Glaze recipes I've found recently that I like the look of :

Research

Artists combining illustration and ceramics

Hylton Nel

Something about his style reminds me of Bagpuss and a certain illustrated children's book that I can't quite place. slightly like Lauren child but not exactly. It gives me slightly unhinged energy, like the story 'Alice in Wonderland'. I think it's the facial expressions- the animals often look kind of sad- and the way it's slightly 'wonky' and disproportionate. It looks like a child drew it but at the same time, it doesn't.

The work is about the visual language Nel has created and the story behind the illustrations.

Glass Research so far:

Glass has a range of melting temperatures and chemical makeup- not all glass is equal; it depends on the source. Sometimes the colours change or go clear. Red glass often doesn't fire red, it can go brown or black if fired with glaze or other glass, but smaller amounts alone gives a higher chance of colour pay-off. using too much glass will cause the surface to crack, tension can also break the piece in some cases. Using glass is not food safe, as the surface has cracks that food and dust can collect in.

melting points differ depending on the composition of the glass. Soda lime silica is the most common natural glass and melts around 1500c. Pure silica needs fluxes to melt at a lower temperature. The make-up of the glass is dependent on its use,- bulletproof, tempered, tinted, stained- the common ingredients include sand, lime and soda.

Glass pigments

iron oxide greens - browns

manganese oxides- deep amber, amethyst, decolorizer

cobalt oxide- deep blue

gold chloride- ruby red

selenium compounds- reds

carbon oxides- amber/brown

antimony oxides- white

uranium oxides- yellow/green

sulfur compounds- amber/brown

copper compounds- light blue, red

tin compounds- white

lead with antimony- yellow

Polly Fern

Polly Fern is a freelance illustrator and ceramicist who creates tin-glazed ceramic pieces. Fern has a BA First Class in Illustration from Norwich University of The Arts and her work has been displayed in various, world-renowned international galleries, including The Sainsbury Centre in Norwich and The MET Museum in New York. Polly’s work is illustrated by hand with drawings inspired by places, historical events and childhood stories, making each object an original work of art.

In the final year of her degree, she became interested in portraying her design through objects and joined an evening ceramics course, leading her to produce her final exhibition entirely in ceramic pieces. Over the years she developed a specific method of working. developing the 'paper resist' technique; Fern takes newspaper cuttings of her designs then paints over the paper with coloured slips. Once the slip has dried a bit, the design is peeled away to reveal the resisted characters. "Tin-Glazed Ceramics are inspired and informed by traditional ceramic shapes, but slab built to create a modern take on a traditional vessel. " They are then dipped in a tin glaze, and each one is hand-painted with unique designs using oxides and pigments.

One of her main sources of inspiration is a shop called Richard Scott Antiques - he collects interesting Victorian Transferware. A particular feature which influences her work are the borders and motifs in Victorian Transferware. She replicates this tradition by using a slip trailer to pipe on borders and finishing using a simple white tin glaze to coat the details.

She paints figures and animals from memory as this gives them more character. Also taking inspiration from the Victorian Staffordshire figurines her Grandmother owned. In these designs the characters are repeated templates altered slightly each time; "I enjoy the variation within the same characters. I love how they have strange expressions upon their faces, or how something has been painted by someone so many times that the detail starts to look not quite right—a little off, unusual and comical. This is something that I try to maintain within my own work. "