New Glaze Tests

Glazing is the one pottery task that I have struggled to embrace.  I am always worried that I have messed up a beautiful piece and there is not much you can do about it.  In addition, waiting 24 hours to see if you did screw up is excruciatingly painful for a person not blessed with patience.  I have found that documenting my tests is making the process more bearable, even fun.  The tests below are done on a medium dark stoneware clay.  Some of the colors we use regularly and others are new.  As always, if you have questions or want recipes, just ask!

This is one of our favorites.  It is Celestial Blue over Red Gold.  It is drippy and runny often drips on our shelves.  But, if we are careful it makes beautiful pots.

 Red painted over Red Gold.  This combination is pretty stable and doesn't run.  It does vary in the redness.

 I was pretty excited to try this combination and a little disappointed in the results.  This is Moss painted over Red Gold.  It started as a stripe of paint, and as you can see, ended up a blob of color because it ran so bad.

 This tile is Celestial Blue.  We use this as an accent color a lot.  It is nice alone or on top of other colors.

 This is Tom Grey Red.  We love it alone or with other colors layered on top.

 Scapes.  This is a glaze combo that starts with Tom Grey Red as a base and has orange, red and blue layered on top.  It is slightly unpredictable as it can turn out with very vibrant colors or muted with lots of gold like the tile on the left.

 This is the most interesting test I did.  I think we may have mixed the glaze wrong.  This is called Field Mouse Brown.  It looks very black except for where the glaze broke over the number.  We will be mixing and testing this again.

 Spearmint with some alterations.  I love this color but it didn't photograph very well.  It has some hints of blue green in it.  I think we will be mixing another batch and see if we can lighten it up just a little bit.





This is Everglade.  It looks a lot like the Gun Metal Green that we already use.





I am already working on the tiles for my next glaze.   I am hoping in the next month or so we will have some new colors to put in our Etsy shop.

Glaze Results

We did a fast cone 6 firing last night with some dissapointing results. We have decided not to do the fast firing anymore even though it is fun to see your pieces quickly! These cups were dipped in Coyote Shino and then the top third was dipped in Coyote Mottled Blue. I like these and plan on making more.

This bowl was dipped in Coyote Shino and the rim was dipped in Coyote Mottled Blue. A squirt of Mottled Blue was put in the middle. I like this bowl a lot but the Shino ran and the bottom was chipped pulling it off the kiln shelves.

I really like this color combination. The top third of the cups were brushed with Coyote Cinnamon Stick and then were brushed all over and inside with Coyote Red Gold. The Red Gold runs and one of the cups was damaged from being stuck to the kiln shelf. Will make these again with a slow fire.

These cups were made for my son, Dylan. They were dipped in Black and then the top third was dipped in Gun Metal Green. This combination has been very predictable and turns out nice.

This is a new glaze for us. It is an Opulence glaze called Galaxy. The cups were dipped in Galaxy and the top third was dipped in Coyote Eggplant. I am not sure I like the color....but it is growing on me.

These cups were done at Arne's request for his horseshoe team. The top one third was dipped in Gun Metal Green and then they were dipped in Shino. Again, the Shino moved and dripped on the kiln shelf damaged one of four cups.

This large bowl was very disappointing. I love the shape of the bowl but I am not happy with the glaze. This bowl was dipped in Galaxy and then dipped in Antique Iron. I then put assorted blue and green glass shards in the bottom. Not happy with the result.

Arne's Planter. This was such a nice piece. The top one third was dipped in Gun Metal Green and then the whole thing was dipped in Shino. He then scraped off the Shino in spots so the green would show through. The Shino on this piece moved and it was damaged when taken off the kiln shelf. Like I said, no more fast fires!

Arne's Manly Cups. These turned out very nice! The rims were dipped in Gun Metal Green. Two thirds of the cup was dipped vertical in Shino and one third dipped in Antique Iron. Very nice and very manly!!!

A first attempt at a wine chiller. This is Arne's piece. It was dipped in Galaxy. The inside and rim was done in Mottled Blue. As I said before, we are still deciding if we like the Galaxy.

The best piece from this firing was Arne's bowl. He does such a good job putting glazes together to make great colors. This bowl has Eggplant applied thick on the inside. Then Calico was put over the Eggplant. The outside and rim was done in Antique Iron. Beautiful!

This is McKi's (our eleven year old daughter) first attempt at throwing. Not bad for a first time. The top one third of the bowl was dipped in Gun Metal Green and then dipped in Shino. The Shino ran and the bowl has little glaze legs on it.

This last piece was a custom made bowl for one of our friends. They asked for a large bowl with a spout and then picked out the colors. It was brushed with Shino and applied thick. The rim was dipped in Mottled Blue. I think he did a great job making a custom piece and I think our friends will be thrilled.