Wednesday 14 March 2012

My first experience with Gold Lustre...

This is my contribution to Mud Colony - http://mudcolony.blogspot.com.au/

I would like to start by giving a special thank you to Adriana Christianson for her kind and
helpful hints in using lustre....
Another week has gone by and this week I ventured into my first firing with Gold Lustre...
I've always loved that extra bling that gold gives to a piece
so this was the week to give it a go...
Last week I posted a tea set that I had glazed in white and decorated with oxide.
Which is below...


And this is it with Gold Lustre...


I am pretty happy with how it has turned out considering it is my first ever attempt
at the process. I have to say the whole process after applying the lustre was nerve racking.
While it was firing and in the cooling stages I was questioning whether I had applied the lustre to
thick or to thin or for that matter did I go overboard and highlight to much of the design... You know the "Less is More" thing. I have a problem of not knowing when to stop. But the application was
great I must say, the only place I noticed anything was where the brush would have first
touched the piece and would have been slightly thicker and it just produced a tiny, fine craze line in that area. But was very tiny... So that would be the one thing to watch for next time...But it wasn't major...

I also added lustre to a dragonfly mug...


And on a scroll handled tea cup, hand painted
 with my interpretation
of Lotus flowers...



So this has been my week and I have thoroughly enjoyed experimenting
with Lustre, and I dare say you will most probably see more of it from me in the future...
 I love detail and the extra bling that the Lustre gives to a piece it is just beautiful...

So here is to another week of experimenting and playing with clay. Thank you for stopping
by and I hope you have enjoyed your visit...
Have a great week...Annie...




Thursday 8 March 2012

Glazing Results...


This week I have ventured into glazing a couple of my hand carved bowls and a few other bits and bobs.
Hand carved Lotus design Bowl in Turquoise...
 
Hand Carved Cherry blossom and Bird with chattering...
 
 I love the way the glaze pools into the carved lines and
chattering...
  

Individually handpainted - all unique in there design...


Tea set hand painted with cobalt carb over a white gloss glaze... This has another step
still to be done and that will be to add gold lustre... I am so looking
forward to that...
Hand painted ....
This was an experiment. Underglazes painted over a high firing
white gloss glaze. It seems to matt the gloss glaze where the underglaze is and also
has little white dots that appear on the solid colour. Very interesting
and it's always worth experimenting...

These are my bits and bobs...


These were some odds I had. The dragonfly I slip trailed on and glazed
with my turquoise. The zebra patterned tea cup was again an experiment with
black underglaze over white gloss and so was the two toned design cup....

 
Test tiles...

This is my clear with stains added to them in the percentage of 3%.
Left to Right - Cobalt Carbonate, Turquoise, Sea Green, Paris Green...

Odd Tests...

The first tile on the left is my clear again with coral stain 3%. It was not
 sieved and has dark flecks in it which I like. The middle tile is my slops glaze, you know when you wash your hands and tools in the same bucket of
water for ages and you end up with the glaze chemicals that settle
to the bottom. Well it's that, so you never know what you will get.
It is a matt grey/sage colour...
   The right tile is a mix of three blues 1%
     of each (left overs) it had turquoise,
     matt blue, and bright blue...
     It's all very interesting....

I was once told you should never do a glaze firing without throwing in a few
tests.... So whether I test on odd pieces as in the tea cups
or I do them on test tiles I always make sure I do some tests... You never know what
exciting new combinations or colours you will come up with...
Thanks for popping in to check out my blog I hope you enjoyed it. I have a face book page which is ... http://www.facebook.com/#!/pages/Annie-Jeans-Pottery/273317036020482 
So if you like pop in and say hi, I would love to meet you... :)

And while your popping why not pop on in to Mudcolony... http://mudcolony.blogspot.com.au/

 Have a great week!!