Hi guys and welcome back to my channel, Blue Nose Trading. My name is Tori Solis and today I'm going to be applying slip to the pots that we pulled handles for in my last video.
This is a dark brown clay called Loca Mocha from Trinity Ceramics Supply in Dallas, Texas. In oxidation, this clay fires to a lovely milk chocolate brown. The downside, as with many dark clay bodies, is getting your glaze to give you a good color response on the dark clay. Glazes that look stunning on lighter clays look like straight donkey poo when you put them on top of a dark clay body.
I don't really feel like finding entirely new glazes just to fit this clay, and I don't feel like redeveloping any of my old glazes to make them work. Instead, I think it's going to be much easier to use a layer of white stoneware applied as a slip to the leather firm clay. I am specifically aiming for firm and not leather hard, because I want the drying of the thick slip layer and the body of the pot to be close to the same.
This idea here is that the white stoneware will act as a primer layer for the glaze. The glaze should look pretty much how it would if it were applied to a lighter colored pot. Don't get me wrong here, I love this dark clay body. I love the color and I love the texture of this dark clay body. I plan to utilize the raw aesthetic of this clay in this series of work. I'm only going to be applying glazes, and therefore the slip, to places that are going to accent the dark clay, not entirely take it over. I will also be glazing the entire inside of mugs for functional reasons. But I am probably not going to slip prime them. I'm just going to use something dark that is kind of neutral, for now.
After the slip is applied, these are going to dry for, until they are dry. Depending on where you live, who knows how long that could take. For me, it's probably going to take 3-4 days. Then they are going into a kiln for a bisque fire. After the bisque I'm going to apply the glaze over the bases of the white stoneware that I put on with the slip.
I'm going to use a lot of everything between green and blue because those are my colors. We've got Carmen's Turquoise, some Sea Foam, Variegated Blue Slate. My colors, we are going to use them. Every pot is getting 3 coats of glaze, and I'm going to be brushing it on, because that is how I roll right now.
Side note, if you're trying to do this, make sure that your two clays, the body of the pot that you threw, and the slip that you're going to use, have similar shrinkage rates. If the shrinkage rates are too different the slip might just pot off the pot. That would not be ideal.
I'm really optimistic that these pots are going to turn out pretty fabulous. I will have them fully fired in a couple of days and next week I will be uploading a series review with the results.
There are no guarantees that any of the work from this series is still going to be available by the time you are seeing this video, unless you are watching on Patreon early access. My weekly art videos on YouTube are scheduled out a couple of months in advance right now. If you want immediate early access, you can find me at patreon.com/bluenosetrading. Videos go live on Patreon the same day that I make them. Also, patrons get first dibs on my artwork. If you're a patron and you see a piece you'd like in an early access video, just send me message on Patreon. If I still have the piece and it's available for sale, I will pull it aside for you.
I release ceramic work in scheduled updates on my website, bluenosetrading.com. You can always check out my website to see what is currently available to the public, as well find out when I will be updating the shop with new artwork. The price of shipping to the United States is included in all of my online prices, so that is one less thing for you to worry about.
You can catch a glimpse into whatever I'm actually working on, like today, in my instagram stories @bluenosetrading. I stay pretty active on there so if you want to catch a glimpse of what's actually happening at this moment, that is a good place to be.
If there's a technique or clay that you'd like me to try out on this channel, just let me know in the comments. I'm open to pretty much anything that I can fit into my budget. Which is a very small budget. If you'd like to help increase the channel budget, consider joining the Patreon. I'll be able to do more, and experiment more if I have more to put into it.
Once this mocha loca series is complete, I'm going to be moving into a series with Laguna Speckled Buff. The speckled buff is a very popular speckled honey colored clay. I've worked with it before, but I haven't ever made a video for it. In the next series, I'm going to try out releasing the series in only two videos. I'm going to release the entire making process from wedging to painting on glaze in super speed for the first video. The second video is going to be the stand alone series review. I'm trying to tighten up a little bit, because I don't really know how many videos the internet needs of me just throwing.
As far as forms, I'm currently planning to stick with things that hold either plants of coffee. I've made a lot of mugs in this series. Bonsai pots are clearly my favorite thing to make of all time. In my next series, I want to make some more espresso cups. I keep a lot of plants and I work in a coffee shop, so those things just vibe with me. There's a ton of stuff you can make with ceramics. I'm going to stick with the stuff that I know.
If you'd like to follow the progression and see all of the things, including how these pots turn out, be sure to subscribe to my channel, Blue Nose Trading. If you'd like early access to all of my videos, and first access to my ceramics, or to just help increase the channel budget, you can find me at patreon.com/bluenosetrading. For shop updates and work available to anybody right now, check out my website, bluenosetrading.com. Thank you for tuning in, and I will see you guys next week with a new art video.
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