Successful Black Stoneware Bowls—FINALLY!

If you’ve been following me these past months you’ll have seen the struggle with this black stoneware, well, this is the final test for a while, with one successful bowl made intentionally thick and fired in a cool spot in the kiln, as if placed on the upper shelves and fired to a hotter temperature they have the tendency to slump… I thought I was being clever raising them up on waddings, (these are the white clay-like feet I attach to the bases, made from 50% kaolin, EPK and 50% coarse alumina hydrate), not only to prevent the black clay from plucking slightly, this is when clay of the pot is ripped away by the kiln shelf, but also to allow the gas to escape the enclosed foot-ring, as this manganese-packed clay off-gases, creating a pockmarked surface. Not only did that not really work, but the clay became so plastic at top temperatures that the vessels started to sink into the waddings they were being fired on. This meant they were absurdly difficult to remove and I had to resort to chipping them away with a tungsten carbide tipped scraper before thoroughly grinding the bases flat on a diamond pad to remove any residue leftover from the white waddings. For one of these this meant grinding back beyond my maker’s mark, that’s how much the foot sank over them. With my usual stoneware these waddings just pop off the surface with a tiny amount of pressure, which made this discovery rather fascinating as I’ve never run into this problem before! Anyhow, three bowls, some mottled, made with two twirling stoneware clay types, (an accident), with only one that I can truly call a success. Thanks for reading and watching! #glaze #pottery #satisfying #ceramics #asmr #craft