Monday, August 3, 2009

The Third Winner... and a double test!

People get excited when they hear "TEST", but sometimes a test piece is only meant to test one aspect of the run.... like, the slip color. When I decided to do Hadrian in a colored slip, I had a book of slip color recipes from HR (given to me by Jim Renaker) but the company who made their pigments was out of business. So, I sort of had ratios, but not the real colors. Jim gave me a very delicate balance beam scale, and some instructions to figure out how to test colors.
Hadrian was a good choice for a colored slip horse... being a Dales pony, they traditionally don't have white markings. But I wanted a nice, rich, dark bay... which ended up being a problem. I started with a small, very precisely measured cup of slip, added a very small amount of dry oxide powder colorant (sort of a saffron color) mixed into water, and poured... no, not a Hadrian, the molds were new and I wasn't going to waste castings on slip tests. I poured Nomads. Why not? Nomad almost FALLS out of the mold. Two piece mold, too! So, I poured the Nomad, added in a little more slip, added in more colorant, poured again, and after the third or fourth time, started adding in a redder brown color. I made six total tests, from light saffron to dark bay. Didn't paint their eyes, hooves, or anything. Just slip color being tested...why clutter it up with details?
Just recently, when I wanted to test some print-at-home transfer stickers, I grabbed the mid-tone Nomad slip test to fire them onto. He has "POUR HORSE POTTERY" across his side, and a dorsal stripe across his back, both made on the computer... problem is, the transfers fire to a sort of plum/rust color, not black, so he is saffron colored with a plum colored dorsal stripe!

Anyway, drumroll.... the winner is Marge Para! Congrats, Marge!


5 comments:

ETCs_Lady said...

This is fun to watch! Congrats to all the winners posted and yet to come!

mel said...

Ooh, Marge! Cool piece of Pour Horse history for you!

Danielle Feldman said...

I'm enjoying this trip down memory lane. Congratulations to all the winners. While I own no chinas (read: I have a three year old little boy in my house), I just love them. Someday maybe I'll get brave enough to try to glaze. Maybe someday...

Sandra Garner said...

Were you pleased with the way the print your own decals came out? i've thought about trying that with one of the dog's pictures. thanks, Sandra Garner

Joanie said...

Sandra, yes I was pleased. In fact, I just bought another set of the transfer sheets. But you have to buy the right printer, too, it's a laser printer. Costs a little over $100. Worth every penny. If you send me a design I can print you out the dog picture, and you can try it. Fires to a sort of plum color because the ink is actually rust.