Friday, March 25, 2011

A Peek Into my Creative Process


I recently finished teaching my first class on glazes. Specifically, how to mix and test different colorants in glazes. This is something that I have wanted to do for a while. The nerd in me has always enjoyed testing and manipulating glazes, and within my local pottery guild, I saw a need for help with this subject.

After testing 153 different color combinations in a single base glaze, the last class was by far my favorite. This was the class where I attempted to pull it all together for my students, and hoped to pass on the glazing bug. In putting together the notes for this last class, I got to thinking about where to take all this information. What did I want my students to go home with?


I sorted through 8 years of tiles from my own glaze testing to bring in some of my more interesting results in an attempt to show my students how to proceed. What I really noticed, was how well it demonstrated my own creative process. And rather than try and explain it, I may as well show you.

Over the next few blog posts, I'll show you what I've been up to, and where it's taking my work. I currently seem to be going in a few different directions so forgive me if the posts jump around. What can I say? There's no telling where my brain takes itself...

2 comments:

  1. Could you please tell me where you got the Slate Matte glaze recipe from, or if you created it, could I please have the recipe. I was ready to give up trying to mix glazes untill I started reading your blog. Now I am off and running again,

    ReplyDelete
  2. Hi Elaine;
    The glaze is called 1214Z. Here is an article about it that includes the recipe:
    http://digitalfire.com/4sight/education/g1214z_cone_6_matte_base_glaze_122.html

    You can read about my trials with it here:
    http://ragingbowl.blogspot.com/2009/03/more-felt-more-glaze-tests-more.html

    and here:
    http://ragingbowl.blogspot.com/2009/03/feltware.html

    good luck and happy testing! I completely understand how frustrating glaze testing can be, but if you hang in there, the rewards are well worth the effort.

    ReplyDelete