Testing glazes is part of the process...

For those who aren't for all intents and purposes obsessed with creating with clay, you might not realize all the agonizing decisions that we potters have to make.  We are blessed to live in this time where there are literally thousands of glazes to chose from--especially those of us who buy commercial glazes!  But, every glaze looks different fired on various clays and in different kilns.  A glaze will even look different on pots within the same kiln!    So, glaze testing is an on-going process for potters.  Here are some pictures of some of my recent tests.

The KICKER is that to use my new LASER DECALS, I have to fire my pots 3x--taking them from a high fire cone 5 or 6 to a low fire cone 04.  This is disaster for some glazes, and I have to know what this will do to my glazes and my precious pots!!  It's such a heartbreak to be happy with a pot and then have it ruined in the glaze fire!

Crop Circle Clay comes in with Springtime

Last Fall I had the inspiration to combine my love of crop circle patterns with my love of clay.  The result is a new Etsy shop called "CropCircleClay"  The first batch of pots came of the kiln this past Sunday and I'd love to share a few of them with you!  There are really "Earthy" ones with the green agate (matte) glaze with dark chocolate on the inside, robin's egg blue/green glossy with light browns on the inside, and lilac and grape!  In the future, I'd like to have a glaze palette set so that I'd have some blues, greens, purples and browns.  This isn't as easy as it sounds because of working with the laser decals that create the crop circle patterns.  Each pot gets fired 3x and from the last high fire to the low fire for the decals, many great glazes go funky--especially on my dark brown clay. So, I've been doing lots of test tiles in the last few months!  Please keep tuned to my new Etsy Shop and I'll add more as I go!  Happy Spring!!