 |
|
| |
|
I really don't feel like I am doing ceramics when I sit down and start applying an acrylic finish to a piece. To me, ceramics is the fired products; underglazes, glazes, and overglazes, but there are some pieces that just don't look right (or look a lot better) if they are done in acrylics. Again, I prefer Duncan products but there are a lot of different ones on the market. Drybrushing a piece is some of my best therapy and I never have to worry about messing something up. It can always be fixed by redoing with more acrylic product whereas a glazed piece can't hardly be changed once it's fired.
It's always exciting to me to open my kiln after firing glazes. When
I load the kiln, the pieces have dull, chalky brushed on glaze on them
and when I open the kiln, it is full of beautiful smooth, shiny glazed
pieces. It's especially fun when I make teddy bear buttons and I open the
kiln to a lot of little teddy bears with big smiles on their faces! Although
there are new "unleaded" glazes, I still like the old ones better. They
seem to have a prettier shine. I usually fire regular glazes to cone 05
and red glazes to cone 06 (just a little cooler). Duncan's Matador Red
is one of the prettiest reds I've found but it is not food safe so I have
to use something else if I want a red food container.
Home
Introduction
Greenware
Overglaze