{"id":484,"date":"2011-09-16T18:07:36","date_gmt":"2011-09-16T09:07:36","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/karatsupots.com\/wordpress\/?p=484"},"modified":"2011-09-16T18:07:36","modified_gmt":"2011-09-16T09:07:36","slug":"gas-kiln-with-saggars","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/karatsupots.com\/wordpress\/2011\/09\/gas-kiln-with-saggars.html","title":{"rendered":"Gas kiln with saggars"},"content":{"rendered":"

People sometimes lament the limited effects possible in gas and electric kilns compared to wood kilns, but there are ways to get many interesting effects in gas and electric if you use your imagination and do some experimentation.<\/p>\n

This time around I loaded about half of the kiln with saggared ware. 4 incense burners, 3 sake cup refires, 2 boxes, 2 teabowls, and 1 frog toilet (in porcelain, no less).<\/p>\n

The incense burners came out most interesting, with a lot of deformation occurring in the clay, which was the goal. Nakayama kun wanted some burner bodies that were deformed and all around ‘grungy’ to fit with silver lids. They were wrapped in rice straw rope that had been soaked in a saturated solution of soda ash, mixed with some feldspar, the idea being to get some focused area effects on the pot surfaces. The soda ate into the clay in places and fluxed the feldspar nicely. One of the burners completely collapsed and stuck to the saggar and the adjacent burner, but I’ll be able to keep 2 out of the 3.<\/p>\n

Two of the teabowls, with iron based glazes turned out nicely, but one (the black one) stuck to the saggar and will need some repair on the lip. Nakayama kun is going to do a silver repair on the lip, and I’ll post a picture when it is done. The other, and iron saturate glazed bowl, turned out nicely but I really can’t decide if I like the glaze color or not. Need to whip up some tea in it to see if it shows off the tea color well or not.<\/p>\n

The porcelain ring boxes were a complete failure, with cooling fractures I think. I drizzled in a soda\/spar slurry on the insides and it was waaay too thick. I think its expansion and\/or contraction fractured the pots.<\/p>\n