Uploaded June 2026 | Updated September 2026, 2 weeks ago
Another test, another failure? Maybe, I suppose nothing went categorically wrong, which makes for a welcome change, there was no slumping and nothing cracked but the black stoneware fired brown and the glaze is patchy in places, showing too many remnants from where it has been “fixed” after being applied.
The truth is, for the time-being at least, I’ll be ditching making vessels like this and I’ll be focusing on tiles as tests, as I’ll be able to settle on something more rapidly. Paradoxically, my previous run of experiments offered far more interesting results, yet the body itself was unstable and prone to warping and collapsing, whereas this body is very stable, but the results themselves were uninteresting. Ultimately, I’m after a body and glaze combination that can be fired in the same kiln loads of work as my other vessels, to cone ten, as the plan was to always produce fewer black pots in comparison to the rest of my work.
Nonetheless, whilst I liked throwing and trimming this stuff, I’ll likely blend what I have down with a batch of reclaim and I’ll make some bowls with it, this way I’ll produce a range of moodier vessels for a future shop, otherwise I run the risk of the bag of clay slowly turning as hard as stone as I forget about it.
Back to the drawing board!
#clay #pottery #ceramics #handmade #satisfying
Another test, another failure? Maybe, I suppose nothing went categorically wrong, which makes for a welcome change, there was no slumping and nothing cracked but the black stoneware fired brown and the glaze is patchy in places, showing too many remnants from where it has been “fixed” after being applied.
The truth is, for the time-being at least, I’ll be ditching making vessels like this and I’ll be focusing on tiles as tests, as I’ll be able to settle on something more rapidly. Paradoxically, my previous run of experiments offered far more interesting results, yet the body itself was unstable and prone to warping and collapsing, whereas this body is very stable, but the results themselves were uninteresting. Ultimately, I’m after a body and glaze combination that can be fired in the same kiln loads of work as my other vessels, to cone ten, as the plan was to always produce fewer black pots in comparison to the rest of my work.
Nonetheless, whilst I liked throwing and trimming this stuff, I’ll likely blend what I have down with a batch of reclaim and I’ll make some bowls with it, this way I’ll produce a range of moodier vessels for a future shop, otherwise I run the risk of the bag of clay slowly turning as hard as stone as I forget about it.
Back to the drawing board!
#clay #pottery #ceramics #handmade #satisfying
