Guy Ballard

The blue on this vase is cloudy  This was a yellow in the bottom and around the outside edges and then dipped in red. Interesting but I'm not sure that it is what I expected.  I'm not sure what this was, buy it was definitely a combination of glazes. Lesson learned. I think it would be to stick to the tried and true.

This batch of work did not turn out like I expected. The glazes that I thought I had given a lot of thought, just didn't turn out like I had expected. Case in point, "  The bowl with handles was dipped entirely in oatmeal and then the outside was dipped in red."  Then there is this thing. " was glazed with a green mint on the bottom and on the inside and yellow around the squiggly rim." N o way! And then this is the most perplexing of all " These two small red clay bowls had yellow swirled in the bottoms and on the sides and then dipped in red." I am still waiting on the top of the acorn bowl and some other works.     Stay tuned.  

This semester I have decided to kick it up a notch and try some things that I haven't done before. I would like to make some bigger items and some with a little more attention to the outcome projected.  What that means, start with a goal in mind. It seems that meany times I might start out wanting to make a vase and end up with a bowl.  I'm not sure how it happens, but it is like I let the clay take me where it wants to go rather than me forming the clay into what I had originally had in mind. So this semester, I am going to start with the final design in mind and proceed to develop my skills and mold the clay into that object.  My first Item will be this covered vase I found on Pottery Making Illustrated.

I had several different pieces to glaze last night. My goal was to experiment a little with double dipping and using different combinations of glazes. It is always interesting to see what comes from the kiln. Here thay all are ready to go. This bowl was dipped in water to clean a previous glazing attempt.  So the whole piece was fairly wet.  Then I swirled yellow glaze in the bottom and covered the entire bowl in turquoise and clear.  The runs come from the bowl being was fairly wet. The squiggly topped vase that was a throwing mistake that I decided to keep was glazed with a green mint on the bottom on the inside and welly around the squiggly rim. This bowl was one of the only white clay bowls that I had and I had intended to create some dramatic effect with a swoop of blue in the bottom and leave the rest raw.  Well I go tired and decided to dip the entire thing in Dynasty Blue and cover that in clear. The Acorn Bowl as I call it got dipped in...