My Mason Stain Experiments

Trying new things can be extremely challenging, but the desire to do more is what drives us to make artwork. During the months of November and December, I experimented with mason stains. 

Specifically, how they would work mixed with slip and watercolor applications. These are both techniques I have never tried before so I was feeling the pressure of expanding my technique and skill.I took several 2-ounce jars, mixed 10 grams of slip with 1-3 grams of stains depending on how intense the color was, and labeled them accordingly. I took my slabs and used tape to draw a line down the middle. I wanted to show what the stain looked like both as painted and as slip trailed. This step was honestly the most fun I’ve ever had with mason stains. I like to consider myself a messy artist, my studio always looks like a tornado going through it, and most of my sculpture work focuses on sensory overload. This was the cleanest work I’ve created in years and I truly enjoyed doing something different.

The following steps are where heartache entered the room. The blackberry wine stain reference #9 states that the glaze requires 12-15 % of Calcium Carbonate. I honestly overlooked this because I’m terrible at math and looking at percentage signs scared me a bit.

When I opened the kiln after the glaze fire, the Blackberry Wine stain turned gray. My first thought was “GREAT, MORE TESTING”, but don’t get me wrong, I do enjoy experimenting but most of my testing has been about how I manipulate clay more than the chemistry side of ceramics. I started doing controlled testing with the Blackberry Wine stain. I took 100 grams of slip and split it up into five jars of 20 grams each. My goal was to do line blends, so I added single grams of stain into the jars; 2g,3g,4g,5g and 6 grams. On one side of the slab, I divided up 5 sections and added the stained slip. For the other side of the slab, I added 15% Calcium Carbonate to each container. Sure enough, the controlled testing came out perfect. The side with 15% calcium carb was a beautiful shade of purple.

While this wild goose chase was happening with the stained slip, I had a different animal to deal with, the lurking watercolor mason stain application. This was the straw that broke the artist’s back. I ignored what the article said for this project and just assumed I could treat it like actual watercolors and that worked until the bisque firing was finished. The colors were just rubbing off the pieces and at that point I just coated the slab with a zinc free clear and called it a day on that slab.I had to go back to the drawing board and with that I realized I needed to mix the stain with the glaze for it to not come out chalky. 

At this point I was really questioning if I was a good artist or not. I had a very hard time following through because this project required more science than artistic ability. I was burnt out! Even though I achieved what I set out to do, I wasn’t really satisfied with my results. Part of it was because I was just exhausted from touching mason stains and testing them with different applications. The other part was because of the setbacks I faced. I will say that I have a newfound appreciation for the people that do all this testing day in and day out. Ironically the most fun I had with this project was thinking about all the ways I could incorporate stained slip trailing into my future work. It was interesting that this realization happened while I was struggling the most in these 2 months. In closing I want to say that making mistakes and starting over is a key process in art. Acknowledging that no one is perfect gives you that opportunity to grow as an artist and as a person. I feel that with patience and time I can move towards other areas of ceramics that need improvement.