29 July 2006

white picket pieces

I came home from a brief excursion on Cape Cod to a mailbox full of email. Something happened while I was away, something GOOD! Thank you Lisa!

Last week I did something really dumb. I was finishing up the final pieces for two orders, had everything glazed and it was sitting on my table ready to go and I noticed some bald spots in the glaze. I thought I'd better attend to them before loading the kiln so I grabbed what I thought was glaze from a box underneath my table and applied it to the thin spots on the work. The next day when I opened the kiln and peeked in I noticed something was funny. The vases did not look right, like they had a crackled white wash on top of the glaze. I paused, walked away from the kiln, walked back to the kiln, looked again, thought some more, going over what I had done the day before, then walked back to the table with the box of glazes and picked up the container I thought was glaze, looked at the lable...oh dear, I used engobe thinking it was glaze. See the containers for the engobe and glaze are exactly the same, I don't usually use engobe but had a container of it to experiment with and wasn't thinking to be careful about making sure the containers didn't get mixed up. I am guilty of grabbing and brushing. So now I have five vases that look like white washed picket fences. Sometimes these accidents with ceramics can be gifts, a new technique discovered but not this one. They're ugly. I don't know why but the whole thing kinda made me laugh. No matter how long I have been doing this mistakes still happen and with ceramics and one must always leave a wide margin for error as there is so much to be accounted for with the medium. I am usually lucky and have never made this mistake before. I guess it is my offering to the Clay Gods, seems they were feeling hungry and had a hankering for vases.

6 comments:

natasha said...

firstly, as to your comment about being greedy...1)you need to eat and 2)i remember when i was in school and i did insane research to find new/old techniques long forgotten, i was glazing torsos but wanted them to look like skin, so i used terra stigilata which has a strange skinlike sheen, you probably know about those things, everyone wanted to know what i did and how to do it, but i was the one that did all the research. and so they can kiss your arse! you know?

i want to see what the "messed up" pieces look like. do you sell your "seconds". i am hoping to afford some of your work at some point. i adore it. gorgeous. and from the standpoint of someone that worked with clay and all of its minions.

smooch!

Sandra Monat said...

and I had to laugh about your sentence "it is my offering to the Clay Gods" ;-)
Love, Friederike! and Sandra

Susan Schwake said...

argh. the kiln gods have to eat too...
nice photo diana! they are beautiful in a different way in just white!

Dale Anne Potter said...

Well, if that photo is what you are saying your gift to the clay gods.....well, I'd gladly trade some of my art quilting pieces for just one of those!!!

Anonymous said...

These are really beautiful! You have a very good drawing style! I love them. I agree, the vases can be payment to the Universe if you also got pieces like these.

paula said...

I love to see work in progress...