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!

'the swine' and grading interrupts everything!

My first week that I kept track of studio time I spent about 10 1/2 hrs making pots!  So I was planning on kicking major butt last week in a similar fashion, but about 5 kids from each of my classes were out with either H1N1 or the regular flu. Talk about crappy timing.  Which in turn got a TON of teachers sick and made me have sympathy sickness.  (never having a fever, which is okay by me!)  Plus I had to grade a ridiculous amount of work, so alas, no studio time.  I did find a few minutes to fire a small load of pots...

I'm still testing the dots.  The first 4 came out looking nice but if you handled them the dots fell off :-(  I think I just added them when the pots were too dry because this load is better.  

I'm also working on testing close to 20 cone 10 glazes. Which has made me realize how much I suck at and/or dislike glazing.  In college I borrowed a lot of glazes from Grad friends, but without really recording what I used (beyond just the names) I'm pretty much at square one.  Not to mention that I have no access to a soda kiln which makes me sad for when I make large work again. I should be firing student work soon so I'll be able to test them out in the gas kiln but time will tell if anything actually looks good.  --If you have some sweet glazes or ones I probably used on work previously, feel free to share!--   I'm starting to think about cone 6 glazes, but I'm not sure where to start. I guess more research in my little spare time.

This week will probably be spending some time on detail for a damp box worth of pieces I still need to finish. Plus I want to start teaching my Advanced students how to throw larger forms in sections (they're diggin my big work & want to watch how it's possible).  I'll post some pics of my progress- goal is about a post a week to make sure I'm doing something!