The creative process continues....glazing pottery

The bisque firing yeilded some beautiful pieces. A brilliant dark red earth colored pottery. I didnt stop to take photos!! If I do, I will insert them before publishing this post.

After unpacking the kiln, Steve washed all the pieces so as to get the loose clay dust of the pieces. He placed them on a large flat surface and left them to dry in the mid-morning sun. In the meantime, I meditated, ah well, I needed to rest after having spent the better part of the morning straightening out the gallery and the rest of the house. This meditative period gave me the opportunity to decide the designs and the underglaze and glaze colors I would use to decorate the pottery today. This is the final stage of the process of creating a piece of pottery. Adding color to the natural pottery color using glazes can be a daunting task. Although, I use prepared glazes I know I may get a surprise after the glaze firing is complete. Currently, I am using Amaco glazes but I was recently introduced to Speedball glazes, so I am still in the process of testing how I can use it to get the effects that I want.

I started the process of decorating with glazes by using an underglaze color to create designs on the pieces.

I then applied the gloss glazed colors.

It's late and I'm tired. I've been doing this all day. At some point, in the later afternoon, I left Steve alone to do some of the glazing. I had already applied designs and glazes on the outside of the pieces and I now needed him to put clear glaze on the insides of the pieces. I left him to do that while I went to look after our baby. For some reason, I returned after putting the baby's diaper on to find that he was busy using a leaf green glaze on the insides. I just about 'lost it'. I shooed him away, while verbalizing my dismay, I also told hi to take over the baby duty!! I quickly took the brush and started fixing the mess he was making. In the split second that I recognised the error, I also realised that I most definitely wasn't going to change it. There was no way I was going to waste all my time and the glazes to change this. Old folks use to have a saying 'every mistake is a style'. So I took the brush and tried to smooth out the glaze and cover some areas that he missed. Luckily, he hadn't done to many.

He must have decided to leave at some point after I took over from him again to care for my hollering child. Once she was settled I returned to the complete the final set of pieces I had to design and glaze. I was successful in getting through the design process. I will tackle the rest of it tomorrow. Steve called to apologize for the mess up. I told him it's okay but I will have his head if after the firing it looks awful (lol). The leaf green is one of my best-selling colors so there really isn't anything to stress about. Tomorrow, we continue the process to completion.

I guess I'm publishing without photos. I promise my next post will be photos showing the some aspects of the process.

Until....