Notes on wood-fired glazes
Test tiles are boring until one of them changes all of it. The glaze looked grey in the bucket and came out deep blue.
What I kept
Below are a few notes, roughly in the order I learned them. Clay remembers every mistake you make with it. I tested the matte version first. It did not last. Nothing here requires a glaze scale, though it does make things easier.
In practice
I would rather do one thing with care than five things in a hurry. It is easy to overthink throwing on the wheel. It is harder to just start. You can get remarkably far with a banding wheel and some patience.
I keep notes on every firing, even the disappointing ones. Every firing is a little experiment, and some of them fail. I keep a short list of things to try next; testing glazes is near the top. Good ash glazes is largely a series of little, unglamorous decisions.
I keep a short list of things to try next; wedging clay is near the top. Good the wheel is largely a series of little, unglamorous decisions. I keep a short list of things to try next; throwing on the wheel is near the top.
- Keep a glaze scale within reach
- Compare against last summer
- Budget twice the time you expect
- Write down what you change
The short version
Most of what I know about mugs came from getting it wrong first. Little, repeatable steps beat big plans very nearly every time. If you only take one thing from this, make it the part about glazes. The best advice I got was plainly to slow down. The matte part is seldom the hard part; consistency is.
The speckled part is seldom the hard part; consistency is.
glazes