Shaun Hall's Raku Ceramics Blogspot

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.

Over winter I've been testing out the sodium silicate technique, which yields a typical cracked looking textural surface. It's fun to play around with. I've ended up with an absolute stash of bowl forms- loosely inspired by ceramics from the Iron Age- Belgic period, after visiting various collections in Essex and Suffolk museums. I'm still figuring out exactly how to finish these pieces glaze wise- I've opted for a rough texture on these ones with a manganese wash over porcelain slip applied at the making stage. Interiors are poured over with a thin coating of Stephen Murfitt's bronze glaze recipe. I've used a blue turquoise glaze to highlight the rims. Do they work ? I guess they're the best yet and I managed to sell all three of these to a collector from Hastings- which is a nice start for this range. So yes - another nice change to Raku- and we'll see how it progresses with time.

It took me a while to summon the motivation to get back to the workshop this year, but most of January was spent mixing crater glazes. I applied them in combinations and quite thickly to these cruddy little pinch pots and was quite pleased with the initial results. It's obviously non Raku- but I have been itching to test these glazes for some time on stoneware. I fired the kiln to 1240 c. I also found quite a nice Colin Pearson style bronze glaze-slip, could be useful.  I think there is some scope for a combination of three recipes to be used on bowls. However my plan to use a crater type recipe on sculptural forms- I think has bit the dust. It just doesn't seem to fit the bill and marry up to the forms. I will need to think again and look at quieter dry matte surfaces for these, it just detracts too much from the forms. But on bowls...there could be some progress- shades of mid century modern and Lucy Rie perhaps.