The Shine of Your Japan, The Sparkle of Your China

(03 January, 2001)

I was tempted to make that "The Shino of Your Japan", btw, but we'll get to that later.

As I said in the Biscuit I'm currently writing, I have been reading Nigel Wood on Chinese Glazes, and getting lots of ideas. I am also continuing to work on the general issue of glazes for cone 9, because I now have an electric kiln, and will soon have two. (I just rebuilt the 23" L&L that Chris Daniel found a few months back, at the state surplus place. Once we have a circuit put in, I'll be able to run it.)

I can't quite run parallel columns here, but I can write several sections at once. I'm debating whether to make them separate pages, and I may eventually do that, but it complicates the recordkeeping and confusticates the maintenance, so I don't think I'll do it just now.

Unfortunately, this means I'll be updating this page from time to time, and that makes trouble for readers. If I do the "notify-list" thing, there will be a signup mailto at the bottom of this page.

Glazes and Glaze-Families of Interest

(03 January, 2001)

Here's a list, containing most of the things I expect to discuss on this page. (I may shift some of them off or hold them for later, and I may add things, but at least we'll have a start on it here.)

• Celadon (your classic gray-green milky stuff; but also some that are less grayish, because I like them that way)
• Yingqing (like celadon, but blue; in fact, most people would look at these and just call them "blue celadon", though that seems to me to be a contradiction in terms and there is this perfectly good alternative name)
• Jün (which I have spelt that way because that is closer to the way it's actually pronounced in Mandarin) (these are very difficult unless you can control the heating and cooling cycles of your kiln rather tightly, but we'll see what we can do)
• Mirror Black (several sorts, including a Ding Black imitation and some glazes that are decidedly not East Asian in their ancestry)
• Tenmoku and relatives (including hare's-fur, oilspot, and so on, most particularly my pet Red Tenmoku)
• Ding Russet (this family related to the Black Ding glazes, at least distantly, but these were quite possibly fired in reduction -- my one effort to date in oxidation was a rather miserable failure.)
• "Dandelion" (glazes involving the local clays, particularly those from Doug & Lisa's back yard)
• Satin Matte (I'm still going nuts with this)
• Crystal Glazes (the excellent work of Fa Shimbo and some things I saw in Clay Times an issue or two back have got me rather excited)
• "Floating Blue" (I am beginning to work up a cone 9 equivalent of this glaze; for the moment, I'm still using Gerstley Borate, because I have some; but eventually we'll play with one of the substitutes, if there's any demand)

There. I'll add some detail as time permits.

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Last modified: Sun Jan 14 16:30:44 PST 2001