Surface Class Update – 3 Weeks Left

I’m down to the last three weeks of my Crystalline Texture and Decal class at the Goshen Clay Artists Guild. It has gone pretty quick but I’ve learned a lot. I missed the class on Monday because I was in Chicago (more on that to come). I didn’t really miss any important information but it would have been nice to have the extra time to work. I still have half a bag of clay left!

So, to the right you can see the crown jewel of my first three crystalline pieces. It is just a tiny vase but the crystals are extraordinary to my beginning-crystalline eyes. Of course, I can’t really take much of the credit. Eric was the one to mix the glaze and fire the kiln, the two most important part of the crystalline process. I just made the pot and brushed the glaze onto it.

But I still love the variety of darker turquoise crystals and the fantastic little green crystals in the background. I hope we can duplicate this on some other pieces.

The next piece is a cup which started with blue crystalline glaze. It flaked off at the top though, so I added green crystalline glaze to replace it. I like how it turned out. The green wasn’t very strong and it flowed down into the blue to make a nice gradient effect. Lots of nice crystals.

I also made a small plate to see what would happen on a flat surface. You can get some really cool glaze pools with crystalline glaze on the inside of a pot because it runs down to the bottom. There aren’t a lot of crystals but the glaze looks like a deep perfectly still lake. I used a regular glaze on the outside of the plate so I wouldn’t have to use a catch basin but the glaze blistered a little bit. Too bad.

One last piece is another cup. It is made out of the B-mix clay and glazed with shino. I was surprised that it turned out so white. But as I was reading some other pottery blogs, like Kings Creek Studio, I realized that this result might be normal. The shino glaze also crazed a little bit. I hope to use this piece to test some decals.

Three weeks left. That’s three class sessions and three labs. I have about 10-12 mugs/cups drying now. I still have half a bag of stoneware left. I need to crystalline glaze 6-8 pots and put them on catch basins. And clean up the bottoms of the finished crystalline pieces. And try some decals. And some texture… I need more time! Actually, I think I might be able to clean up the bottoms at home. And I can always experiment with texture and decals on my own. And I don’t HAVE to use the rest of that clay. I guess whatever I don’t get finished I can save for later. I’m sure there will be another class that I’ll take at the guild!