Every glaze test that I have done has been tested on one of my tiles but the tile is only of the 1 glaze where as I want my work to have more than 1 glaze on it. I therefore decided to make lots of small bowls/cups to be able to experiment with different glaze application and glaze combinations, so I made lots of small rounded bowls where I would create blends of each group of seasonal glazes. These small test bowls were great to see how the glazes worked together but also how they worked on a 3D form. However this form that I used were too small. I also needed a form that would work better with the new shapes I have started to make whilst also being small enough for a test pot. I also want to create a reference/statement for each glaze I was using. Therefore using callipers and a ruler (I wanted to make sure they all measured the same) I made 12 of these pots.

Including these 12 test pots I also had a lot of other larger pots that needed to be glazed. I basically had been throwing for 3 weeks and had a shelf full of bisque ware. As previously mentioned I prefer to dip and pour when applying glazes so I took over the throwing room and got all may glazes out to do a big glaze session.

At this point I was still trying to work through all my glazes colours so with referring to my test tiles I tried to work out which glazes I could use for my seasons, primarily spring.

It was whilst I was glazing my larger pots that I thought to glaze the smaller test pots in varying different glaze combinations. There size worked very well for me as I was able to use my small test pots of glaze and did not have to mix up large quantities therefore allowing me to try different combinations.

These are the results:-

I was very pleasantly surprised with how these have turned out. Each photo shows a group of Autumn, Winter and spring colours.

The Autumn colours I’m very pleased with especially with the addition of a new glaze (my number 6) bottom right. This glaze adds a nice reddy brown to the group, something that the group was missing.

I especially like the winter pots. I wanted to show a contrast with the black and white which is why I glazed the interior and exterior in the 2 separate glaze but where the glaze overlaps on the rim, the bleeding created is lovely!

My spring glazes still need some work. The pink is very subtle and needs more pigment but I love the bright green pot in the middle. The combination of semi matt and gloss works well and I will continue to make this combination of glazes.

These small pots have since took a life on of there own. I like that I have a group of pots all the same size and form that once glazed in my colours look completely different. I therefore plan on making a lot more of these pots to see how they work as a larger group.

Other pots that came out the same firing are:

The middle winter pot is lovely. I especially like how the copper has bled down the rim creating a contrast of black and cold blue. The white glaze is a bit thin, I will need to make sure that I apply a thicker glaze to the next one I glaze.

The other two pots I’m not so pleased with. The left one has cobalt oxide applied to the rim and the right has red iron oxide. As you can see form the pictures they haven’t bled much at all, it is the copper oxide that is the flux and bleeds very well, the other two oxides do not. I will just stick to the copper from now on.