I’m continuing the aloe surface design, because it seems to be successful. The form design, however, is brand new! Lately I have been making a lot of lattes and cappuccinos at home, so I decided it would be a great idea to make cappuccino/latte mugs based on my latest bowl form.

Also, the red-orange underglaze that I’ve been making by mixing red and orange AMACO underglazes together seems to be the best hue of red that suits my work. The red on its own is way too stop sign, and the orange reads like construction 😛 so mixing the two together became the perfect balance. As far as my underglazes go, they are sort of evolving into engobes. I’ve been adding a bit of gerstley borate in liquid deflocculated form to each color that seems too dry post-firing. I would rather have a semi-gloss surface, but only slightly. I made a teapot in Auz that captured the perfect surface I am going for. It had a smooth but crystal-ly iridescence to it that I probably won’t be able to recreate. I did bring the teapot home with me. I’m just trying to figure out how much gerstley borate I have to add in order to get that balance again. It also depends on firing temp.

My newest glaze idea is to bring back the blue– but with a little more texture. It won’t be like the glossy oribe that came out of my salt kiln. That glaze was really nice when it actually got enough salt and stayed oxidized, but even a hint of reduction made pink spots in it and turned it to a weird crystal matte green. It wasn’t bad when it was even (without pink spots), but that was also a rarity. Instead of trying to recreate the impossible in an atmospheric salt kiln, I have been testing various glazes in an indoor gas kiln– doing my best to fire in oxidation. They are barium glazes, which sounds a little scary, so I also want to figure out how to cleanly dip-apply a liner glaze to the inside that is food safe. It just means more wax resist and more time.