High Firing Workshop
- Details
- Parent Category: Technical Articles from Journal Back Copies
- Category: Technical Articles 2004
Gillian Woolf
Pat Johnson's high-firing workshop was intensely exciting and lively. There was a sense of mystery and suspense. Would the high-firing create the iridescent pinks and jade greens we so coveted or would we be disappointed'?
The intense heat of the kilns at over 920°C and the need to grasp the right moment to grab the enamel from the kiln before it was too late all added to the sense of adventure. We had to concentrate hard to endeavour to learn the intricate skills of fine spraying with gum solution. Those who enamelled bowls had many skills to learn from dusting the enamel grains at the correct perpendicular angle on the sloping sides of the bowls to remembering to remove the enamel from the base of the bowl and part of the sides.
We had some fabulous results. Flux 232 produced not only a wonderful rich gold, but also glorious orange crimsons and glowing oranges when covered over exposed copper oxide.
We used whites DW1, 141 and Cl00, Cream 102 and flux 700 and 232.
We left the workshop realizing there was much to learn. We would have to make many tests and samples, but the end results could be very beautiful.
Student work from Pat Johnson's workshop (photo C. Griffin)
Pat Johnson not only gave a superb workshop, but has also very generously given the Journal a copy of her instruction sheets: