tests & test runs!

I hate glazing. Okay well maybe not hate it, but I strongly strongly dislike glazing. I guess this mainly is because I like consistency & find that there can be many variables why glazes don't turn out exact. If I spend many hours on 1 piece, I don't want to glaze it and have it turn out like complete CRAP. I also miss soda firing a lot so that doesn't help. In order to solve this problem I've been mixing glaze tests over the past few

months and fired them last week...

In the end I tested about 30 glazes. Some I picked out to replace some of our studio glazes at school, but most were for my purposes. Even with my ghetto kiln firing completely uneven (cone 7 on top & 10 on bottom) it yielded interesting results! I've pulled out a couple that I find particularly interesting & really like how they break over the textures I'm working with...

The goal is to build a body/pallet of glazes that really emphasize the detail on my work. I found one in particular that reminds me of soda firing & several that look great over black slip work. I will most likely continue to test more glazes since I'm not 100% on what I've got so far.

I shared the results with my Intermediate/Advanced Ceramics class & of course they picked out the most obnoxious colors (purple, green, blue, etc.) along with a few that I found interesting. They don't appreciate some of the finer details in some of the yellows/browns, etc.

Feel free to let me know what you think! (hence part of the point of this blog in the first place)

*Note, I only dislike glazing when its unsuccessful! When it's frickin' sweet I love it!*

On a lighter note... on Sunday I did a test-run of my delicious apple pie! (a family recipe of course!) I hadn't made one since last Thanksgiving & I always like to try it out a few weeks before, just because. A few friends came over for popcorn, pie & Wii! I would post pics from our wii snowboarding, but those include LOTS of "white man overbite"-ing. lol. So here's the pie instead!

mmm deliciousness!