All of a sudden it's cold outside again, so I decided to stay inside and continue my slip slop stain experiments. Remember this pinched porcelain bowl I made as a warm up after the holidays? Now I've used this same bowl to experiment with my first batch of sky blue slip. I decided to use a butterfly shape as a contrast to the colored slip. My pinched bowl is now a butterfly bowl. I don't have a clue what I'll do after I bisque the piece. Will I put a clear glaze over it? I'll wait to see how it turns after the bisque firing, then I'll decide.
A few weeks ago, I did some clay weaving. Today I put some of my green slip in a pattern on the woven tray. I do have a glazing plan for the remaining sections of this piece. I'm planning on using a matt yellow glaze with temoku accents over the top. I'll use clear glaze over the green stained sections.
Here's a porcelain wall pocket I made a few weeks ago. Again I am using a butterfly shape to contrast with green slip. I've no idea about the final outcome of this piece. That's half the fun of using clay as an artistic medium. Will it be glazed, pit fired, barrel fired, time will tell. Perhaps I will try it in a barrel firing. I'm still trying to get enough stuff bisqued for the barrel firing, hopefully next weekend I'll at least have one barrel firing.
This weekend I went to the feed store to get some straw (which was the last ingredient I still needed for my barrel firing). I noticed they had bales of rice hulls, so I got one bale. I knew I had read something about rice hulls before but couldn't remember what.
Now that I'm home I read rice hulls can be hard to burn, so perhaps I'll mix them in with some straw. I also read rice hulls contain large amounts of silica, but also contain sodium, potassium, calcium, magnesium, iron, copper, manganese and zinc. I plan to save the rice hull ash from the firing for future experiments. Wonder what would happen if I mixed some rice hulls into some wet clay? Or coffee beans - I think I remember something about them too. It's never ending, isn't it - so many ideas for clay and so little time.
How about you? What experiments have you done? Or what experiments would you like to do? Comments and advice are always welcome.
