More pots!

No, not the kind that you smoke. Just regular ceramic pots by yours truly...

**My two tiny plates**

1. Plates before glazing 2,3,4. After glaze firing

These are my first two attempts at making plates. I count my blessing that no S-cracks appeared. And I think I did a decent job trimming off the extra clay so that they are not too heavy.

I carved on the rim on the smaller plate and glazed it with Moody Blue, Deep Sea Green and Whip White. Not good choices for a couple of reasons. Firstly, the glazes were not those that break at the edges, so they appeared very flat on the carved rim. In retrospect, if I had chosen something like Nutmeg (see my little ice cream bowl), the pattern would have been much clearer and with more depth. Secondly, the overlapping glazes did not create any exciting new colours (e.g. Moody Blue on Whip White still looked blue)

For the bigger plate, I glazed it in Jade, Moody Blue, and Bristol Clear. The Jade and Moody Blue overlap actually gave an interesting matted green colour. It is a little shimmery on some parts, and then becomes a glassy dark green around the edge of the rim. I hope to use this effect on a future project which has an uneven surface so that the contrasting colours will stand out. Another glaze combination to note will be Jade and Bristol -- very tiny bubbles are seen on the surface. Not attractive.

Overall verdict: Not thrilled on how the colours turned out, but hey, at least I finally made something functional. They are currently being used to steam veggies, coz my steamer is so small that all my other plates can't fit in.

**Raku pot**

In my earlier post, I mentioned that I was going to destroy this pot due to an S-crack found at the bottom of the pot. Turns out that the pot could be saved! Gail told me that I could cover the crack using some paper clay, which I did. Aesthetically not the most ideal thing to do, but as long as you don't peek inside the pot or under the pot, you won't see the patch-up spot.

Glazed it in Furguson Blue. It seemed that I must have put too thick a glaze layer on my pot, because the final result is that there was bubbling on the glazed surface. I don't want to be mean, but it looked like a disease to me. In addition, the raku firing did not turn out any attractive metallic colours like it should have. The only thing I was happy about was the profile of this pot.

**Bottle with flower inlay**

1,2. Bottle before glazing, 3,4. Bottle after glaze firing

Huge huge disappointment. I glazed the bottle by dipping it twice: first time right side up, secod time upside down. The result is that the middle section of the bottle has a thicker layer of glaze then the rest of the bottle.

Big mistake.

The purple inlay was obscured on the section of the bottle where the glaze is thicker. What I should have done is to glaze the whole bottle in only one layer of glaze. Easier said than done though, coz I have to think of where I should hold the bottle when I dip it in the glaze, knowing that the parts that I hold will not be glazed. Using tongs will be a bit risky (I tired), as the shape does not allow it to be held securely. Another idea is to stuff a stick snugly into the bottle (since the inside need not be glazed) and dip the bottle in. But the stick will have to be removed very carefully after glazing...

***

Looking at all my pieces, I realise that I still don't know enough about the glazes to choose the right glaze for the right pot. That, plus I need to give more thought on how to glaze a pot. (With tongs? By dipping? By pouring?) Note to self: Spend some time looking at the sample glaze tiles in the studio to study the characteristics of each glaze.

I have decided to stop glazing for a while and concentrate more on throwing on the wheel. That is still the most enjoyable part of pottery for me! And after I have made enough, I shall glaze all of them at one shot. Must make sure all conditions are favourable on that day too, including my mood!