F*ck ups and Disappointments

A custom birthday gift that I’ll be doing over.

I've been keeping a secret from you. I swear like a sailor, although I was one in another life. Last week I was all excited to show you my new bulgy-shaped pots when the kiln didn't go to temperature. So Wednesday morning, my studio mate and I waited till the kiln was cool enough and moved all the work into the other kiln. Thursday, excitement turned to dismay when I opened the kiln and saw that the background glaze had either fallen off the pots onto the shelf or crawled (a condition where the glaze crawls away from itself), ruining two custom orders and the three vases I was so eager to share.

The center vase is a classic example of crawling. You can see on the two end pieces how the glaze pull in on itself and then fell off when the drip became too heavy.

New pots waiting for their turn in the kiln.

I painted the backgrounds with white underglaze, as I had been doing, and everywhere I used it, it fired faulty. It wasn't a new batch, so it had fired fine in the past. I thought maybe I put the pots in the kiln to wet, but then it had a six-hour preheat the night before (the kiln that didn't fire), so moisture wasn't the issue. I'm conclusionless. I went to the clay store, chose the underglaze from the same brand as the glaze I'm using, and proceeded to the studio to test it.

Applying the new underglaze was like putting soft butter on warm homemade bread. Delightful. I'm careful to wait for the underglaze to dry before layering the glaze on, just to be safe. As I try to understand why this happened, slow is the way to go. My good friend "clay" isn't fond of rushing, so I'm being patient. I'll have new beautiful vases to show you next week.

You may be wondering why I'm sharing this with you. So many think that being an artist is fun. It is. But it's also challenging, perplexing, and frustrating. Sometimes you want to pull your hair out, but all you can do is try again.

Ceramics can be so complex that achieving glaze perfection is like performing magic.