Shino

I'm constantly trying to push ahead with new glazes, as well as developing new alterations or application methods for older, reliable glaze formulae. Firing the cone 10 reduction kiln every week gives me the opportunity to do some R & D on a regular basis. Right now I'm working a lot with a Malcolm Davis carbon trap shino recipe. Without altering the glaze itself, I've been playing with the clay surface under the glaze, as well as application methods.

These pots are the result of my testing one of the slip (liquid clay) formulas I've been developing for specific characteristics. In this case, my objective is a wood-fired look in a gas-fired kiln. Working with a groggy stoneware claybody for the pots themselves, I'm developing slip recipes I can tweak as coatings under various glazes to influence them. Slips have been used for centuries in just this way. But, not only does the slip have to provide the intended visual or tactile influence on the glaze, it also has to expand and contract with the clay AND the glaze, lest a disparity cause some catastrophic (or even minor) event such as the glaze or slip shivering off the pot. Hence, the tweaking of various individual ingredients that play their own part in the slip forumula.