Studio Update; Week of 2/6/23

This week I started by glazing the test cups that I had bisqued hotter and with a hold. I was hoping that troubleshooting on the first firing would help get rid of the last of the pinholes in the second firing. The results were definently better. The orange and green had no pinholes but the rest of the colors were still giving me problems. For the time being I think I am going to use the two that didnt give me problems for some upcoming firings. But I will start the process of trying to find a new glaze. My undergrad professor sent me some promising color tests that they have been doing on one of their shop glazes so I think I will try this one next. It can be frustrating to have to ditch a glaze you have invested a lot of time and research into but it's never a full loss. Ceramics, at times, requires a lot of knowledge to make a good product and at the very least I have refreshed my glaze chem. knowledge. I also got back to work on making things this week. I have some plans for stacking cup sets, where the base is another cup. I started work on these. Since I have started this post bacc, my main goal has been to consolidate my skills and really refine what I am making. In this process, I have slowly been getting more involved with my cup sets and making them as cohesive and elaborate as possible. Each one is treated as its own blank canvas and I want to make sure that the shapes I am using make sense for each piece. In the past I would create a shape, figure out where I want a cup and then think of some sort of design to put on the piece. While these pieces were cool looking, it left certain elements feeling out of place. Now I am sitting down and fully sketching through each piece before I start it. I want each one to have it's theme, and for every addition to the piece to make sense. I am also thinking of investing in a vinyl cutter. With a cutter I could get really specific with my glaze application and create crisp shapes and letters where needed. I think this would really add another element of detail to my pieces. Oh and we also started work rebuilding one of our kilns during class.

Image 1: Kiln building era

Image 2: glaze test cups ready to be fired

Image 3: The orange test came out perfect

Image 4: some colors still have pinholing

Image 5: spicy pickle earrings

Image 6: two cups that stack together