John Boyd on sun 27 may 01
Dear Potters,
Please forgive me for this lengthy thread. My name is John
Boyd. I am a student at Guilford College in Greensboro, N.C. and I am
working on a BFA in ceramics. My three main pottery loves are shino,
porcelain and tea bowls(in that order). However, anything about pottery is
fascinating and dominates my thoughts. I apologize in advance for any
questions that seem simple and stupid, as I am quite a "newborn child" in
the world of pottery.
Today, during this continuing obsession with clay, I found and read an
old book of mine(actually a catalogue)entitled, "Form and Fire: Natzler
Ceramics 1939-1972." To say the least, some of these glazes are exquisite.
Therefore, I have several questions(sorry).
Did Otto Natzler ever share any of his glaze recipes? In the book he
mentions multiple firings with different cycles, different reducing agents
and overlapping glazes. I realize this makes things very complicated, but I
would greatly appreciate any information that might lead to some tests. I
would be more than happy to share any successes.
I am also quite interested in the crystalline glazes the Natzlers use.
From their shape, the crystals look as though they were formed by
Molybdenum. Can anyone confirm this? (book pages 54 and 60).
On page 62 of the catalogue there is a bowl with what I assume is a blue
glaze used in combination with another glaze. Otto Natzler wrote, "It was
another attempt at an oxblood color that completely misfired in the truest
sense." From the text I gather the blue color is from partial re-oxidation.
I was hoping if anyone could tell me about a copper red glaze alone or in
combination that fires red in reduction but misfires blue rather than green?
I know cobalt carbonate is used with copper and tin for purple in
reduction but will it misfire blue?
Lastly, page 68 of the catalogue shows a "gold hare's fur glaze" Does
anyone have a recipe for a hare's fur glaze? Would it be possible to use
the base mixture of such a glaze and add a different color combination to
achieve yellow at cone six? cone 10? At cone ten what would be the best
stable colorant to achieve golden yellow without compromising the hare's fur
effect? The only other hare's fur I have seen (outside of a museum) was on
a pot by my friend Josh Lynch (I think he is also on the list). He is
consumed with a passion for copper reds, specifically testing Ron Roy
revisions of Pete's Cranberry Red. Josh is out for "blood" metaphorically
speaking of course. During the kiln unloading, Josh and I removed a pot
that had been dipped thinly, four times in a Pete's Red test batch that
"appeared to be de-flocculated." The glazed pot was fired close to a burner
port. Josh suggested the hare's fur appearance might come from different
layers of glaze interacting, melting and cooling close to the heat source.
Any comments are appreciated, thank you for your patience.
Sincerely,
John
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Wade Blocker on sun 27 may 01
John,
I saw a collection of the Natzler pots at the Los Angeles
County Museum. They were indeed marvellous, particularly the glazes on the
the miniture pots which made them resemble jewels. The larger ware had
crater glazes. Otto designed the glazes and his wife threw the very finely
crafted pots. If memory serves correctly, the glazes were lead based.
After the death of his wife, Otto made slab pots, using some of the same
glazes. I do not believe that they were ever published. Mia in ABQ
william schran on sun 27 may 01
John - I also have that catalog & actually saw the show. Beautiful
work. Actually had a chance to hold one of the Natzler pots some
years later, so thin! He fired Gertrude's pots in an electric kiln,
introducing "stuff" to produce reduction. Many pots went through
several firings. I think, IMHO, much of the work was low fire. I
wrote to him back in the mid 70's while I was in grad school doing
research on crystalline glazes, he wrote back stated he didn't know
what I was talking about (apparently unwilling to share his
"secrets").
Bill
Helen Bates on mon 28 may 01
From what I was able to find today on the web during a quick search,
Otto taught Beatrice Wood. He taught her about glazes, in fact.
Other than that, I haven't found much about his glazes, though there
are certainly images on the www, such as at:
http://artscenecal.com/ArticlesFile/Archive/Articles2000/Articles0600/NatzlerA.html
http://www.artscenecal.com/Listings/WestHwd/CouturierFile/CouturierArtists/Natzler.html
http://www.fmhs.cnyric.org/community/everson/syrchina/Natzler.html
http://www.lamodern.com/assets/images/232.jpg
http://www.clayplace.com/images/clayart6.JPG
http://www.gansevoortgallery.com/ceramics1.html
http://www.altergil.com/natzler.intro.html
http://www.altergil.com/NatzlerEisenstein2001.intro.html (Click on
VIEW BROCHURE, & NEXT PAGE, etc.)
http://www.harveyclar.com/march2/pg1.htm
http://www.artline.com/associations/cada/archives/av4/exhibitors/aaron/aaron.html
Helen
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Helen Bates
mailto:nell@quintenet.com
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