Neal on mon 23 may 05
I made pottery for 10 years in my city's arts
centers and the university craft center. Each
sold a limited number of clays and supplied
the glazes. Those of us who stayed around
long enough learned which glazes worked with
the clays we liked at each studio and which
ones didn't.
When I started making my own glazes and firing
in my own kiln, I had to start learning again.
Ron was one of the ones who helped me modify a
glaze to work better on the clay body I was
using.
This past weekend, I set up my pots under a huge
tent with the Triangle Potters Guild at
Raleigh's big arts event (Artsplosure). We had
20 potters under the tent. There were around 20
other potters from all over set up in individual
tents. A few of our potters do their work at the
same studios. Some of their pots are made with
the same clay and the same glazes. In some
instances, it worked to their advantage. I
noticed one woman purchasing three pieces. One
potter had made two and another had made the
third piece. They were the same glaze
combination, however, and looked like they could
have been made by the same person.
I am striving for my pots to have my own look. I
got a lot out of reading MC6G, but I haven't
tried the glazes. (I also learned a lot from John
Britt's cone 10 book even though I'm firing cone
6 electric.) After 10 years in large studios, I
don't want my pots to have the same glazes as
everyone else's pots. But it was nice to have the
experience to learn what worked. I have four
glazes that I am happy with so far. As I test
more, I'm working to get them to work with the
clay I like.
I could see how knowing how MC6G recipes usually
worked with a particular clay body could be
helpful for those people who want to use these
recipes. If there are glazes that are known not
to work with a particular clay body, it would be
more helpful to let the people using that clay
know ahead of time instead of them having to
waste time testing--to let them know how that
recipe worked, for instance, whether it crazed,
so that they would be ahead of the game in terms
of fixing it to match their clay body and their
firing schedule. That's not to say that their
clay isn't good or that there aren't a thousand
other glazes that would work stunningly on it.
Neal O'Briant
neal126@yahoo.com
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