Starting a Search for a New Blue Glaze @floriangadsby

Uploaded August 2025 | Updated September 2026, 2 weeks ago

It feels great to be testing glazes again, this time it’s a search for a blue I like, one rich with character, gradients of tone, crystalline flecks, crackling and breaking dramatically over sharp edges. All of that is much easier said than done, hence this expansive round of tests that I’ll hopefully be reduction firing soon, so make sure to check back over the coming week or two if you’d like to see an ocean of glassy blue tiles. I’m sure some will be failures, there’s always a few, but I’m also testing some iron slips and some gun-metal greys, bonuses, if they fire successfully.

There isn’t much to the process itself. Anyone that’s mixed up a whole range of test tiles like this will know it’s slow and careful work, yet you try to get into a rhythm that’s relatively fast otherwise hours can disappear very quickly. The most important part to get right is obvious, the right material weighed out to the correct amount, yet again, that’s easier said than done as all it takes is a tiny lapse of concentration for a glaze to be mixed incorrectly, a phone-call, a knock on the door and so on. We’ve all been there.

#glaze #test #testtile #glazing #satisfying #pottery #ceramics

$An Unconventional Method for Trimming Pourers These pourers aren’t enjoyable to trim, they topple to either side when upside-down and flattening and thinning the walls leads to creating ridges where the spout itself protrudes. I could not trim to the top but you know me, there are some things I have to do despite them being difficult. Thus, for these, I trim and create those marks and afterwards I spend some time carving them back, to create a flush surface again, which I then fettle over with a sponge-on-a-stick and then compress with my fingertips. The best part about all of this though, is being able to work the actual pouring edge back to being incredibly crisp, which means when used it should cut through the liquid wonderfully, resulting in a smooth, even pour. I even fractionally wipe the glaze back here so that the spout isn’t obliterated and smothered in glaze, (this can thicken the lip, rounding it and causing it to pour poorly). This extra work means they certainly take longer to create but it’s well worth it in the finished product, provided I don’t mess them up hereafter. #pottery #jug #qualitycontrol #carving #ceramics #studiopottery$

What Do You Think of This New Bottle Form? #pottery #ceramic

In the Future, This Will Be My Apprentices Job

$Trimming Tricky Trinket Boxes #pottery If you’d like to watch both the throwing and the trimming of these trinket boxes or store jars, you can find a link to the fully narrated video via on YouTube via the Linktree in my profile’s biography. These are deceptive objects. Simple, yes, yet trimmed to an astonishing level, my fault really for accidentally throwing the lids far larger than need be… I’m sure I’m not the only person that’s measured the opening of their jars only to then knock it larger, or smaller, without realising. Thankfully, my general approach when making lidded ware is to throw the lids themselves thicker than need be, not the overhang itself, that was too much on these, but the vertical locating flange, for instance, is a segment of the pot I always throw more substantially, this way it can be trimmed back to fit the vessel underneath it no matter what. I’ll be trimming the underside of my lids regardless, so this fraction of additional material acts like a safety net of sorts. Yet, that’s no excuse for the portion of the lid that’s overhanging to this degree, the next time I make these I’ll spend a few extra moments measuring. These are useful pots though, the wider opening means I can easily reach inside to fish out salt or spices, or it can be used for trinkets, rings and the like, in fact, you can put anything inside, it’s not my job to tell you what to do with these. #pottery #satisfying #clay #stoneware #jar #ceramics #maker$