So, continuing my search for a lead glaze that I could fire at higher temperature I reduced the lead content but also ran a test on different temperatures from 1220°c to 1260°c. But the results on my test tiles were not really reliable nor conclusive except that too mu...

Having had a tutorial with Dave we have been thinking of other surface decorating techniques I could explore and add to my repertoire and using terra sigillata came up. I've only tried it once two years ago when on my first visit to the fabulous International Ceramics...

It seems that this is turning into an annual festive tradition on the MA course: a Raku firing session marking the end of the semester before the Xmas break.

This time I managed to plan ahead and decided whether I may be able to use this not just for the fun of pyrotech...

At this year's Pots in the Park exhibition I got to talk to Doug Fitch, who kindly offered to share with me his recipe for a honey glaze I saw on his stand that was fired to a high temperature. For various reasons I don't think this is the one for me though. Pity. 

Disc...

Finally the day has come and I've managed to borrow an overhead projector. I intend to project some of my pattens from my sketch book onto my large pieces in order ease the process of transferring rather complicated patterns onto the body clay. This should be particula...

Looking at my blogs I notice that it's some time since I've written about the actual clay work I've been doing. This is not due to inactivity in the studio but at my desk at home.

So, this is what I've been up to:

Black Clay Marquettes:

I applied wax resist where I wanted...

I am looking at developing glazed surfaces that look a bit like traditional English lead ware but fired to higher stoneware temperatures. The plan is that this will be another nod to old pottery traditions but as an up-to-date adjustment for glazing my large figures.

De...

Having previously got a superb result from firing Valentine's PF680 black clay in reduction I want to see how a similar approach will turn out if I use Potclay's Vulcan (medium) black clay.

Making my initial pot (left) I used a combination of decorating techniques from...