Saturday, February 25, 2012

Using an Iron Oxide Wash

I have received a few comments about the iron oxide wash recipe that I had posted earlier. Typically, when I've used this wash, I had painted it on green ware prior to the bisque firing concentrating on those areas that I wanted to appear darker. Most recently, I used the wash on a series of magnets that I had done for wedding shower favors. The magnets were small cookie cutter hearts with impressed scroll designs. I painted the wash into the impressed areas and, while wearing a mask, lightly sanded the areas in which I did not want the darker colorant. I had used a beautiful speckled cone six clay and preferred not glazing on top of the wash.

I have also used this wash in the past on green ware, bisque fired, and then glazed on top. The areas with the wash appeared darker where the iron oxide had bled through, however, this this technique may not be used with all washes as  different colorants and glazes may act differently when glaze is applied over the wash.

Of course there are other ways to use washes. Here's some links that may help:

An article on using oxides on the Big Ceramic Store website and another on the Glendale College website,
http://www.bigceramicstore.com/information/tip12.htm
http://seco.glendale.edu/~rkibler/oxidepainting.html

Oxide wash recipes on Potters.org
http://www.potters.org/subject06350.htm/

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