Stained

The other day, I mixed up some stains and oxides based on "recipes" in The Potter's Guide to Ceramic Surfaces by Jo Connell. This book was published in 2002, which may be why the author does not mention that you don't have to mix your own stain colors - there are over 100 mason stains available for purchase online. For someone with my skill level, there is no need to get all fancy schmancy and mix my own.

Anyway, I mixed up the following combinations:
Light olive green: 10g canary yellow (recipe calls for egg yellow but I don't have any) plus 2g cobalt oxide
Dark olive green: 10g canary yellow (again, recipe calls for egg yellow but I don't have any) plus 4g cobalt oxide
Mustard: 20g orange plus 8g red iron oxide

I tried the method described in a video I watched (which of course I cannot find now, but it was an introductory lesson): mix the stain with a little water in a plastic sandwich bag, then pour it into a well made with the clay (1kg of stoneware clay). I started with the mustard color.

I wedged the clay and stain mixture on a plaster batt and wore latex gloves, but it created quite a mess and stained the plaster batt. The color looks very RED - not sure if that will change after firing.

AFTER I tried this, I discovered that there is such a thing as a SLAB MAT. They are developed for putting clay through a slab roller, but they are available in smalled sizes for wedging, etc. They are not woven and don't stain, so clean up very easily. I order several from the Ceramic Shop.

I decided to wait until I have the slab mats before mixing the other colors. Maybe I will try sandwiching the stain mixture between discs of clay. Or I will go back to the "slip" method I used before, which takes more time but is less messy.