CRYSTALLINE GLAZE & PORCELAIN POTTERY RESOURCE


SPIRAL


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Spiral Studio Kiln Firing Log, PAGE 2.

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A frequently updated record of the best and most interesting work from recent firings.

02/26/06:

New Uranium Oxide colored crystalline glazed work on the Uranium Page.
Please click HERE.

Pinch-rim vase with gold lustre rim and neck band, 4 " dia. x 7" high, $135. sold Good contrast between the blue purple-blue crystals and the orange ground. The purple cast comes from reduced silver nitrate. Click on the detail photo for a particularly nice larger image.

Ruffle-rim vase with gold lustre neck band and rim, 3-1/2" dia. x 8-1/4" tall, $135. sold

Variegated, silver-nitrate containing blue-green-silver crystals with just a hint of purple. Click to enlarge.

Toothpick holder with gold lustre rim, 2" dia. x 2-1/2" high, $20. sold
The reduced silver nitrate glaze looks exactly like polished brass.

02/21/06: All prices include shipping and insurance.

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Toothpick holder with gold lustre rim, 2-1/4" dia. x 2-3/4" high, $22. sold
This piece has a subtle, yet exceptionally beautiful "Faux Favrile" surface.

The "Faux Favrille" is achieved by the inclusion of silver nitrate in the glaze. Hard to capture photographically, the glaze has a delicately textured semi-matte metallic finish with rainbow iridescence. Much of this piece looks like pure metallic gold. If you've been wondering what reduced silver or the Favrile effect is all about, this is an excellent inexpensive example.

 

Plate, 5-1/2 x 5-1/2", $23. sold

Reduced copper red and metallic copper black.

 

Bowl-Vase with squared rim, 5" dia. x 4" high, $72. sold
Intricate struck purple crystals from silver nitrate influenced cobalt.
Click images to enlarge.

   
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Bowl-Vase with altered rim, 5-1/2" dia. x 4" high, $72. sold
The tiny brown speckles are secondary crystals of titanium.
Click images to enlarge.

 
Ovoid vase, 5" dia. x 4" high, $44. There are two things that I especially like about this vase. One is the amazing drips around the rim. They are reduced copper red, merging to a silver nitrate influenced orange-yellow, with a small band of copper green in-between. Also very interesting is the lavender interior, which has two-tone white and olive-green crystals the likes of which I have never seen. Fascinating butterfly-shaped crystals can be seen by clicking on the lower right detail photo above. I guarantee satisfaction with this piece.

Ovoid vase,5" dia x 4" high, $46. sold
Very nice copper green on reduced red interior crystals. The outside has the most amazing tiger-stripe crystal I have ever seen. I guarantee satisfaction with this piece. Click to enlarge.

02/15/06: All prices include shipping and insurance.

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Vase, 5-1/4" dia. x 3-3/4" high, $49 sold

Very luminous crystals. Nice purple-gray halo.

Click on images to enlarge.

Ovoid Vase, 5" dia x 4-1/4" high, $62. sold Reduced copper lavender. A band of copper colorant was applied to the rim. Other than that, almost all of the color that you see in this vase is from residual colorants in my kiln, which fumed and coated the piece, specifically copper and silver nitrate.

Click on photos to enlarge.

 
 

Ovoid Vase, 5" dia x 4-1/4" high, $49. sold

Reduced copper pink.
I believe that this piece picked up residual silver nitrate fumes from within my kiln, resulting in areas of intense, almost fluorescent yellow.

Lots of interesting effects, including areas of iridescence and tiger-striping. The interior crystals near the bottom have a mirror-like metallic finish.

There are so many different things happening with this piece that I had a hard time stopping taking photographs of it.

Click on photos to enlarge.

 

Ovoid Vase, 5" dia x 4-1/4" high, $49. sold

Reduced copper red.
Wide range of colors and metallic and iridescent effects.

Click to enlarge photos.

02/09/06:

Ovoid vase, 4-1/2" dia. x 4-1/4" high, $64. sold Click on images to enlarge. This piece looks like pure, burnished silver. After some early successes, I have struggled for over two months to achieve what I call the "pure silver" look of reduced silver nitrate. I have finally figured out what I was doing wrong, and can now offer this incredible piece. Both the crystals and background look like pure metal rather than ceramic. By the way, I have received several requests for larger vases. The work that I am currently doing has been experimental, with a high percentage of failures, hence I have been very reluctant to try these glazes on big pieces. But now that I am back on track, expect to begin seeing some larger pieces in a few weeks.
Ovoid vase, 4" dia. x 3" high, $30. sold Click on images to enlarge. Another example of reduced silver nitrate with the look of pure, burnished silver. I had a lot of trouble photographing this piece, but I guarantee amazement and satisfaction.

Click to enlarge

Click to enlarge
Ovoid vase, 5" dia. x 3-3/4" high, $49. sold Reduced copper with some incidental silver nitrate from fuming. This piece has an amazing array of colors. I have been doing a lot of work with silver nitrate and copper glazes in my small test kiln. At the high temperatures required by crystalline glazes, a certain amount of both the silver and copper vaporizes, coating the interior surface of my kiln. During the next firing, these colorants jump back to whatever pieces are being fired. This colorant migration can continue for several firings, producing very unpredictable results. This is a great example of the type of unexpected result that is possible. The chartreuse crystals with their pink halos are particularly vibrant. The purple-lilac interior is also quite striking. I feel that this is a true one-of-a-kind piece, and that to try to reproduce it would be futile.
Vase, 5" dia. x 4" high, $49. sold A break from my experiments, and a return to my favorite green glaze. Nice purple halo. Click to enlarge.

02/01/06: all prices include shipping and insurance

  
Ovoid vase, 5-1/2" dia. x 3-3/4" high, $49. sold Click image on left to enlarge. An explanation of some of the codes found on the bottom of my work: The capital letter at the top right tells me what porcelain body the piece was produced with. I use several different types of porcelain, and each one produces slightly different crystal shapes, colors and effects. The blue spiral hand is simply my maker's mark. The other blue mark tells me what glaze I applied to the vase. I have numerous different glaze recipes. The incised letters below the date indicate that additional colorants were put into the glaze. They are the same chemical abbreviations found on the Periodic Chart of Elements. In this case, Ag stands for silver, Co indicates cobalt, and Fe is the symbol for iron.
Vase with altered rim, 5-1/4" dia. x 4-1/4" high, $52. sold The rim has been altered into a four-cornered slightly diamond shape. Click on left- and right-hand images to enlarge.
Vase, 4-3/4" dia. x 4-1/2" tall, $44. sold Deep, lustrous, Welch's grape purples. Click on images to enlarge.

01/31/06:

  

Ovoid Vase, 5-1/4" dia. x 4-1/2" high, $58. sold
Reflective, metallic crystals with some green iridescence and tiger striping. The background is a velvet semi-matte. The interior is remarkably different from the exterior, with very metallic, large golden crystals. There is a very nice pink cast on the background around the lip.


Vase with gold rim, 2-3/4" dia. x 5" high, $38 sold

This sequence of photos illustrate the effects of striking and reducing. The bottom photos show what the glaze looked like after the initial firing of the vase. The middle photos show how the vase changed after I struck the color of the piece. The top photos show how the vase now looks after reducing. The crystals are now a highly reflective metallic gold in color, and have a distinctive "tiger striping." The background has changed from transparent to an opaque satin matte. The crazing (crackle effect) in the background is now completely invisible.


01/25/06: all prices include shipping and insurance


Vase, 4" dia. x 8" high, $68 sold
click to enlarge

Vase, 2-1/8" dia. x 4" high, $34 sold Nice, unusual lemon yellow.
This little vase is an interesting example of reduced silver nitrate. The highly reflective, metallic and iridescent purple crystals were impossible to capture photographically, but I tried in the two photos below. Directly below them, you can see what the same crystals looked like before reduction. Must be seen to be appreciated, satisfaction guaranteed.


   

Ovoid vase, 4-3/4" dia. x 4" high, $58 sold
Another photography-defying reduced silver nitrate piece. The background area below the lip for about 1" is pure metallic silver, like a mirror. Nice, complicated, varied crystal shapes. Nice orange-rust color with purple and green iridescence that the photos fail to capture.
Trust me when I say that this is a remarkable vase; I guarantee satisfaction.

Ovoid vase with gold rim, 4" dia. x 3" high, NFS
This vase is a very good illustration of the technique known as "striking." The bottom photos show what the vase looked like before striking; the top photos show the vase after applying liquid gold lustre to the rim and striking the color.
I like this vase so much that I am holding it for my upcoming exhibition at St. Joseph Galerie in Leeuwarden, The Netherlands.

 


Vase with squared rim, 4-1/4" dia. x 3-1/2" high, $38. sold The unusual purple color is caused by silver nitrate in the glaze.

01/16/06:

 

Wavy-surface plate, , 8-1/2 x 9-3/4", NFS

This is a particularly nice plate with my signature wavy-surface and my signature Blue-on-orange glaze. The crystals are fascinating and snowflake-like in shape and delicacy.

Click pictures to enlarge. Clicking on the left-hand photo will open a nice, big, high-resolution image.

Vase, 3-3/4" dia. x 9-3/4" high, $125 sold

This is a nice, unusual piece.
The crystals are primarily vertically-oriented fan shapes. They are a deep purple, very similar to the color of Welch's grape juice. The purple is caused by silver nitrate. I know of no one else who is currently using silver nitrate or getting this color. The inside is quite different from the outside, but is also extremely nice. It consists of much rounder isolated blue crystals on a medium yellow background.

Click pictures to enlarge. Clicking on the detail photo will open a particularly nice, high-resolution image.

01/09/06:

all prices include shipping and insurance

Wavy-surface plate, 7 x 8-1/4", $34

Vase with applied gold lustre neck band and rim, 3-1/2" dia. x 8" high, $84 sold
This vase is a deep, rich orange, not commonly seen in crystalline glazes, that I am very proud of. There is a tremendous amount of contrast between the crystals and the background. Click to enlarge.
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Vase with applied gold lustre neck band and rim, 3-3/4" dia. x 8" high, $94 sold
The difference between this vase and the one above, aside from the shape and number of crystals, is that I added silver nitrate to the glaze, resulting in a distinctive purple cast. Click to enlarge.

LEFT & ABOVE:
Pinch-rim vase with applied gold lustre neck band and rim, 4" dia. x 6-1/2" high, $60 sold
This vase is similar in color to the two above, but the orange background is earthier, with a touch of green in it.

 

RIGHT & ABOVE RIGHT:
Vase with applied gold lustre neck band and rim, 3-1/2" dia. x 6-1/2" high, $48 sold

 

Click on images to enlarge.

LEFT & ABOVE: Pinch-rim vase, 4-1/4" dia. x 7" high, $75

Tumbler, 3-1/4" dia. x 5" high, $26

11/16/05:

Uranium Oxide Vase, 2-1/4" dia. x 4-3/4" high, NFS
This small test vase is colored with uranium oxide. The uranium is responsible for the lemon-yellow color. This is a much brighter high-fire yellow than can be achieved with any other colorant.
The vase also contains a very small amount of nickel oxide, which has colored the crystals green.
And finally, there is also silver nitrate in the glaze, which increases the overall brightness.
This is my first finished uranium piece. Of course, as soon as I removed it from the kiln, I promptly dropped it and broke the neck. It has been reattached with super glue.
For the story behind how and why I acquired uranium oxide, please go to:
my french vacation
For more about my work with uranium oxide, please click HERE.

10/29/05: all prices include shipping and insurance

Vase, 5" dia. x 4" tall, $67 sold

An exceptional tri-colored ovoid vase. The side that is away from the camera in the photograph is blue. To see this vase in its entirety, please go to my

page for detailed images.

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