Friday, February 4, 2011

New Colors

Here are some groovy new terra sig test tiles. L-R: crocus marits heavily stained, lobster mason stain, chartreuse mason stain, vanadium/rio, crocus martis less stained, coral mason stain.
My sheep are out for a little joy ride on a wagon I made last year. Here is a dilema, can you help me? This wagon was redart terra sig, fired to cone 04, then I did a black iron ox. wash, put Gail Kendall's clear on and fired again to 04. It turned this really beautiful antique yellow color and I love it and want it on everything I make. The thing is I have tried this again on a bunch of stuff and everything comes out white! this last firing I even went to 03, still white. WTF is going on, any chemist minded folks out there have any ideas? I thought maybe I could get this yellow with vanadium, but it's not the same, as you can see in the above test tile, this is really a great glaze color and I want it back!!!!
the little elephant is a collaboration with Wesley, ok, really a direct rip off. She showed me some sketches she is doing and I thought her elephant sketch would be great in clay. I'm going to get her to paint it for me when it's fired. I don't see me making a lot of these, but I might see putting some barns on rockers one of these days :)
I had lunch with my good friend and mentor, Barbara yesterday and we spent a lot of time planning for an upcoming ^6 reduction test. We have thirty glazes to test out so look for lots of results by mid February. We plan to fire on the 18th. Will have a big post on that. I'm sure, so stay tuned...... happy weekend everyone, we are supposed to have a warm one, hope so!

9 comments:

Linda Starr said...

I like your house below, decoupage? I thought it was a fired decal, I've always admired those barn signs on the side of barns, I used to do decoupage years ago but on wood boxes, like this new direction you're going with your "barns".

Unknown said...

Tracey- you are in one serious creative mode these days!! It's so inspiring to read about! The new colors are FANTASTIC! Sorry I can't help you out with the color thing, you are working with stuff I have no idea about- but love admiring it. I can see why you want that color back...

Tracey Broome said...

Hey Linda, yes I decoupaged it, I used to decoupage everything that stood still! Thanks Kathy, just wait till this spurt wears out, I will be whining about not having any energy or ideas!

Sister Creek Potter said...

Yes, you are on fire! And everything is coming out fantastic! You have the Midas touch right now. Don't stop now--even to catch your breath!

Judy Shreve said...

Like the new colors & don't you just hate it when you can't repeat a glaze you love. I've had glazes (at ^6) just stop working for no reason - ARRRRGGGH!

Linda Starr said...

For the sheep wagon - the only thing I can think of is there is one chemical that is different causing it to react with the redart turning it white, that has happened to me when I use several mason stains with a different clear. what about using mason stain old gold, that might give you a similar color to this. I like that crocus martis color, I might have to try that.

DirtKicker Pottery said...

You're taking the inspiration to amazing places. Very cool Tracy. I love the glaze test results. I'm very impressed that you were able to make pastels look rustic. Awesome creativity!
Cindy

ang design said...

yeh great colours!!!! love em...what about using an amber glaze on the raw clay and roughing it up with your layering??

Vicki Wenderlich said...

For the wagon: A while ago I did something similar (redart slip, fired to cone 04, oxide wash, clear glaze fired to cone 06) and got similar yellow results, so it's not a total fluke. Are you using the same clear you did before? You might try a few different clear glazes to see if one of the chemicals is the culprit.

Another thing that just occurred to me: if you fire first to cone 04, then to cone 03, aren't you melting the redart on the second firing? Redart by itself can be a glaze at higher temperatures, it has a low melting point. ( Somebody correct me if I'm confused here!) I was testing redart slip once and when I layered it under a clear glaze, it was absorbed into the glaze and just turned clear. So maybe the second time, fire lower, like to cone 06, instead of higher.

I hope you figure it out, it's lovely!