Experimental archaeology-sort of!

A good friend and colleague set me a challenge recently to make a series of Neolithic bucket pots for a Primary school teaching initiative which she is setting up. She is collating some resource materials to send to schools- and asked for a replica pot based on the finds from White Colne in Essex. Not too far away from here I live in Halstead, interestingly.

With nothing but a jpeg drawing to go on, I have imagined this replica pot- constructed from coils. This was a good laugh to do as I 'm not normally known for my coiling technique. In fact I'm pretty awful so I have a lot of respect for these Neolithic Essex potters.

Anyway, because I live in a built up area I am going to saggar fire them in my Raku kiln with wood shavings and straw to try and replicate the wood fired finish of the originals. Albeit in a more modern manner!

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Making and firing Raku tiles

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Early days with volcanic and crater glaze part 2....

I glazed a couple of volcanic/crater glaze tapered bowls recently. They almost "half" work- but I'm still not convinced I've got it right- although it's promising. I layered combinations of glaze but I'm having a slight problem with the thick layers of silicon carbide glaze crawling. Sticky fingers maybe? Lots more to come over the next few months, probably with the next recipe- Pinnel Strontium Crater - with a variety of glaze stain additions . It's a pretty reliable recipe so fingers crossed.

Some more Crater glaze test results

I've been blathering on about Crater and Lava Glaze recipes here and on Facebook too. I suddenly "got the bug" as well as a commission- (more on this later) so hence the rather manic activity testing out glazes and destroying kiln shelves in the process with runny, bubbling glazes. I tested 2 recipes- after first trying the usual recipes from the internet and in various books. As I suspected - few of them gave satisfactory results- either it was "pilot error" or the glaze authors just happen to neglect to tell you that vital missing ingredient, kiln temperature or soak time etc! (Know the type of thing?) Anyway I resorted to testing 2 standard glaze recipes which I've had for years. A turquoise matte and a Lucy Rie white stoneware. The jury is still out on the turquoise variant- but the white is rather nice. A little suggestion from Potter Jan Lewin Cadogan http://www.janlewin-cadogancontemporaryceramics.co.uk/ put me right by suggesting to mix the g

Shaun Hall's Raku Ceramics Blogspot

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