testing
So I've been testing...
Drawer full of low fire tests.
Mo colors mo work! Stains make this certainly easier though. I still feel that developing one's own glazes is a good exercise to understanding the materials. Plus the prospect of creating a completely autonomous painting is wonderful.
Started the first round of glaze testing and the results are promising. Every time a glaze goes into flames to bake at 2381° F, it's exciting because it's always a surprise, and we hope a good one. Unlike paint, where you see what you get, a glaze is just a mixture of eclectic powdery stuff that makes you feel like a wizard stirring a cauldron. Minerals and clays from around the world are carefully harvested and shipped to potters to mess around with in fire breathing closets. Bone ash, a clay powder from Florida, some flint, redwood ashes, a dash of extremely toxic barium oxide and you got yourself a mixture of those things! You don't know if it will work, you just dip some clay into it and throw it in the flames and hope it does something cool.
Well not really, there are recipes obviously, and things are done with more science and notebooks than I described. Alas it sometimes feels like a blindfolded primate swinging at a pinata, but thats just the anticipation doing that. Everything is weighed out in careful proportions, mixed in a specific amount of water, soaked overnight and applied. The firing itself varies the outcome depending on where in the kiln the glaze testers sit, firing duration, oxygen levels, humidity etc. The best one can do is try to be aware of everything and take notes. Below is a before and after with the glaze testers arranged in the same order.
Before: Glazes appear nothing like the final product. Just reddish, grey or cream colored milkshakes until...
After: The minerals have melted, fused, danced about, swirled, settled and cracked, you get your result(maybe).
