We may not have any crocus or daffodils popping up like at Mom & Dad's, but Spring in Alaska is still beautiful. The days are finally longer now. Last night walking Tauzer-Schnauzer the sun was shining and reflecting off Chester Creek, near our house. People were out, happy to be walking, skate-skiing and jogging on the Anchorage Coastal Trail. The daylight has brought a much needed attitude adjustment and people along the trail actually said hello to us! The high was still a brisk 29 degrees BUT, the sunrise was at 7:59 am and the Sunset was 8:15 pm, for total daylight hours of 12 hours, 16 minutes -yipee, we made it!!!
The glaze firing went well. A couple of
experiments worked and I was pleased with the matte glaze on two of the "Woobie Souls," pictured here. Though my glazing skills are still not that great, and in all hon
esty there may be a serious lack of "glaze desire" on my part. A gloss, dark blue (Speedball commercial glaze) doesn't look as good as the matte finishes. When I use the matte finishes, their velvety finish makes you
want to hold and gently rub the bodies of the sculptures. Their softness lends the piece a quietness and overall subtlety that I wanted to convey. The glossy, shiny glaze, in my opinion looks too reflective, slick and bright. I do like that Blue Speedball gloss glaze on some of the Sea Tiles. Everything was fast glaze fired at ^04. The real Blog news is that I finally got to try the ceramic laser decals today! I have a few test peices in the kiln RIGHT NOW -I'll post the process as soon as I can safely pop the lid on the kiln...
6 comments:
I love those matt glazes on the "Woobie Souls" too especially the purplish one; can't wait to see your decals. Oh I saw you have your raven tile in the kiln on the last post, he looks great.
Hi Linda- thank you for the post. I agree, the matt glazes are great, though I need to get a larger quantity and start dipping, because using a brush to apply the glaze is just not cutting it! I'm not sure how to glaze the Raven tile yet so he didn't go in with this load...hmmmm any ideas?
Hi Cindy! IT's just amazing reading your blog and the different environments we occupy. Jeez. 29 degrees! But so beautiful too.
Like you, I prefer the matte finishes. I'm told that a slow cooling will help get more matte finishes.
Looking forward to seeing how the laser decals turn out!
Hi Patricia, thank you for the post. YES, isn't it just crazy all the different places we all live and diversity of weather, climate and geography and yet can be in contact with one another!?
This may be hard to believe but we woke up this morning to over 14 inches of fresh snow here in Girdwood! Probably only a few inches in Anchorage BUT still, I was liking seeing the END of winter and not MORE :o)
Keep your fingers crossed, I'm going to open the kiln this evening on the decal test pieces...
Awe - Tauzer is too cute!! Can't wait to see your decals...
I like the matte glazes too...
Hi Cynthia- thanks for the post. Yeah, Tauzer is a good girl :o)
I just posted my results from the decals and they did not turn out nearly as great as yours. I think it was my firing temp and maybe even the glaze but I just put the pieces back in with some various tests, so hopefully I will narrow down what's up. Aren't the decals a blast?!!! I, like you want to put them on everything -ha!
Post a Comment