Today was the start of the Spring Session of the sculpture class and I got the Tile Sculpture back. Much to my relief it did not explode the kiln. I'm quite pleased with how it turned out.
It's gone though the first stage of firing, called bisque firing. The next stage is called high firing. I'm assuming it called high firing because they take it to a higher temperature.
One thing you can do when high firing is add oxides to change the colour of the piece. A straight high firing will make this particular clay come out a gray stone colour. It also tends to pick up a reddish, orangish, brown tone from iron oxides in the clay and from surrounding pieces. However this effect tends to only happen to the most open areas of the sculpture.
So to even out this effect I added an oxide called rutile. Don't know exactly what it is, but it will give the piece a light reddish, orangish, brown tone. Or at least that's the plan. You never know what's really going to happen in a kiln.
The pictures show the raw bisque fired piece, in white, and with the rutile applied. The final picture is of the piece in the kiln. This is the smaller high fire kiln. It's big enough to sit in when it's empty. The bisque fire kiln is in the same room. That one is large enough you can walk into it.
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