Fingerprint Shino

Image 1 - Fingerprint Shino

This glaze and the way to fire it were discovered by using a combination of the grid method and draw trials. Essentially it is a relatively long firing used to mature the glaze at a temperature much lower than usual. One of the results is that the glaze is so stiff it does not move at all and even a fingerprint frozen into the glaze during application will still show all the finest spiral marks of the finger after the firing. I call this new variant on a very old Japanese glaze "Fingerprint Shino". You can see a magnified version of this image (and others on this page) by clicking on it.

Image 2 - Teabowl by Ian Currie - Fingerprint Shino glaze - Reduction fired to 1220 deg C

This pot and others illustrated on this page were made in mid-2002 as experiments and gifts for friends and also workshop organizers.