AusBonsai

Thanks james.

James, most woodashes will give you a runny yellow-green glaze but you will need to fire higher. Woodash doesn't start to melt till 1100deg. It probably be best for you to do a triaxial with woodash as one of the points. That way you will get some useful glazes for the temps you are firing to and that will work in your kiln. Don't forget to use different clay bodies too. That way one glaze will give a different colour over each different clay. Also dont forget to use a test piece which has both a vertical and horizontal surface - woodash is runny. It is also caustic and you do need to sieve it - at least 100mesh. You can use it washed or unwashed. Washing takes out all the soluble minerals which can give iridescence and unusual colours and it sets hard when dry.
Penny.

Thanks very much Penny for the information, greatly appreciated.
Regards
James

Very hard to get a running glaze at cone 04, it will take some experimentation to get that look.

I trail and errored with black iron oxide on low fire clay to get it to melt at 1050c. the low oval was straight iron oxide, with the tall round frit was added to the oxide and the firing was held for 15min at max temperature. Haven't tried it with glaze yet.

Hi Kitoi. Your cracked pots are as beautiful as they always are. Thanks for sharing.
I was wondering if you could also share some tips on attaching the legs to pots as to when to attach and how to attach.
regards,
DK

Thanks Dk,
I'll start a new thread on feet

kitoi wrote:Very hard to get a running glaze at cone 04, it will take some experimentation to get that look.

I trail and errored with black iron oxide on low fire clay to get it to melt at 1050c. the low oval was straight iron oxide, with the tall round frit was added to the oxide and the firing was held for 15min at max temperature. Haven't tried it with glaze yet.

Thanks Kitoi, for the info, what " low fire " clay did you use, if I may ask, also what do you think about the following recipe as a base satin vallum glaze.
borax frit 90
china clay 10
zinc oxide 4
titanium oxide or dioxide 4
tin oxide 4
plus adding the coloring oxide of your choice. I know its over the 100% measure but thats doesn't matter much ??or does it ??
regards
James

Frit seems awfully high, have you tested it yet? I would suggest lowering it to 78 to get your 100%. The low fire vellum recipes I've seen have about 20-30% frit. Here's one
http://www.flickr.com/photos/yamerica/4155727566

Those pots were made with terrcotta clay

Thanks Kitoi, no I havent made it yet , might try yours instead.Love your pots, I have checked out your blog several times, cheers.
James

Somebody asked where to get pottery plaster. In Melbourne you can get it from Walkers Ceramics. I have forgotten the address, but I am sure its in the phone book. If it is not close to you , you can get it at a plaster supplier. You can buy lots of very nice CESCO ready made glazes if you only fire to low tempeatures. I fire to between cone 6 and 10 depending what clay I am using. Both Janet de Boos and Greg Dalys books are in most local liberies, I did a series of trials from Greg's book with low fired glazes at 1080 once and had some very nice glazes come out, but I played about with the colourants a bit.
Lynette

Sorry I mixed up who asked the question. In Brisbane you can get pottery plaster from QLD Pottery Supplies in Milton.
Lynette

kitoi wrote:Thanks Dk,
I'll start a new thread on feet

Thanks Kitoi. I am looking forward to reading that thread.
DK

If you are not mass producing bonsai pots, I would recommend buying commercially available glazes. I would recommend some of the stoneware glazes form Northcote range. They come out real nice on rough textured clays in reduced firing.

If you really want to have indiviual pots it is best to make you own glazes. Even using other peoples recipes you can alter slightly to get your own finishes. Or using commercial glazes you can pur one over another etc. All the commercial glaze makers have some nice low fired glazes. CESCO have some very nice mottled 1040 degree glazes if you are looking for low fired glazes.
Go to you local library and have a look at books by Janet de Boos and Greg Daley. The Greg Daley book even has coloured pitures so you can see what they look like. Have you thought about using a hight temperature, some low temperature pots do not last as well, expecially in very variable temperatures.
I also thik the frit is a bit high. Usually less is used in a Raku glaze (1000 deg),
Lynette

We must also note that sometimes the type of clay and the type of firing contribute more to the final result than the glaze. See the pot below.