This week has been a bit hit and miss. Let’s start with the ‘hit’. I decided to procrastinate while waiting for my glaze and slip tests to come out of the kiln. When talking with a close friend, I showed her a photo of the first pieces of my new range and she made a suggestion. Why not make pieces which sit at an angle? So yesterday I cut the bases off 4 vases I had thrown in advance, removed a wedge out of the side of the walls and joined them back together. It was a great learning experience of how to develop the making of them. I now know what the next step is. I’ve decided not to decorate and fire two of the vases. I’d rather recycle the clay and make better ones with better forms and detailing.

Now for the misses; I’ve hit a few technical roadblocks lately. I’m looking for a transparent glaze which fires to 1240C. I made lots of tests but unfortunately, none of them are that suitable. There are a couple of ones which are lovely with colour added to them. I’ll make up larger batches of them at a later point and test them out on small pots to see what they look like properly. I’ll keep looking for a transpareny so if you have any recipes, I’d loveto know.

I also had tests of my coloured slips come out of the kiln yesterday, to perfect the colour. Unfortunately, they didn’t come out great either. I have two ideas: 1) tests the same colours but reducing the amount of colour in the slip to see if that gives any nice results and 2) buy new stains from a different supplier. I’m going making the tests (called line blends) over the next few days. I had hoped that I’d be able to start making properly but I’m just going to have to wait a bit longer.

All that and I’ve also been getting my online shop ready for the next update which goes live on Tuesday evening. So lots to keep me out of trouble.