Bisqued and ready to fire.
Obvara fired.
Obvara is an old eastern european technique involving scalding the finish on the pottery to seal the porous surface. The bisqued piece is heated to 1500 to 1650 F., removed from the kiln and dunked into the Obvara mixture and then dunked in water to rapidly cool the piece. The pieces range from tan to almost black with speckles. The mixture consists of approx 2 pounds flour, 2 packets of yeast about 1/4 cup of sugar and about 4 gallons of water.. It is mixed and allowed to ferment about 3 days before use. it smells like beer or sourdough to me. it fits well with the raku process most potters are familiar with. The obvara mixture provides the decoration as well as the reduction of the pot. it is almost smokeless, which can be a great advantage in a city or school situation.
1 comment:
Beautiful Obvara!!!!
I am a graduate student at Hood College with Joyce Michaud. I have an independent study with Joyce Michaud titled:
Obvara Firing Technique - The History, Preservation and Contemporary Development of the Ancient Eastern European Firing Technique. Its a "tall order" for research.
I found obvara on Facebook, Jane Jermyn's page. It works well for my work. www.janicechassier.com I use it for my waterfowl sculpture. I decided I didn't like the phrase, "an old Eastern European technique" and I wanted to know more. And I am finding out so much with the assistance of a wonderful woman that lives in my area that is from Belarus. To date, I have talked with people from Australia, Portugal, Turkey, Finland, England, and Russia (via the internet) that do obvara. I did countries other than the US first; I figured they would be more difficult. Now its time to move to the US. I do have some questions about obvara, your work that you make for it, and I would like to share some of my research with you when it is complete.
Let me know if I can send you my series of questions...that I have been asking of those around the world that use obvara.
Thank you for your time.
Janice Chassier
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