Craig Martell on mon 8 aug 05
Hello glaze seekers:
One thing I've found over the years is that where glazes are concerned, it
takes a minute or two for the strongest points to emerge. Once you've spent
X amount of time formulating a glaze and getting it to work at the temp and
atmosphere you are firing with, you are then faced with all the nuances of
application, compatibility with other glazes in the technical and aesthetic
sense, color response and which ones fit your palette etc. ad.
nauseum. Figuring out the best methods of application and all the rest of
the stuff can sometimes take years. Oh, and as mel has pointed out
already, the claybody is very impotant for the desired outcome. If you
fire Rhodes 32 on porcelain it will not look good unless you put it over an
iron bearing slip. Even then, it's not as nice as a pot made with an iron
bearing clay. Same with shino glazes a lot of the time. Conversely, don't
expect to get a nice sky blue celadon on a stoneware body.
I've made a lot of my own glaze over the years. Some of them I never
use. I was looking at my shino tiles a few weeks ago and I think I have 25
or 30 good shinos that are made with local clays as well as the usual
commercial minerals. I don't use any of them because I've not been able to
figure out how to use them with my current body of work. But I have an
interest in shinos and how they work and what sort of variations you can
get with different materials etc. so I do studies from time to time. All
of these glazes like just about everything I see published as "Carl Bob's
Shino", or "My Cousin Earl's Carbon Trap", originated with Virginia Wirt's
"University Carbon Trap" in 1974. In my opinion, she laid the foundation
for "American Shinos".
I'm usually ok about giving people my glaze recipes. Mostly I do this with
handouts at workshops. The participants can look at the recipes and ask
questions about how to make the glazes work etc. and I can tell them a lot
about how the glazes are used. They can look at pots I've brought and I
can explain what glazes they are looking at and talk about the color
interaction. I've actually glazed pots at workshops and given my firing
schedules and every tip I can think of and the pots are then fired by the
participants with "varying" results. My point is, it takes some time to
get this stuff all lined out. When I leave pots that are finished,
decorated, and ready for glazing and firing the results are really out of
whack. Even if I tell which glazes to use over what slip. As far as
workshops go, I'm not on the circuit. I just do them when I'm asked and
I'm not asked all that much.
I guess the point of all this is that I see requests on clayart about
glazes and throwing and clays and other kinds of tech questions and it
seems like some folks want to be on the fast track to making pristine ware
that's going to get them into the Velvitta Smartsiola Gallery (I stole that
from Jens Morrison). It's not going to happen until you take the necessary
time to learn the craft. The knowledge gained by burning the midnight oil
is worth more than being in the spotlight. As the late Harding Black said,
"discovery is the name of the game." It takes a minute.
back to the sweatshop, Craig Martell Hopewell, Oregon
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