Monday, December 24, 2012

More translucent porcelain from this firing

            I was very pleased with the number of pieces that came out translucent in this firing. This was my first adventure using translucent porcelain, and to my delight, I have found that it does not need to be as thin as I thought to produce this effect. Here are three more pictures of my first efforts.


            The little piece above is a tiny vase about 2 inches tall. In the picture it is lying on its side with a flashlight inside of it. This is probably the most flattering picture possible of this poor little piece; it had two major glaze problems and thus doesn't look very good in the daylight. But it's translucent! Isn't that glow neat? (The glaze inside crawled all over to one side, and another pot that was glazed too thickly plopped a droplet of brown glaze on it, for those who want all the gory details.)
            This piece is thin for sure, but it's not so thin that I couldn't make something else like it. It was thick enough to carve those wavy lines on.


            Cthulu fhtagn! This cup also had a glaze fault, which is a shame because it has a cuttlefish on it that I was rather fond of. The cuttlefish does glow with a light behind it, as you can see in the picture above. This cup is not as thin as the tiny vase above, and I thought for sure it would not be translucent. Looks like I was wrong! This is good news. It means future cuttlefish cups will also be translucent, so those of you who have been excited about cuttlefish can get a little more excited! (If you're wondering why the picture looks odd, I flipped it upside down so the cuttlefish is a little easier to parse out. The cup was sitting on its rim for the photo shoot like the one below.)


            The cup above recently appeared in my Etsy shop, where there are also pictures of it in normal light. It is glazed with clear glaze, and on the outside has a bit of green in the textured area. I really like being able to make translucent cups without even doing anything special! It's a treat to be able to just make them thin and light like I usually do and have this result when they are finished.
            I will be continuing to use this porcelain (Laguna #15). It is easy to work with, and how can I complain about the results I'm getting?

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