Post 19 Latest pot - number 17

This is my latest pot having tweaked a few design elements to get closer to the picture I want to achieve. This one has a deeper foot with lower recess connecting the feet, a deeper flange and greater flange radius. All these little details add to the visual appeal without necessarily being separately apparent. Isn't that always the way.

At the moment it is just leather hard and in need of a little tidying up around the edges. I'll leave those until it is bone dry when the surface is less sensitive to accidental touches. It looks really good at this stage and from experience I think I've got drying sorted to maintain stability; if only they would tightly hold shape through the firing cycles.  If there is any experience to share on that subject I'd love to hear from you.

I'm also starting to work on the bits and pieces for a new oval design and mould; watch this space. This time I'll post a few more pictures of the process as it unfolds.

Post 18 And more new pots

Ok so the last 3 for a while - at least until I make some more. And as I forecast last time, a few more surprises.

The first one is with a glaze I call 'Sea Mist'. As you see a good satin/matte surface and a good foggy blue/green.

  This is a digitalfire.com glaze number G2571A. It is formulated as a cone 10 glaze and so has lots of Custer Feldspar. I've changed it a bit by adding a little extra Silica to get it back into the satin range.

 

Here's a picture of the trial test tiles with three different oxides. Sea Mist is in the middle, no 59. The other two have nice earthy tones, on the left using RIO and Nickel on the right. Sea Mist has 2.5% copper and a little cobalt.
Nice one I'll use it again and reformulate with other colourants.

Next up is derived from Val's Satin Black base and in the test produced a nice mottled green tint. In the pot firing it has come out quite homogeneous with more grey tones. Not unattractive but a surprise. Good surface finish.

And finally for now is one in the test that was quite a mottled rusty red but in the pot firing produced much more of the lighter tones to produce a colouration not unlike a satin terracotta finish. Again not unattractive but another surprise.

All three pots are also around the same size of 380 x 275 x  92, stoneware clay fired to cone 6.
It's coming into winter here in Australia at the moment so my trees need to sit quietly for a couple of months before I can press these pots into service.

These firings have given me quite a lot of information, what it means exactly might take me a little time to analyse! An early observation from a comparison between these pots and the ones I produced last year is that the moisture level of the clay when pressing the pots might be far more influential on stability in glaze firing than you might think. That's something else that I need try to measure and make notes of at the time, in future.

First prioirity is workshop shelves, then back to pressing out some pots. Somewhere in there is making another oval mold too. So much to do and so little time.

Post 17 New bonsai pots

The first 4 have gone through firing and again there are mixed results.
Starting with the two oval pots.

The first one was glazed with a good mid range satin blue.

I'm very happy with the colour and surface. Final dimensions were 425 x 315 x 100 and it fired with minimal deformation, looks good.

The other oval was fired with an overlay glaze, a reasonably transparent dark blue/green over a nutmeg shino. Hard to believe looking at the individual test tiles and the combined result but the overlay on the pot fired very close to the test tile. Final size 415 x 320 x 100

                        

  

 Very nice satin surface and a good mottled colour. This was the first oval out of the mold and it didn't dry as well so a little sag in the pot. All part of the individuality of a hand made pot!

The next one cracked in the bisque firing but I took it to glaze for the test of its survival. Well the crack opened up a little but the pot is still usable, but not for display. This one also developed quite a bit of movement in the firing which I do not understand and would be happy for any advice about that. None the less the glaze turned out really well and I will use it again. Final size 380 x 282 x 91.

 

 The glaze was heavy on the spodumene and both Red Iron Oxide and Yellow Ochre as colourants with some addet Tin Oxide, great mottled colour.

The last one did not fire faithful to the colour test at all. It should have been a cream breaking brown mottle but fired to a clear brown with feint blue speckle, and quite glossy.Final size 373 x 270 x 94.

 Why indeed. It was on the top shelf and may have got a little hotter or the glaze may have been applied a little heavier than the test tile. You can see why all the advice points to finding a glaze that works and sticking to it. Not there yet.

 The final picture just shows the foot detail on the rectangular pots, from underneath.

There are three more in the kiln today for their final firing so more surprises coming up!