It is generally supposed that when a piece of pottery cracks in the firing there is no remedy. This is very likely true with pieces that have been glazed, but with unglazed ware my own experience has proved that it can be mended. When an unglazed piece comes from the firing showing cracks, large or small, mix a thin slip of clay with a little finely powdered flint and run into the cracks until they are more than filled, then rub or scrape off the surplus. This formula was given me by a prominent art potter who also furnished the mixture.
In putting away
Unfinished Work,
cover with a damp cloth and keep the cloth damp until you are ready to go on with your modeling. Once hard the clay can no longer be worked, and unfinished pottery must always be kept moist. In the case of a piece having handles, spouts and like projections, place something under the cloth to hold it away from these parts and prevent its pushing them out of shape.
You May Glaze Your Candlestick
with colored glaze before it is fired or you may have it fired and returned to you in “the bisque,” when it can be glazed and sent to be fired the second time. One firing really seems all that is necessary for small pieces, however. [Fig. 563] was fired but once, the glaze having been applied to the unbaked clay and it came from the pottery in a perfectly satisfactory condition, without crack or blemish.
The glaze used for all the pottery in the little group in our full-page illustration, is Marshing’s soft Limoges glaze which may be obtained where mineral colors for pottery and china painting are sold. The glaze is transparent when fired and is to be mixed with color unless the piece has underglaze decoration or the clay is colored. The proportion is one part dry color to nine parts dry glaze. Both come in powders and must be thoroughly mixed, then dissolved in a solution of gum arabic. Eight and one-half teaspoonfuls of glaze to one-half teaspoonful of underglaze color is sufficient for two candlesticks. Apply this with a No. 8 camel’s-hair brush and give the piece three coats, waiting each time for one coat to become thoroughly dry before putting on the next. Lay the color on evenly and do not allow little streams of glaze to run over the edges.
There are various
Other Methods of Coloring Pottery.
One is to work the dry color into the moist clay by kneading. For the little pitcher ([Fig. 575]) one tablespoonful of raw sienna was thoroughly worked into a lump of clay the size of a large apple and the pitcher then modelled from the colored clay. Prepared mineral color was not used, but dry “raw or green” color purchased at an ordinary paint shop. When quite dry the pitcher turned a beautiful ivory yellow, but became almost terra cotta when fired. The uncolored glaze was dissolved in gum arabic and applied after the first firing, and the pitcher was fired a second time.