The Never-Ending Glaze Dilemma

I cast several pieces this week and took some time to look through ceramic art books (500 Bowls, 500 Animals in Clay, etc.) to tackle, once again, a question I have a hard time answering: how do I want to glaze my work?

Looking through the books, I came back to a conclusion I have reached before: I love satin finishes. Glossy glazes rub me the wrong way with their constant reflections of light, and rocky glazes don't suit my style, although I should probably look that way in the future. However, the perfect satin finish has often eluded me. I worked in cone 6 sculpture last year, and eventually developed a satin barium white glaze that satisfied me, but it has a couple of failings.

One: It's for stoneware, which I've decided to avoid for the time being (the prevailing reason is that I am now exploring non-functional work in an electric kiln and have no need for the extra strength or possible food-safety qualities of stoneware).

Two: Colors were limited to what I could achieve with oxides, and few of the non-white colors measured up to my hopes. Underglazes and mason stains mostly burned out, which was expected but disappointing.

Three (and by far the most important): I am not overly conscientious about safety when it comes to mixing and using glazes, and I've decided that if I'm going to continue this way (and I am), I can't be using hazardous glazes. Hence no barium glazes.

At any rate, since I am using earthenware, a whole new realm opens up to me: terra sigillata. I have experimented with it before, but somehow in my readings I failed to notice an integral quality of terra sig: it does not work above cone 02. The tiny clay particles begin to crinkle above that range, ruining its lovely satiny sheen. I was using it on cone 6 ware and becoming bitterly disappointed with its rough stony quality. I finally re-read my terra sig information and took note of the crucial temperature limit, and was forced to discard it for my stoneware work. An absolutely wonderful article on terra sig can be found here.

But I'm working with earthenware now! Therefore I plan to revisit terra sig for my new work, especially since I have gotten sticker shock while testing commercial satin glazes. Yikes! I will be developing a good satin white glaze (that can be colored with oxides and stains), and also some terra sig. Hopefully one of these routes will pan out.