Tuesday 7 January 2020

Buff black - figurative designs for fun


This was designed as a simple comparison of black oxide design on buff vs black oxide design on (titanium?) white dip over buff. Both cups will have a clear overglaze applied. I'm curious to find out if the clear overglaze has any impact on the performance of the white basal coat. Is it worth doing the basal coat or is the pale colour of the buff sufficient?

Squirrel mug, pre-firing. Shading with watered down oxide seems to have worked well.

While is is a basic experiment, I'm quite charmed by my design choices. For the plain buff, I've chosen a curious long eared squirrel. I have a friend who loves squirrels and I would like to gift her this mug after this experiment. I did sort of want to do the lazy one peeking over a branch but the shape really didn't fit on the mug well.

Judgy Owl mug, minor shading. hoping a single layer is sufficient to retain the detail with the basal white layer.

The second candidate for this experiment is the Judgy owl. This was painted over the white basal layer. The basal layer is very powdery and I'm a little concerned some of it was included into the underglaze while it was painted on. Many areas of this design only have one layer of black. I hope that'll be sufficient to come through the white and retain the design.

Update: the fired cups!

The buff with a clear over glaze. The detail came out well but it looks like there may have been contamination in the glaze as patches of the clear have a greenish tint. All in all, a successful cup though the shape is a trifle over exaggerated.

This is the best owl. I think the single cost of black was too light and the satin white background too mobile to survive the clear dip well. The other owl looks a little faded. Next time I’ll try wetting the white glaze with a light water misting before applying the black.


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