ash glaze redux redux: tiles

As promised, here are the tiles from the test glaze batches we fired a week or two ago. These are just four tiles with two of the ash glazes and a new decorative feature:



The first glaze was supposed to be a tobacco spit. I like how it turned out on the Lizella clay -- almost any ash glaze looks good on Lizella. It's got some matte spots and some shiny glassy spots.

The second and third tiles are a new version of our standard ash glaze with a bit of copper added in. The color of the kitchen wall is similar to the runs, and is washing out the tiles a bit. They look good in person. But things looked very very very different when we mixed up a gallon of the stuff. Every kilnload is an adventure.

The final tile has a couple swatches of a metallic-style decoration.

More pictures are coming with the next page update.

ash glaze redux: the magic of baby food jars

One of the dubious benefits having a baby nearby is the vast number of little glass jars that pile up. They look useful, but they're generally not. (I'd make one of those under-shelf old-man nail-and-screw toolboxes, but we've already got a spot for nails and screws and brads and staples and tacks.)

I finally realized that we could use those jars to mix up test glazes. I've got to measure more carefully than usual, since a gram one way or the other can make a huge difference in an ounce or two of glaze. (We cheerfully mix units of measurement.) But I can get a sense of what a glaze might look like before we mix up a couple of gallons.

We ran just a few experiments in our last firing. Several of those were ash glazes. As I said in an earlier post (in which the pictures are now broken), ash glazes can get out of hand easily.

Our new mixes went well, though, and gave us some idea of what we want to mix up. We should have some excellent new colors before too long.

Current pictures are forthcoming, with any luck.