Saggar firing again
Jun. 16th, 2016 05:58 pm![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
offcntrThe last time Shelly and I tried saggar-firing, I used stoneware and she porcelain. I got some very nice, rusty red-brown colors; she got amber. So I decided to try again, with some G-mix (a porcelain-like stoneware manufactured by Georgies, up in Portland).
Shelly didn't have anything for this firing, so I used a couple of seconds to form my saggar: a soup bowl that managed to get into the bisque without trimming, and a dessert plate that had a chunk blow out in the bisque. Used a little ceramic fiber to make an air-tight gasket.
Since my test pieces were little birds, I decided to fire them head down, to see if I could get them to look like juncos. (Black head, brown body.) I used three charcoal briquets, and about a teaspoon of soda ash.
I got brown and black, gorgeous warm amber brown. The black, sadly, was bumpy and blistered. I'm going to re-fire one in Jon's kiln, see if I can get the surface to settle. Next time, less charcoal, and maybe put the pieces up on shelf chips to just fume.
Shelly didn't have anything for this firing, so I used a couple of seconds to form my saggar: a soup bowl that managed to get into the bisque without trimming, and a dessert plate that had a chunk blow out in the bisque. Used a little ceramic fiber to make an air-tight gasket.
Since my test pieces were little birds, I decided to fire them head down, to see if I could get them to look like juncos. (Black head, brown body.) I used three charcoal briquets, and about a teaspoon of soda ash.
I got brown and black, gorgeous warm amber brown. The black, sadly, was bumpy and blistered. I'm going to re-fire one in Jon's kiln, see if I can get the surface to settle. Next time, less charcoal, and maybe put the pieces up on shelf chips to just fume.