color!

i put a test of the blue porcelain in the gas kiln last week.  didn’t look so hot.  the body didn’t melt which was good but it got a little burned/dirty looking in reduction.  in the electric it stayed a nice bright blue.  the particular mason stain i used had vanadium in so it has a little yellowish hue which really came out in the reduction firing.  i decided to go ahead and fire the little blue wall pieces to cone 6 oxidation with a wash of gerstley borate since it had worked so well on the white piece.  the next day, while i was at work, one of my studio mates sent me a phone pic of the piece finished.  i couldn’t totally tell what was going on but i was pretty excited.  it looked amphibious……

i finally got to see it yesterday in person:

weird huh!?  i wondered if it was some kind of anomaly so i sprayed the other piece and slid it in the test kiln and this morning i pulled this out:

so now i’m wondering, is that what happens to gerstley borate at cone 6, or is some kind glaze forming between the gb and the mason stain components.  lot’s of questions.  love it.  especially love to see the BRAINS surface.