Here's the Rejects Jean

I told Jean Wells I’d do a post of the flub ups I mentioned in the last post. I’ve included a kiln photo in the batch at the top. It wasn’t the placement of the pieces – it was the choice and application of the glazes. I know what I did wrong, at least I THINK I know.


The huge round hollow bead of green (uh, supposed to be Dragonfly Green). I layered the colors – several – but mostly the Dragonfly. It was stippled with a darker color (Espresso), which doesn’t show up anywhere. I thought I had it thick with glaze – uh, could have been a whole lot thicker. This is the bead I’m going to torture either by sandblasting, etching, or re-glazing. It’s out of round – not a huge deal to me compared to glaze debacle.

Here’s a yuck – what happened to the hearts in the two pendants? Problem – too much underglazing of the hearts. So, when they were glazed with clear they ran and blurred. They’ll become experiments to see how etch will look – especially if I block out some of the areas before I etch.

This was the large cone bail in the kiln. Problem – the glaze (Autumn Mist) should have run. It was another one of those that was duel coated with another glaze (Espresso again). It didn’t run – it kind of crawled here and there. Solution – should have used the Autumn Mist with out anything else and hung like a bell, not on its side. Another solution – I made netting for the huge bail and a cap. I hammered a copper bead cap into a domed copper ring. It all needs to be heavily antiqued and assembled. And how am I going to use it. I haven’t a clue. Any ideas?

Word pendants and disc – sloppiness does not become me. Problem here – Trying to block in an area with glaze and paint central portion with a clear glaze. I’m guessing it was just all on too thick and ran together in a rather unsightly pattern. Solution – stick to underglazes on these pieces. If I want a matt look – purchase a matt clear glaze for the final application

There were successes in that kiln load…plenty of them. And, by the way, if you guys see something you are interested in let me know. I don’t list everything on Etsy – it costs too much but I won’t run the kiln half empty so I have piles of goodies here.

This is a piece I consider a success. It was the Autumn Mist glaze used alone and hung down in the kiln. It was designed with the African series in mind and for a twig wrap at the top – maybe a thin willow branch. I left holes along the edge to accommodate the wrapping with waxed linen and a hole at the bottom to make something dangly that includes that disc (ah, an espresso + something else I can’t remember that turned out – LOL). I’ll be making more of these small clay spirit cases. I was thinking too they might be good as wish boxes. Make them hollow except a small slot on the top to put your paper wishes into and something to hang them from. HHmmmmm…now I’m thinking about Spirit boxes…..stop me!