  It is decorated with Turquoise and Black slips, and then sprayed in Clear glaze inside and outside.  Since we don't seem to have any glazes in the studio which drip, I was glad to be able to get the black slip to drip and provide this effect.

J) This one was my first experiment with applied inlaid sheets of clay to a vessel.  For a description of how this one was created, see the original post.  It was then glazed with Khaki inside, and sprayed Clear outside, to preserve the design.

K) This one was thrown from 1100g of mixed clay, marbled with brown.  See earlier photo.  When I came to glazing, I was in a bit of a rush, and couldn't remember if I liked Gordon's Shino, or the Malcolm Davis Carbon Trap Shino.  One had provided great results in the past, and the other very disappointing.  I should have consulted my notes rather than listening to the advice I received, which was to use the Gordon's Shino.  It is now on my black list, and I hope not to use it again.   See #30, #31 and #32 in this post, for the shino effect I was hoping for instead.

L) While I'm on the topic of how disappointing Gordon's Shino is to me, here is another vessel, which was beautifully marbled with white, yellow and other clays, but in my opinion, was ruined by the Gordon's Shino.  Next time I will remember (I hope!) to only use the Carbon Trap Shino.

M) This is another of my vases which are decorated in a thick white slip.  Most of these textured vases went into the soda firing, with very good results.  But this one had a crack on the bottom (not all the way through), so I decided not to use my 2 cubic foot allotment for it, and glazed it in Ash Yellow glaze instead.  I like the result, and the bit of blush / orange on one side.

N) This very thin plate/platter was created mainly to keep my leaf pendants/beads together in the bisque fire.  But it turned out pretty nice, also.  It was stamped with viburnum leaves from my garden, with black slip around the leaves, black stain to highlight the texture of the leaves, and then glazed Khaki on the back/underside, and Clear on top.  I like the surprise of turning over the black and white plate, and seeing the color on the bottom.

O) I'm still playing around with techniques to create small ceramic leaves which my friend Shelley can incorporate into her handmade jewelry.  I don't like pendants which have a blank or unglazed back, and although I have some high temperature wire, it is some trouble to use.  So these leaf pendants are stained with black stain, and unglazed.  The leaf imprints are on both sides (one side shown in the top photo, the reverse shown in the bottom photo).  I'm happier with this, but thinking I want to introduce a bit more color...  To be continued, I'm sure.

Finally, this photo collage is to celebrate my little sodium silicate crackled vessel which has been on display outside the pottery studio at Shadbolt Center for the Arts (in Burnaby, BC, Canada) for about 6 months now, and has finally come home.  It was not my favorite among all the stamped and crackled pieces (see some more crackled pottery in this post), but the most famous one.  :-)

Other than those 2 yunomi cups which I need to look for, I have a few bigger pieces which I am not rushing, so they are either drying, or awaiting glazing.  So I look forward to being allowed back into the studio soon to continue.