Developing Glazes: Low Firing Reduction and Oxidation
Earthenware, who knew you could be this awesome! These are some of the glazes I’ve been developing to include in my upcoming book, Developing Glazes, Low Firing Reduction and Oxidation. All the finishes in the book are fired between 1870-1940f and include step by step instructions illustrated with photos. A “how to” book is not the easiest to write. Especially when challenging yourself to create all new glazes and techniques! The pay off, besides sharing what I’ve learned with all the potters? I get to play with my new found discoveries, as soon as the manuscript is finished, which is very close. Publication will be fall, 2025!
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Part memoir, part coming-of-age story and part handbook for ceramicists, Fox’s narrative expresses the passion she feels for her work and the joy she has found in living the life of a studio potter.
A few nights ago, as I was outside with the girls my eyes fell upon this beautiful scene. At this time of night, I am tired and just want them to hurry up so we can go to bed and this night was no different. As I stood there taking in the beauty, I thought about getting my camera to capture it, but realized it would mean setting up the tripod and I was too tired for that, tomorrow would do. The following evening, I went out just before dark, set the camera up and waited for darkness to fall over the garden, a sublime moment in my day.
For those of you that have read my book, My Life as a Potter, you know that my health has been an issue. Becoming ill at age 30 was a shock both to me and the people in my life. I was known to have a strong body, well suited to being a potter. I exude energy and vitality and the excitement I have around my creative life has often been described as electrifying.
As the years went by, I slowly improved and dove head on into my creativity, elated that I could work again.
Now here I am, 35 years later and the big C has come calling, talk about an unwelcome guest. Last September I had surgery to remove cancerous tumours from my bladder, that was unpleasant! But, I was lucky, it hadn’t moved into the bladder wall yet and they were able to get it all. I was told that quarterly cystoscopes would be needed to see if it returned. I sailed through the first two and didn’t have any concerns when I went for my third, that’s an optimist for you.
It came as a surprise to hear the surgeon say that it was back and would I like to take a look? And there they were, some flat, others like a spiky cauliflower, yikes. I heard the surgeon say, we’ll book you for surgery and shock started to settle in. I hadn’t seen this coming and all I could think at that point was that I didn’t want to tell my ever supportive sister, Angelika, this news.
Later that evening as things started to sink in I decided to open a bottle of Pinot Noir from Unsworth winery that I had been saving for a special occasion. If ever there was a time to open the good wine, this was it. I poured myself a glass and the dogs and I settled in for a night of mindless tv.
My surgery is booked for August 14th and will mean weeks of recovery time. The pottery will be open as usual with apprentice Sabrina at the helm till I can be back in action. I should be able to pop down and have short conversations with my visitors fairly early on in the healing process but other than that it will be the couch for me.
As my dear old dad used to say to me, “growing old isn’t for the weak of heart” to which I would say, “ I don’t know about that, you’re looking pretty good to me” and that’s how I will continue to approach this latest chapter, by looking good!
Last night as I was about to go to bed my eyes fell upon this flower arrangement; I had to stop and take a photo. Out came the camera and tripod, the dogs were looking up at me in dismay as they knew right away that bedtime was going to be delayed. “Don’t worry” I said to them, “I’m just going to be 5 minutes” and then I cut up laughing as I could hear my dad saying to us kids as he stopped at the supermarket on the way home, “I’ll just be 5 minutes” to which we all cried “oh no you won’t” and, of course, he never was.
Two of my favourites are heading off to join a few more of my pieces at a collectors home in Ontario. I’m, of course, happy for the sales as the art sales are what help to fund the apprenticeship program I run here. But it’s more than that for me, my collector is a senior with not much room to add more pieces to her art collection, still she treats herself to the very best of my work. I find this very touching, she is surrounding herself with beauty while supporting the potters of tomorrow through her purchases. I enjoy all the people that come to visit the pottery but I take extra pleasure in the seniors that come in. Often they are escorted by a younger family member and you can see this is a special outing for them. The other day a woman brought her mom up from Victoria, it was heart warming to hear their chat as she hadn’t made a trip up to the pottery in years and was clearly loving every moment of her visit. Then, also a few days ago, there was a gentleman in his 90’s that comes in with his daughter, he doesn’t need pots but he takes his time and picks out a special piece of tableware to leave with. There are so many aspects of my job that I love but spending time with the seniors that come in is top of my list. ❤️🦊
Once a month I go into Nanaimo for a physio appointment and on my way home I stop at the Man Lee Oriental Market, 385 Terminal st. I have come to look forward to my visits and keep a running list of things to stock up on. When I don’t know which brand of something to buy, I hold it up to show Man Lee and ask which one is best? Now a days when I go in he often mentions something that he thinks I should try and so far he’s not steered me wrong. I had never seen these King Oyster mushrooms and when he pointed me to them I remarked that I didn’t overly care for oyster mushrooms but these King ones look very different from the oyster mushrooms I’d had. He said “try them, they’re good”, now when I go in I’m always hoping he’ll have some. http://www.manleenanaimo.com/
Isn’t this a sweet little vase? Believe it or not, the potter that made it wasn’t over the moon about it when it came out of a wood firing the Fired Up group did some years back at Gordon Hutchens. Often we have a predetermined vision of what we are hoping for when we put our work in the kiln and that, in my opinion, colours our judgment. I bet if the potter saw this pot now, years later, they would immediately see the beauty in it. I have very few pieces by other potters in my house, partially because of space but really it’s because I learn more about my work the longer I live with it, and I’m my own greatest fan.
Recently I had a discussion with another artist about taking pride in our work and how we are conditioned not to blow our own horn. When did it become a sin to speak highly of something we have done or created? I was once called arrogant in an email exchange where a man was inquiring about a piece and the price. In my reply to his questions, I commented on how much I loved that piece but had sold it years ago, told him how much it had cost and that it was a one off, so there wasn’t another. I often have wondered if that man would have said the same to a male potter? Taking pride in our work is a good thing and not something to be frowned upon…but…I’m opinionated 🙂
What a treat it was to have a visit with Heather’s mom, Joyce and our niece Chels last Sunday. Both of them are celiac and were delighted to see that I had picked up a bounty of treats from https://www.wildpoppymarket.ca/ here in town, and gosh, were they ever good! I haven’t had a visit with Joyce here in some time and was delighted to have the opportunity to show her the new work I’m doing. I have been keeping her somewhat up to date by sending photos but you never really get a true feeling of a pot till you see it and hold it in your hands.
Spring is bringing me a bounty of greens from the overwintered vegies, yay, limitless salads are back on the menu. I was out in the garden on Sunday, picking enough salad greens to last me a few days. After they’re washed I store them in one of my peasant ware casseroles, the casseroles keep them way fresher than if they were stored in plastic and there is the added bonus of how great the inside of my fridge looks, no plastic tubs in sight. :).
I’m still coming down from my latest low fire reduction/sagger load. The level of stimulation/excitement/creative energy that I experience when unloading a firing like this last one is a bit overwhelming. This was the best of this type of firing that I have done to date in my Blaauw kiln. Those of you that have read my book, My Life as a Potter, will know that this form of experimentation was my main reason for buying the Blaauw. However , there was so much to learn about high fire reduction that my experiments took a back burner for a few years as I developed the tableware, but now that is done and I can turn my attention to what excites me the most, discovering new ways of firing in reduction.
Today I am going to start you out with showing you something that made my creative mind double in size 😁 This small chalice had been in my last raku firing, probably around 2018. It had a clear crackle glaze on the top and no glaze on the bottom. It was underwhelming when raku fired as I didn’t get enough carbonization on the bottom and no carbon in the lines of the crackle glaze. So, it sat, ever so often I would take it down off the shelf and ponder it, then back it would go. Then….finally the idea came to me, what about putting it in a small sagger packed with sawdust around it stopping where the top glazed collar began? Maybe then I would get the carbonization I was looking for on the bottom and, the big question, would I get carbonization in the lines of the crackle glaze? When I was packing the sawdust around it I decided to put a layer of seaweed at the top of the sawdust layer and finished it off with a light dusting of copper carbonate. Then the lid went on and into the kiln it went. In my prefiring photo it is in the small white pot that has another pot turned upside down to act as a lid, it was a fairly tight seal, by this I mean that there was oxygen getting in, but very little.
I am over the moon with how it turned out and all the possible roads this type of firing is going to take me down. As far as I know, no one has explored firing in this way, at least I haven’t heard anything about other people trying this. There were other test pieces in the firing that also held great promise, I look forward to showing them to you. We also did a video of me packing a sagger showing how I usually do it so that you could see the technique used for that.
The final hurrah came when I discovered that I had the perfect rock to mount this little gem in. Sarah Wilson was a great help both with packing the saggers and taking notes for me. This was her first such firing and I’m sure it was inspiring for her as well. She had two test pieces in the firing but I’ll let her tell you about those. Thanks to Patti for helping me find the rock, does anyone near to where I live know where I could find more rocks like this one? The colours are amazing.
Now, how am I going to keep myself from wearing myself out? This level of creative energy is a bit of a challenge for my body…but…I’ll take it.
