Gloria has been very prolific in the pottery studio recently. I guess it’s probably related to being locked-down at home during the Covid-19 pandemic here in the UK, along with the fact that all her markets and exhibitions are now off (she’s sad about that, of course). Yesterday, it was glazing day – time to glaze a lot of Gloria’s pieces that have recently been bisque fired.
All of these pieces of Gloria’s are ready to glaze, but their upside down – why? Any parts of a piece that we don’t want glazed (often the base) have to be cover in a thing called “wax resist”, so that when the piece is dipped in the glaze, the glaze actually doesn’t attach where the wax is. The wax eventually just burns away during the glaze firing, so that waxed area is just left unglazed.
While I was preparing to do the glazing, Gloria was still beavering away to create more pieces.
Some of the large bowls that Gloria made were too large to fit in my glaze bucket in one go, so I had to dip them in two parts. This bowl has had the first dipping and once the glaze (the white part) is dry, I can grab hold of that part and dip the other half. The photo shows what happens when a bisque fired piece is dipped in glaze – it just turns white. A piece that has some of Gloria’s beautiful decoration on it turns completely white. It’s just covered in glaze. However, when it’s then glaze fired, the glaze becomes transparent (it’s glass really) and interacts with the colours and usually makes them more vibrant? It’s a fun process to watch unfold.
There’s my glaze bucket and a few of the tools I use to help with glazing. By the way, Gloria is still focussed on making more pieces.
Eventually, I’ve got the kiln loaded with all the strange, purely white pieces (just because they’re all covered in glaze). What an amazing glazing day. They’ll look a lot different after the firing. We’ll be able to open the kiln tomorrow and see how they all come out. Many of Gloria’s pieces will be posted here at fabhappy.com/gloriawhiting as all markets and exhibitions are currently not possible. We’re still shipping, if you’d like anything.
Best wishes.
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