Jodie Curley: Ceramics - biscuit fired!

Here's a quick update on the ceramics front... following the first firing in the kiln, thankfully no casualties!

My next task was to experiment with some oxides and glazes... It was great to finally get my hands dirty again and get stuck in becoming familiar with different materials and how to use them all. It's quite exciting knowing that the different materials react in different ways, so even though it looks like a lot of the colours have come out brightly using these oxides, I've been told to be wary of how much oxide I used as the colour change can be quite significant once the pieces have been fired again.
Here's some of the images following my oxides experiments...

copper oxide...

manganese dioxide & cobalt carbonate front ...

and reverse...

copper carbonate - varying strengths to understand intensity of colour/finish

Using latex to have oxide 'resistant' areas - then just peel off! Helps to keep a clean top and bottom to the pieces - sense of professionalism, rather than a scruffy hand-finished piece.

Latex dots left to dry ...

Then oxide painted on and latex removed - leaveing a nice clean finish ...

Copper dioxide - goes fairly dark black & goes a slight tint of green in thinner areas of the clay - so experimenting with strengths of the oxide & positioning of it to see how it results after firing...