Creating Coloured Porcelain

I have been experimenting with adding colour into porcelain slip. I've decided to colour the clay body, rather than adding a glaze or coloured slip on the surface, as I have been creating 3D textured pieces which I feel would lose their definition if I covered them. To get bright colours, quite a lot of underglaze needed to be added to the porcelain, because the porcelain is white, so all of the resulting colours would be tints.

I decided to test the colours at different temperatures as well as different concentrations of colour. Starting at 1g of underglaze to 100ml of porcelain slip, I also tested 2g, 3g and 5g. I poured out the slip onto plaster bats to dry, then cut each into 6 sections to fire at 1000, 1060, 1140, 1200, 1230, and 1260 degrees Celcius. I felt like this would give me a good overview of how the firing temperature and concentration alter the colour.

I used Picasso blue, black, turquoise, and lime green underglaze powders, and I plan to start mixing my own colours now I have a better idea of how they behave at different temperatures and concentrations. I remembered to label them before I fired them because I've made the mistake before of getting a beautiful result and forgetting how I got there!

I will make some texture tests with the coloured clay to see how the surface works with the colour, and I will also try putting underglaze powders into plastic clay rather than slip, to see if a uniform texture can be obtained by wedging it into the clay.

Ceramics: After glazing and firing.

I think the cabbage looks really good, because the stripes are straight when looked at from straight on, but the lines are wobbly when viewed from an angle.

I think this has worked really well with some parts shiny and some left matte, and also the very small detail with the larger pattern works really well together.

I think these squares worked really well, because they are so simple and not overly busy. I think together, the larger one in the middle and two smaller either side, would look good on a statement neck piece.

I like how this mosaic piece has turned out, the brown stain in between the tiles make it look old, like a roman floor.

The transparent glaze has worked really well on this woven piece. Because of the shine, I think it looks like a jewel, and the colours work well together.

I also like the matte piece, where the texture is the main feature and it is accentuated by the colours in the dents.

 I was a little bit dissapointed that the darkening of the orange red parts, which I was hoping to be more vibrant.

 I used the same colour on this piece, and this has come out a terracotta red, not the very dark brown that is on the edges of the diamonds. this could have possibly been because of the thickness of the glaze, or because it was on top of a glaze, so could not soak in to the clay.