Glazing
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Subject Author Date
Glazing Mel Owen 03-01-2007
Posted by Mel Owen on March 1, 2007, 9:28 am
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In the studio I have joined to do ceramics, I've been told I have to use wax
resist on the bottom and up the side of the work I make in high fire clay,
with high fire glazes, to prevent damage to the kiln tiles. I do not like
the appearance of the unglazed band at the base when I'm using white clay.
In the pictures of ceramic pieces I do not see that area around the base.
What should I do to have the glaze cover my pieces right to the base?
Thank you,
Mel



Posted by Peter's Email on March 1, 2007, 12:07 pm
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"Mel Owen"
<<What should I do to have the glaze cover my pieces right to the base?>>

I glaze to the base, but have tested my glazes to know which ones
run. In addition, I place the pot on a small, short post to keep it
up off the shelf - this post is narrower that the base of the pot.

I fire ^5/6/7 (ox).

Peter
NM



Posted by DKat on March 1, 2007, 2:14 pm
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I'm not sure what your question is. If the studio requires that you wax the
foot and up the side to protect the shelves against accidents then that is
what you do. You can use iron oxide on the area that is not going to be
glazed and this will give you a color different than white (tan to brown).
How high have you been told to wax up to? Are you an experienced glazer?
You can always request that you be allowed to glaze down as far as you like
and that you will make a biscuit (plate) to go under the piece. Then if the
glaze runs you are the one that has to deal with it and not the studio. The
problem with this is that you have to trust the person loading the kiln to
be responsible for putting the plate under the pot to be fired. You can
also make your foot very tall and trimmed so that you have a good size
overhang. This allows you to glaze all the way down the outer side of the
pot while still being a good distance from the shelf. The unglazed clay is
not clearly visible if done right. The problem here is if you are a lousy
glazer and you get either a runny glaze or the glaze too thick, then it is
still going to drip off the sides onto the shelf. If you are new to this,
give yourself time to develop skill and then worry about the perfection of
not seeing unglazed clay. If you are not new to this and the studio won't
accommodate you, I would find a different studio.

Donna


> In the studio I have joined to do ceramics, I've been told I have to use
> wax resist on the bottom and up the side of the work I make in high fire
> clay, with high fire glazes, to prevent damage to the kiln tiles. I do not
> like the appearance of the unglazed band at the base when I'm using white
> clay. In the pictures of ceramic pieces I do not see that area around the
> base. What should I do to have the glaze cover my pieces right to the
> base?
> Thank you,
> Mel
>



Posted by Andrew Werby on March 1, 2007, 2:59 pm
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> In the studio I have joined to do ceramics, I've been told I have to use
> wax resist on the bottom and up the side of the work I make in high fire
> clay, with high fire glazes, to prevent damage to the kiln tiles. I do not
> like the appearance of the unglazed band at the base when I'm using white
> clay. In the pictures of ceramic pieces I do not see that area around the
> base. What should I do to have the glaze cover my pieces right to the
> base?
> Thank you,
> Mel
[The reason they are telling you this is because they don't want to have to
chisel your stuck pots off their (expensive) kiln shelves, nor to have to
grind off the residual glaze so it won't capture other people's pieces in
subsequent firings. I'd suggest learning to live with the unglazed band
until you've got a kiln (and shelves, chisel and grinder) of your own, at
which point you'll be free to do anything you want. While it's possible to
glaze all the way down to the foot of a pot and fire it on trivets, this is
not something the people doing your firing for you probably want to mess
with, and it can still end in disaster if the glaze is especially runny, or
applied too thickly.]

Andrew Werby
www.unitedartworks.com





Posted by Tmo on March 1, 2007, 4:58 pm
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Are you throwing or handbuilding? How high up the pot are they
requiring you to wax?

In a studio with many people of different experience/skill levels, a
rule like this is probably in place to protect the kiln shelves.

As other posters have suggested, stilts, trivets or other devices to
raise your piece off the kiln shelf and catch and glaze are an option.
This may require you to volunteer to help load the kiln, something you
should do anyway to make sure your piece is loaded the way you want
it. Perhaps even more valuable would be helping to unload the kiln
(and clean the kiln shelves) and seeing firsthand what happens when
glazes run (and why you have to use wax resist in the first place).

You can also consider colored slips to apply to exposed, unglazed
clay, as these should not stick to the kiln shelf. Depending on the
recipe, these may need to be applied to leather hard pieces before
bisquing.

Another thought is that you think of this as a challenge to trim the
bottom of your pot in such a way as to highlight the clay body.

hth,
tmo


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