Sometimes it’s a short walk through muck and mire, and other times not so much – but either way keep ahold of the bigger picture.

-SP Lascelles

These last few months have been attempts to rectify a running glaze issue using the same glaze combo and techniques that I’ve used for years. In this last couple batches I’ve had nice pieces go south. I was getting depressed.

So I’ve had opportunities to tweak:

• glaze dip times
• amount of glaze
• drying times
• removal of glazes

During this time I didn’t have satisfactory results… as a matter-of-fact the running of the glazes produced another thorn to this potter’s experience because Kiln Shelves were affected, and that’s not a good thing. Especially more so because it was someone else (or a few people) who cleaned the shelves of the running glaze. Knowing the frustration and the hard work to clean glaze off a shelf I surely wasn’t happy to contribute to that.

I also had instances of cracking!

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Experienced potters gave me suggestions and I am going to try them all. Here are the tips:

• Potter 1:
  • Quick dip of base glaze, in this case perhaps only 2 seconds of the Starry Night Glaze
  • Almost immediately dip into the Coastal Blue Glaze. I asked about any drying time (thinking of using the time to wipe off the foot) *but the quicker the 2nd dip the better. So to accommodate this suggestion I will try 2 methods
    • use a tong to hold the piece while I wipe the foot immediately after applying the base glaze, and then drip in Coastal Blue
    • after wiping the foot and seeing the rim dry enough then dip in Coastal Blue (after finding a dry enough spot to hold the piece)
  • The 2 options at this point are to use the Cream glaze sparingly or to not use at all.
• Potter 2 suggested this after I said I really really like the blue glazing result
  • Try using “Amber Celadon” as the base glaze and then dip Coastal Blue.
  • This are my test mugs:

I really hope to find the happy place again, where my Cosmic Blue series can continue. However I am open to new illustrations of the celestial skies using different glaze combos that work well. Stay tuned for the updates!

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Researching other Cosmic Blues

I did acquire inspiration after researching a bit.

• 1) I have to ask my the team at Clayscapes Pottery if I could use some of these glazes in their kiln… Look at those blues!

• 2) Found this on Pinterest:

• 3) And the incredible Bill’s Regular Blue Pottery

His page: http://www.campbellpottery.com/