We did another firing on the weekend, some raku and some not. This was the firing where I was going to test out my new copper carbonate and get some rudimentary colour on my pieces. It turns out I got more colour on my head than my pieces did.
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| J. checking out the burner |
It was a sunny 17º outside, warmest March 11 on record, and I actually got a slight sunburn. It's what happens when you're bald and the sun hasn't really shone all winter.
I prepared a tin saggar with a bisqued piece inside, with wood shavings at the bottom, a layer of salt in the middle, and then sawdust for the rest, and 8 g of CuCO3 sprinkled throughout - experimenting with a reduction environment, and the copper powder and salt all in one tight space. It came out at 750º, dark grey on the bottom, a heavy black line where the salt met the sawdust, and then black above - and that's it. No copper colouring anywhere.
I had also painted a small dish with CuCO3 mixed with water, and suddenly at about 315º, it all turned black, and at 750º came out basically charred. The powder must have just carbonized in the flame (I could wash away most of the black dust.) I burnished and prepared a thumb-pot the same way and raku'd it to see if I could get metallic effects, and while they appear they are very faint, and may just be from the raku process itself.
The one piece that did work was the old iron oxide pot, whose inside and rim I coloured with rust from burned steelwool powder, and I'm not sure if it was the quality of the burned powder or if the mix was simply more concentrated, but it came out a deeper red than the previous rust formulation - quite nice.
The other pieces S and J raku fired came out very nicely, with some nice rich blacks, and some cooler grays (approaching metallic blue) too.
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