Sunday, February 24, 2013

turtles and texture

I finished up a glaze firing Friday morning and unloaded Saturday morning in time to take the turtles to the market.  Once I got there I called the customer who wanted two of the turtles to let him know I had them.  Calling him ahead of time while the kiln was firing or even cooling would have, of course, jinxed the entire glaze firing.  Counting your chickens before they're hatched, you know. So two turtles are gone and four are left.  Here is a quick picture I took Saturday morning before packing them-

This is one I brought home after the market closed to give him a close-up opportunity.
 
 Not a realistic turtle shell color, but I like the way the glaze pools in the texture.
 
 Small planters meant for succulents, also from this firing.
 
 Weathered Bronze-Green with some turquoise matte glaze brushed over.

I love the texture and the rustic, earthy quality of this glaze.

The little spots of copper penny color are from flicking a mix of borax and water onto the planter with a toothbrush.

 Yes, I do like this glaze.  I imagine most people will be drawn to the more colorful ones, though.
 
Here and there I'd get more of a clump of the borax and water solution than I intended. I was a little concerned about that but decided to leave it alone and see what might happen.  Turns out I'm O.K. with it- a Happy Circumstance, as my high school chemistry teacher would say.  About what, I don't remember now. 

8 comments:

  1. who says that the turtle green shell color needs to be realistic? they're great looking. have heard planters are hard to make--- then again, I'm not a handbuilder, so I'd hardly know!

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    1. Well I guess turtles with silly grins on their faces aren't going to be considered realistic anyway so maybe I should have gone completely off track and glazed them purple. The planters were time consuming- for me. I don't have much experience with handbuilding.

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  2. Very cute turtles! Exiting dots with the borax,like it :) I found too a surprise with this stuff last glazefiring, so today I have a new firing with some more tests..can,t wait! :)

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    1. Thanks. I just checked out your blog, and I love the wine glasses. For some reason your blog was dropped from my blog list. I don't know why. I enjoy reading your posts so I'm going to try to get it back.

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  3. A while back I tried a mix of borax and water brushed over white terra sig. It was really great looking, you might want to try it for the planters, it gave a very rusty look that I liked a lot. The photo is somewhere on my blog but I don't know what the search words would be.... love those little turtles, sooooo cute!

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  4. Love your turtles.... And planters to.

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  5. Tracey, Always something to experiment with. I'll try finding it on your blog.

    Thanks Gabi!

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  6. oh those turtles are really sweet and I think that green looks like the really tiny ones I've seen in the pet stores, but no matter they are wonderful and they seem to be smiling.

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