Getting cups ready for glaze …

Got up this morning to a kiln full of pots to be waxed and glazed.  It’s not a sight that usually has me in a state … but there’s a lot riding on these poor pots.  The pieces that I did with the soluble colorants didn’t do that well.  Maybe 6 or 7 pieces that I would actually show someone, maybe 2 or 3 good enough for the Colborne Art Show in March.  And NONE of the trays/wall pieces worked out.  I’d like some of these pieces that are going in now to be smashing!  (Not in — as ready to be smashed!).  I’m hoping that the colors will be vibrant and that the glaze will be bright and smooth.  BUT I haven’t used my clear glaze on this clay before, so there are no guarantees.  Very glad the clay prints turned out ok …

Glazed and drying. Going into the kiln tomorrw (before the weather gets nasty I hope!)

In hind-sight, maybe making pieces with clay & glazes I’ve used before might have been a good idea!

Actualy had a conversation about this with another potter this morning.  There seems to be something in the ‘potter personality’ that requires a challenge.  Both of my friends in the Colborne Show are still in production.  We are all scrambling to make ‘new’ things for the show, something we haven’t done before, or something that stretches what we’re already doing.  Why is that?  It has been suggested that we’re all ADD or something like that … and maybe in my case it could be true.  I’d like to settle into some kinds of production mode, get a style that’s my own, etc., etc., but obviously not enough to stop the experimentation.  Every once in a while I’ll do a hundred mugs or something like that, just to prove to myself that I am a real potter, and then I’ll have a dream, or somebody will give me some gold lustre or some other shiny thing, or I’ll see work by someone like Angelo DiPetta and I’m off to the races again.  Drive myself around the bend!

So it’s down to the wire and we’re all into a mad dash.  Everything has to be at the gallery next Monday … I’ll let you know Wednesday or Thursday if anything made it out of the kiln!

Still getting ready!

Be well,

Susan