Wednesday, April 24, 2019

Glaze testing...

I've been testing pottery glazes these past few months. 
Initially I mixed up small amounts, tested them, then narrowed it down to the examples that seemed to show the best results. I mixed a large tub of a white that looked promising, but now I'm not so sure... It's a rather fickle glaze I think. 


Lovely smooth finish on this - no pit holes, even, and good coverage:

By contrast, a pretty rubbish finish on this house with the same glaze - small pit holes and overall uneven coverage. Why??


Better, but still pretty average. The coating is more even, but there are still signs of pin holes and some unattractive breaking over the edges. 


The white glaze continues to misbehave. I was so excited to see how it looked on the uneven little pot, it was as close to my perfect while as I've ever come! But then it came out so average on everything else:  too thin on the large pot, but it might be that I should have just dipped it twice, but also slightly rough, with tiny pin holes. Same on the 'onion' pot, and perhaps worse on the little house, which felt quite rough to the touch. More testing needed I think...

I also tested a couple of transparents and a dark blue. Really liked how the blue came out:


I'm also really happy with the G3 transparent, though, which has come out very even, smooth, and without pin holes. Less so with the G0001 on the small vessel.