Glass pool

Glass pool

I spent the last months enjoying the challenge of creating the glaze pool at the bottom of my bowls.
If you are familiar with J.K. Rawling series of Harry Potter, the effect I am after is a bit like the “Pensive”, a cloud looking pool inside a bowl.

The magic happens at high temperature in my kiln and with the right thickness of glaze. Do not ask me the chemical nature of this effect, all I know is that I use crystalline glazes with Zinc Oxide and Ferro frit, and this on top of a clear porcelain glaze. The colour of the pool varies according to the colour oxide I use. I can have green pools if I use Nickel, or pink with Erbium, or blue with Cobalt. This one is obtained with a High temperature Yellow Stain.

I had to endure a lot of trial and error and frustrating mistakes as the glass pool creates a tension in the base of the bowl and many have cracked once cooled. I am still experimenting to see I can produce a plate with a pool all across, so far I got only failure…I will keep you posted of any successes!

There will be three beautiful bowls exhibited at Art In Action in two weeks time in the Best of the Best tent and many more for sale at my Stand in the Teacher’s tent.