First Time Potter: After the Firing

This past weekend, our first batch of pottery went into the kiln and out came... not so blue! I knew going into the glazing process that it would be unpredictable, but I was still shocked to see my pottery. The blue glaze I used on half the pieces was messed up. The person who mixed it may have left out one of the chemicals, possibly the cobalt. Oh, well. You live and learn, right?

The piece I photographed for my previous post about glazing now looks like this. One half was supposed to be blue. Even though its more of a light gray, I still like it. I was also surprised by how much the pottery shrunk in the kiln. I am not sure how to use this piece. Is it a bowl? a vase? What do you think?

One piece I am really happy with is the ikebana vase I made. I used a shiny black for the inside and a mat white on the outside. As I was pouring the excess black glaze out, some dribbled down the side creating the patch of brown. Now, I just need to glue the flower stand into the middle and it will be ready for showing off the first spring flowers.

Not only did we pick up our finished pottery this week, but we also glazed the next batch to go into the kiln. I felt like I had a better understanding of how glazes work after our first round. I stuck mostly to glazes I knew I would like and tried to recreate some of the chemical interactions I liked in the previous firing. I definitely tried pairing the black and white again. We'll see how it all turns out!