What Color is This? Do These Go Together?

Lately I’ve been feeling like my work is getting a little boring.
I’ve been concentrating on making functional pieces and because of that, throwing more of my work and doing it in batches. This leads to more repetition. I don’t have time to hand build enough functional pieces and the work thrown in batches looks very similar to each other.

How to solve this boredom problem? Well, I love texture so I thought–a new batch of mugs all with different textures on them. Those have been fun to make and hopefully not too strange in their outcome. Later, I was talking with my husband Sam about this and he immediately said ‘Color!’ Since he’s a painter, I wasn’t totally surprised by this reaction.

I was resistant. I had visions of bright orange, low fired glaze with no variations or mysterious changes in the firing. But, I paused and listened. Of course he didn’t mean I should start painting my work all bright colors with images on each mug. He just pointed out that we humans are hardwired to be attracted to color and variety. Maybe I wanted to think about using color MORE in my work.

Now I’m all about stone and leaf and stick. Apart from stained and faded denim, my wardrobe leans heavily toward grey. But, a part of me loves that extravagant gypsy riot of colors–burgundy, amber, red, dark blue, turquoise and maybe purple thrown in too. So, after looking at a favorite quilting book with pictures of fantastic color combos I went outside to play with my color samples.

It was really fun and a bit like a whirlwind in my head! Part of the outcome of glazing depends on the qualities of a glaze that are not related to it’s color. For example, is it transparent, translucent or opaque, how runny or drippy is it, will it be shiny or matte or something in between? Some of these qualities are effected by where the piece is placed in the kiln–whether it’s in a zone that gets hotter early in the firing or later in the firing, and how close it is to the flames. Results are also effected by how thick the glaze ends up and how it’s been applied. It can be painted, dipped, poured over, sponged, sprayed, and layered.
So much to think about and hold in your imagination as you work on a piece!

One thing I love about glazing is this changeability and that bit of the unexpected. Who knew that minerals and mud could be so varied!

So, with all this in mind, I’ve glazed that batch of textured mugs with different color combos than I normally would have. They’re firing right now and tomorrow evening I’ll be able to see the results. I hope they won’t be too boring! Even though I think I’m being bold and different, it’s still me and it’s still my existing glazes. I tend to be a slow mover when it comes to changing things up but I’m giving it a try!