So my terra cotta trays & flower boxes are finally bone dry.
So tonight I decided it was time to “stain” them with some black underglaze.
I like the look of the unglazed terra cotta after it has been stained, colored &
antiqued a bit with some black underglaze rubbed into them.
I start with covering the entire piece with water-down black underglaze.
I then let it sit for just a few minutes and then gently wipe off the top surface.
Making sure to to wipe off too much, or too deeply. The idea is to leave some
underglaze in all of the grooves and indentations. Really making the textures
and patterns “pop” without having to cover the terra cotta beauty with glaze
Once they were all stained, I called it a night. They need to dry again completely
overnight. Tomorrow I’ll glaze the interiors with a low-fire brown glaze. They can
then be loaded into the kiln and fired once. If all goes as planned…
they should be done by this weekend. My first kiln of the new year!
Really nice pieces!
So do you once fire them in an electric kiln then?
Yep. It’s kind of nice to do an electric kiln firing. So much easier to just push a couple buttons and go home while it fires overnight. I’m more accustomed to and all-day, high-fire reduction soda firing which requires a lot more work!!
I LOVE your planters! Do you sell them?
Thanks for the nice comment Laura. I enjoy making the textured terra cotta planters… a little more special & fun than those you can buy at the garden center. I’m busy in the studio making more for the upcoming art fair season! Keep watching the blog…
Hi Gary. Did you do a bisque fire first before putting on the watered down underglaze or is it all done in one firing?
ANNE – I do it on one firing. I think the underglaze wipes off a little “smoother” on greenware. But a bisque firing in between steps would definitely make it safer with less chance of breakage. If you did a bisque firing first, you could do the same technique using regular glazes as well.
Do you make your own underglazes or use commercially bought underglazes?
JOHN – I use commercial underglazes for staining my terra cotta planters & trays.
so from green ware , you go right to regular firing, without doing bisque firing ?
thank tou
CORINNE – Yes, with terra cotta you can do a single-firing. So I build them, dry them, underglaze them and spray them with a low-fire clear glaze. Then they go into the kiln for a cone 04 firing. One of the best parts of working with terra cotta!!!