SHE KILLED IT AGAIN!!!

Yes, Chelsea the “Queen of Glaze” worked her magic one more time!!! This second bowl is just as stunning as that first bowl… I kinda wish I had more bowls for her to glaze! As glazing is my least favorite part of the pottery process.

So here’s Chelsea’s “recipe” that made this magic happen… 1- Galaxy Black inlaid in the carvings and wiped back. 2- dipped in Chun Blue. 3- some Coleman Apple Green on the ridges. 4- some Rutile Blue. 5- Finished with some Cohen’s Red swirled in the bottom. Of course there is not guarantee that Chelsea’s “magic” will work exactly the same way for anyone else!!!

If you want to see more of Chelsea’s glaze magic, she will also be part of the NORTHERN ILLINOIS POTTERY TOUR at the Aurora stop!

One of my Intermediate students has been “struggling” with getting the right glaze results for her intricate pots… lots of carving, stamping, painting, illustrations, etc. The classrooms glazes have been “covering” all of her hard work.. so she’s been testing some commercial cone 6 glazes when I fire my cone six studio work. Looks like Christine is getting some great results. Can’t wait to see where this glaze journey progresses!

Started glazing some mugs today… adding some tenmoku glaze into the stamped impressions. These mugs will be in my next soda kiln firing, so they don’t need a lot of glaze. The soda kiln atmosphere will take care of “glazing” the exterior!

A FULL CIRCLE MOMENT!!!
Here’s a great story… follow along…

So I made some plain vases for my LILLSTREET THROWDOWN class for their Glazing Challenge. I had an extra one, so my friend & fellow teacher Chelsea glazed it during the LILLSTREET THROWDOWN class. It came out beautiful. And then Chelsea gifted it to Clara for her birthday… and Clara is in my THROWDOWN class. So what started in THROWDOWN is now back for good with a THROWDOWN for good!

Happy Birthday Clara!!!

Last night in my LILLSTREET THROWDOWN class, we looked at the glazed results from last week’s glazing challenge. It was the first time we’re ever done a Glazing Challenge for the THROWDOWN… and it was great to once again push them out of their comfort zone!

As a quick reminder, I gave them all plain bisqued cylinders and all they had to do was glaze them as best the could… considering their design, glaze application techniques & creativity.

It was so much fun to see all of the cylinder glazed & out of the cone 10 reduction kiln. It was tough to glaze them and “imagine” what they thought they would turn out after melting together tin the kiln!

WILL‘s cylinder – layered, sprayed, wax resist, ombre’.

CLARA‘s cylinder – underglaze pencil, sprayed & splattered glazes.

CLAIRE‘s cylinder – underglaze painted & dotted, then dipped.

TRACY‘s cylinder – dipped, overlapped, painted.

MELANIE‘s cylinder – dipped, dotted & dripped.

HELEN‘s cylinder – dipped, angle dipped, wood ash, bubbled, stain dripped.

CHELSEA‘s cylinder – dipped, banded & painted.
Chelsea isn’t actually in our class… but I had an extra cylinder to be glazed and she was in the other room teaching her class. So I offered her the chance to play along with my class… and she jumped right in without hesitation. Okay, she might have been a bit of a “ringer” as she taught a class last session all about creative glazing alternatives!!!

For the second challenge during this week’s LILLSTREET THROWDOWN, we moved to the Glaze Room for the first-ever Glazing Throwdown! I wanted them all to start out with the same canvas”… so I pre-made & bisqued plain, smooth cylinders for them.

The challenge was do do the coolest glaze on these possible… and the real trick is we won’t see what they’ve done until AFTER they’ve been fired!!! We’re hoping for the best… as there were multiple dips, layers, underglazes, dots, sprayed glazes, underglaze pencils, bubbles, squeeze bottles, wax resists and a lot more going on here! We’ll all have to wait to see the results!

Last session, my friend & fellow teacher Chelsea was doing a class on different glazing techniques. And I “just happened” to have this large un-stamped & un-glazed vase on my teacher’s shelf… leftover from my Surface Decoration class almost a year ago! Good intentions for a good demo… but I never quite got around to it in class… don’t judge!

So I offered it up for Chelsea to play with as one of her class demos! Everyone knows that glazing is my least favorite step of the process… so if someone else volunteers, I’m all in! And she did an amazing job with several different glazes & techniques all playing well together! Thanks Chelsea… you can glaze more of my stuff any time!!!

Trying to stay productive… stamps are “filled” with tenmoku glaze… and just added a liner glaze too! Still needing a little clean-up around the rims… and then a lot of wadding for the soda kiln. I’m scheduled to load Friday night… and I still have a LOT of glazing to do. Eyes on the prize!!!

Right now, the new Ghouls are “green with envy”! A bit of sprayed glaze… looking kinda like mint chocolate chip ice cream… but will turn to a glossy clear glaze after firing! Getting ready to go into the kiln… one step closer to this weekend’s art fair!!!

One of the coolest part of soda-firing is the randomness that happens during the firing. So anyone who is soda-firing needs to be aware of this before they expect “matched perfection”… ‘cuz that’s not gonna happen!

Here’s a great example…
As each of these mugs have the exact same glaze on the interior. All from the same bucket of glaze!!!

But notice the color variation that happened during the firing… based on shelf location, firing, atmosphere, reduction, oxidation & tons of possibilities!!! A wide range of unexpected colors…. all from one bucket of glaze!!!