Thinking About Glaze Application

My latest "Third Friday Cone 6 Glaze Post" on the Beads-of-Clay Blog was asking fellow earth clay beadmakers what their thoughts are on applying their glaze.

Not necessarily on if you brush, dip, spray, but more along the lines of how do you think about color application? So you think about it when you are applying the glaze or is it just something random that you do?

When I first started making tiles - which in turn became pendants, I found out that by applying glazes with a brush I could get really cool shadowing effects with translucent glazes (see the clouds in the pieces above). I also figured out that certain glazes, when applied with a tiny brush over top of another glaze created a stable outline and color changed area (see bottom right spiral wave textured piece). 

I am such a control freak when it comes to glazing. I want a part of me to be able to be a bit more like Kylie Parry in just cracking a pint of glaze and going for it… This science part of my brain just does not want it to be though - a constant battle to loosen up!

I am participating in Drawing Lab 2011 - 52 drawing lessons in the year. The first assignment was to draw a cat. After a page full of drawings, I found that this sleeping kitty was really pleasing to look at. So of course I had to put her (my cats are girls, so it's a she to me…) onto some beads… I had these already glazed pieces laying around, so I put some decals on them. 

Now to me, the little green tube beads with white on the bottom is much more appealing to just plain white. And the line placement - just at the level where the cat is resting, makes my brain happy. I find that I am turning a page in my glazing techniques - thinking about colors and color lines. What works and what does not...

And how I can apply that to my designs I am going to be printing as decals and firing them into the glazes…

Darn I am such a control freak… 

My brain just wants flow and symmetry and happiness for my eyes.

Maybe I'll just see how Kylie loosens up (Kylie - any advice?)

Seems like maybe she just puts on some good music and gets to having fun making a mess (a very cool kind of mess!)