Shirley Gore

In October 2024 I attended Higham Hall near Bassenthwaite Lake in Cumbria for Sharon Ford’s large bowl course which ran from the Monday evening to lunch time on Friday, so we had plenty of time to play. I had two techniques that I wanted to try and incorporate into my bowls, namely decal making and using Thompsons crackle enamel.

The first evening session Sharon started off by doing a demonstration of sieving enamel onto the curved surfaces of the bowl. She started by spraying the inside surface of the bowl, which was to be enamelled first, with a 50:50 solution of Klyr Fire and water and then sieved the enamel, keeping the bottom of the sieve at right angles to the bowl surface. She started at the top and turned and angled the bowl as necessary until the surface had an even coat. She then resprayed the surface with the Klyr Fire solution, placed the bowl right side up on a mesh with a piece of mica on, and placed it on top of the kiln to dry. 

Once dry, the bowl was fired in a kiln that was set at 850 degrees C which took into account the drop in temperature when the kiln door was opened. Once the bowl had cooled, she cleaned the top edge and floated it in a pickle bath using enough weight to submerge it nearly to the top but without getting any pickle inside. It was then scrubbed and rinsed well to remove any trace of the pickle.

When the bowl was sufficiently clean it was sprayed on the outside and enamel sieved, again at right angles to the surface, whilst supporting and turning the bowl from the inside with the other hand. Once a good coating was achieved the outside of the bowl was sprayed again, placed upside down on a pre-selected and tested stilt, dried and fired. Having been allowed to cool, the top edges and bottom were cleaned, and the outside was then given another coat of enamel. 

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