Introduction and Tools

When I first started making ocarinas, they were all sculptural with lots of texture. I was having so much fun making them that I didn't think ahead to how I would glaze them. I ended up ruining a lot of ocarinas until I learned to Keep It Simple.

Glazing a highly textured stoneware clay sculpture isn't difficult. Just keep in mind that a heavy glaze coat and/or many colors can obscure or detract from a textured design. The easiest approach to this problem is to use one or two glazes and/or metallic oxides or stains to emphasize the textured surface.

This dragon was fired in an electric kiln, however, this glazing technique works very well for gas kiln fired pottery also.

For this dragon ocarina, I will be using three glazes plus a manganese/copper oxide wash. !CAUTION! Wear gloves and a dust mask when mixing and handling these oxides. They are commonly used in pottery, but they are poisonous.

Tools

The tools used for glazing are pictured on the right.

(1) Elephant ear sponge

(2) Cotton swabs (Q-Tips)

(3) Needle tool

(4)Assorted brushes

(5) Small lidded container (not pictured) for the stain wash (a baby food jar works fine)

(6) Dust mask (not pictured)

(7) Plastic disposable spoons (not pictured) for scooping the dry oxide stain and mixing the oxide wash.

Materials

(1) Bisque-fired red stoneware clay dragon ocarina. Any red stoneware clay is fine to use, but the color results will vary.

(2) Opaque white stoneware (cone 5) rated glaze (I used Laguna's Snowflake MS 26.)

(3) Creamy white satin stoneware (cone 5) glaze (I used Laguna's Cream MS 19).

(4) Metallic oxide(s) or stain (black or dark brown). For gas kiln firing, Barnard clay works very well.

(5) Glaze for eyes (I used a shiny black cone 5)

Next: Staining the ocarina >>