Little Bang Theories: Lackluster Smoking

The last post I wrote was about my participation in "smoking" unglazed ceramic pieces to gain tonal variations without color. When I arrived at the ceramics studio to pick up my smoked tile some of the pieces by other people had already been collected. Here is a photograph of the small collection that was left for me to see:

I was rather disappointed in the results. The smoke color did not play up the textures on the clay or in any way enhance the forms. Everything looked pretty much just dirty. Previously, I had painted some high fired tiles with watercolor, and the watercolor sank nicely into the recesses and rolled off the relief surfaces, enhancing what I had built. This was not the way the smoke acted. It indiscriminately singed across the piece in a muddy wash. Truly, I did not spend a long time making my tile. I had to get something done in time to be ready for the smoke fire, and it's probably not my best work. I had hoped for a more dramatic effect, however.
I have seen smoked sculptures that were beautiful. I'm sure there are a few tricks to getting this kind of finish to work for the form, but I don't think anybody was very impressed with our first attempt at this process. I'd pick the watercolor effect any day.