A Study in Black Walnut
Experimenting with Black Walnut glaze.
The past two posts were a bit esoteric. Let’s get back to more practical things like glazing. A while back, I made a wonderful accidental discovery while glazing with Mayco’s Black Walnut. All started with a “butter fingers” dribble by a dollop of Opal Lustre on a freshly glazed black walnut bowl. The dribble itself was quite dramatic, in this tomato red, so I left it as it and off it went to the kiln. After cone 6 firing, it came out this metallic shiny green. I wasn’t expecting that at all but loved it even more. This began an on-going exploration with Black Walnut. So far, I’ve accented with different glazes and mostly come out the metallic green.
It’s become a side project that I’ve come to enjoy. I’ve been working on my throwing skills. It’s not been a smooth progression. Some days, it’s utterly frustrating. Improvements are slow but I am starting to get a better handle on things. Having this uniformed glaze practice helps me focus and compare areas to improve. One thing I’ve discovered is that the tactile feeling can’t really be taught by looking and listening. No matter how hard I tried to be a good student! It’s something that needs to be practiced over and over again. Far from expert at the moment, but I’m feeling a bit more confident and leaning to trouble shoot proactively. Still having trouble controlling the sizes and shapes of what I’m throwing. Right now, it feels like the pieces formed on their own with little intention from me. One thing, or maybe the only thing, I can rely on is Black Walnut.
Mini surprise…
The experiment continues. This time with mini planters thrown on the mini wheel. Note that the blue planter in the front is NOT Black Walnut. It is Spectrum’s Autumn Purple + Amaco’s Norse Blue. The planter to the right is a combo of Black Walnut + Spectrum’s Textured Chocolate. Btw, so far when fired at cone 6, the Textured Chocolate came out a rich blue. It’s quite nice but definitely unexpected.
Side note on the mini planters… I started making them for an upcoming studio sale but discovered this is a great way to test glazes. Stay tuned for a post about the studio sale.