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April is around the corner. It was snowing outside. We always have the tug of war between the winter and the spring.
Kiln is loaded, and ready to go tomorrow. No wind in forecast.
Sometime glazing idea comes from the imperfect firing result. Here is one. This bowl is supposed to be look like on the left, but the glaze just dropped during the firing (photo on right). I liked it, and tried the duplicate design, purposely, by brushing the glaze.
After two and a half years of trial and error, I finally got a whole kiln reduced at my studio location. It was very calm day on Friday, and might be the reason why. I hope not. I changed the two things, at up to and during body reduction period, and the soaking period. I tried to fire the bricks first, not pottery, as I read one of Japanese pottery book long time ago. I candled the kiln longer, and used the blower at the stronger setting while closing the flap than usual to push the heat until the end of the body reduction with lower gas setting. Second, I put the kiln back into the heavier reduction on the soaking period for 30 minutes. This is not usual way. The way fired pieces look, the turquoise glaze shows the sign of the oxidation, but reduced on the glaze used for decoration, such as red/pink in reduction and pale in oxidation. It seems that the oxidized part of the glaze was reduced by this process. I fired once with the heavier reduction (less air from blower) all way through, which was very bad firing, lots of crawling if I remember correctly. I wish I’ve taken the detailed note on each attempt.
I do not know either or both processes helped this firing. I am pleased with what I got. If the next firing goes well, I will be out of the woods, for now.
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