Glazing: like a box of chocolates… you never know exactly what you are gonna get

Lucinda’s painted the glazes on her FiSH above; below is her FiSH after the glaze firing in the kiln at the GWU/Corcoran School of Arts

Britney and her glazed FiSH (above); Britney’s glazed FiSH after firing (below)

We did a lot of experimentation with glazes. Some FiSH-makers carefully painted in specific areas with multiple layers; others like Britney let the glazes run for some really interesting effects.

Because we were glazing the FiSH at a high temperature ((cone 10) so that they could withstand the elements when installed outside), some of the underglazes became less stable and the delicate lighter colors seemed to change to darker or different colors.

Joletta, Ellie’s mom decorated her FiSH with a variety of colors to create a design and she tried stamping a third color on the tail

The yellow seemed to disappear into a light green but it still created one gorgeous FiSH!

On this beauty by Nic, the green seemed to turn into a brown, but its still super cool and the glazes on the tail seem more organic, as if the FiSH is actively swimming.

Sophie chose to use an ombre approach to her FiSH. Spectacular, you’d have to agree:

We still have a few FiSH that have been glazed and are going into the kiln for glaze firing:

These two cuties are Sammi and Amelia’s FiSH; I can’t wait to see what they look like after firing!

In an earlier post, I mentioned that there were 2 stages of firing ceramics in a kiln. The first, is the bisque firing which “cooked” the FiSH at a relatively low temperature of 1960 degrees F (cone 03); this hardens the FiSH and makes them a light tan. Then we painted on glazes, usually using underglazes with a coat of clear glaze, which went into a hotter kiln with a temperature of 2284 degrees F (cone 10). This makes the ceramics very durable creates the shiny water resistant FiSH.

We also experimented with using underglazes on FiSH before the initial bisque firing. These FiSH were initially sculpted by me and then finished off with detailing by Nico, who is going to be quite an accomplished artist if she’s this intuitive in middle school! I can’t wait to see what these look like after they are bisque fired and then glazed: