—Anglian Potters Camp 2005— Annabel Bartlett
allowing finely graduated fades in intensity - much more so than with Rob's airbrush which has a larger and more varied droplet size. Meanwhile, Tony Pugh was helping us get to grips with the complex reduction glazes he uses to such amazing effect. His rich surfaces are built-up from several layers of different glazes. For example he recommended Tesha, green celadon, blue sponging slip and finally copper red for my bowl. In retrospect, we should have spread the glazing over a longer period. The pots needed longer to dry between glaze coats, causing problems that became evident after firing as crawled glazes and flaking slips - mainly in the soda firing. It was late in the day and coming on to rain which didn't help the drying process either.
Soda, soda burning bright . . .
In another vintage year of potters camp, this year saw more people attending than ever before with entry limited to 50. To cope with the extra numbers, cars were parked in an adjoining field. To keep us all clean, Jerry built an extra shower and toilet block out of rather fetching blue doors. The long weekend stretched over four days starting on Thursday with general preparations and a start to glazing. The large wood kiln was fired to earthenware again this year but to add some extra excitement, Rob Bibby provided help, advice, tools and materials for glazing.
At the same time, Margaret Gardiner and Jeremy Nichols were leading the salt and soda glazing and slipping. All pots were lined with a shino glaze. The exteriors were treated in two ways. Margaret's method was to dip in slip, possibly adding further slips with brush or other means. Jeremy's technique was based on applying a very thin shino layer as a base into which to spray stains either blue or black. The spray gun was extremely fine and even,
Inside the glazing tent
Ian George
Rob showed us how he creates his complex majolica decorations by applying under-glaze colours and
oxides, over a dipped glaze coat. The colours are either sprayed with an airbrush or mixed with glaze and applied with brushes and sponges. In these ways we were able to quickly build up layers of colour, or even selectively remove colour.
Friday saw kiln packing, some rain, and the soda, salt and reduction firings started. The soda in particular needed to start early because it takes so long to cool. The salt cools much more quickly but Jeremy finds it easier to gauge reduction at dusk when the flame is easily visible. He certainly got his wish too because long after Frank had finished his BBQ, we were all crowded around the roaring kilns, drinking and chatting into the night. A big thanks to Frank and Heather (assistant/organiser) for the food and cooking.
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