First Time Potter: Glazing

I have always loved pottery- whether its a raku tea bowl or the thrift store mugs I drank wine out of in college. For me, pottery is the ultimate combination of function and art. After years of admiring and collecting pottery, I finally decided to give it a try. My fiance and I starting taking a class about a month ago.

It's hard, but a lot of fun. The three hours we spend a week at the studio fly by. I've mostly been making small items like mugs and bowls, but I have tried larger pieces too. It's fun to use my hands, problem solve and think creatively. The photo is of a vase I made. It was going to be a mug but got away from me and I thought it would be fun to square the top. This photo is from the day we learned how to glaze. I'll post a photo of it after the kiln firing too to compare the difference in color.

The process of glazing was different than I had expected. I guess I imagined it to be more like painting- you put a color in one spot and it stays like that. Glazing turns out to be more of a science experiment than a controlled painting. We estimated what the glazes will look like on our pieces and went from there. Plus, glazes react to each other; they are chemicals after all. So you don't know what that reaction will look like. I'm really excited to see what changes will happen in the kiln!