Glazing inside large pots

[Ayjay]

I'd normally pour the glaze for the inside of a pot, but I've made a couple of biggies - 17" tall, 12" diameter, the aperture at the top is 6". I don't make large quantities of glaze and even if I did I'm not sure I'd want to fill one of these and then up-end it.

The best option that I can think of is to spray, but I'm never happy spraying the inside of things, although to be fair I've not tried with anything approaching this size.

Any thoughts or suggestions?

One is bisque fired and the other is still green, hence the different colour and size.

[George Lewter]

About 1/4 of the volume of your pots (or even less) should allow you to pour a liner glaze. Pour it in. Swirl to get the glaze as high up the inside as possible, then start pouring out slowly while rotating the piece to cover the upper inside. The correct outpouring rate and rotation rate will completely cover the upper inside surfaces in a single outpouring. If you don't get all the way around the pot, add enough glaze back to the interior to complete the coating.  This is a skill that you can develop with practice. You might have to clean off some drips on the outside due to the liquid glaze clinging to the rim and outside.

Spraying the inside of any closed form is not a viable option.

[Ayjay]

Thanks George, I know the technique as that's pretty much how I do internals now, although I do use more than 1/4 of the  volume, I'm slightly concerned about the problems of moving that size and weight quickly as I try to be fairly quick so as not to get the glaze too thick.

I think I'll have to give the pot a good wetting before doing the inside.

[Ayjay]

I finally got around to glazing these two pots and the inside glazing went much smoother than I'd thought it would.

I put about a pint and a quarter of glaze in a jug and added about 20% more water (the idea being that the bisque wouldn't be soaking up neat glaze as the extra water would slow down the absorption rate of the glaze), I also added some blue food colouring as my clear liner glaze is white as is the clay, the colour allowed me to see where the pot was or wasn't glazed.

In practice this quantity allowed me to glaze virtually the whole of the inside with the "pour and swirl" method. I finished the very top of the inside with a brush-on clear glaze, which also worked well as it hardens much more than a dipping glaze and allows the pot to be handled without damage to the unfired  glaze.