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Potters more often than not, think of opening a kiln after a glaze firing is completed, like opening gifts on Christmas Day...or better, it's like what Forrest Gump's mama said about life: "it's like a box of chocolates...you never really know what you're gonna get!"
That being said, when one does enough firings, some consistency develops...or one would hope. That's mostly true of raku firings as well.
However, I have struggled for awhile with the firings of my raku tiles. I know what the glaze will do and what it looks like when it is fired to the right temperature but I have had more tiles crack than I can count..even as I've played with different thicknesses, removal techniques, and kiln types. It has been totally defeating to end up with some beautiful colors and textures, only to have the tiles crack.
Well, one day I couldn't handle it any longer. I had two beautiful tiles that had amazing color in them and I just couldn't bring myself to trash them, so I began to think of a way to 'redeem' them. Alas, with some sticks and copper wire and epoxy glue and any number of materials that seemed helpful at the time, I was able to put the pieces back together in a way that I thought was quite interesting and attractive. I was very pleased with the results of my redemptive efforts and thought I was on to something.
I took my work to a local potter who I greatly respect and whose work I admire and I showed him my 'best' redeemed tile and asked him what he thought. It was a huge risk. I watched and waited as the artist inspected the piece and turned the tile over to find it had been patched. Then, with a furrowed brow he simply said: "Bob, it's cracked." His body language said more than that...and I took my work, and his opinion and went home...
And I thought...
And I thought some more...
"It's cracked," he said...
Exactly. When first created it had great potential, it was beautiful and in the firing process it broke. What then; toss it? Is all beauty, all purpose, all potential lost? Or with care and creativity, love and a little patching is redemption possible?
Each piece in this series is flawed; chipped, cracked...broken. Turn one over, inspect it...notice the glue, the wire, the ribbon restoring strength, revealing beauty, adding dimension.
Do you know anyone like that? Flawed...broken...and yet interesting and beautiful?
Are they...
broken or beautiful?
That being said, when one does enough firings, some consistency develops...or one would hope. That's mostly true of raku firings as well.
However, I have struggled for awhile with the firings of my raku tiles. I know what the glaze will do and what it looks like when it is fired to the right temperature but I have had more tiles crack than I can count..even as I've played with different thicknesses, removal techniques, and kiln types. It has been totally defeating to end up with some beautiful colors and textures, only to have the tiles crack.
Well, one day I couldn't handle it any longer. I had two beautiful tiles that had amazing color in them and I just couldn't bring myself to trash them, so I began to think of a way to 'redeem' them. Alas, with some sticks and copper wire and epoxy glue and any number of materials that seemed helpful at the time, I was able to put the pieces back together in a way that I thought was quite interesting and attractive. I was very pleased with the results of my redemptive efforts and thought I was on to something.
I took my work to a local potter who I greatly respect and whose work I admire and I showed him my 'best' redeemed tile and asked him what he thought. It was a huge risk. I watched and waited as the artist inspected the piece and turned the tile over to find it had been patched. Then, with a furrowed brow he simply said: "Bob, it's cracked." His body language said more than that...and I took my work, and his opinion and went home...
And I thought...
And I thought some more...
"It's cracked," he said...
Exactly. When first created it had great potential, it was beautiful and in the firing process it broke. What then; toss it? Is all beauty, all purpose, all potential lost? Or with care and creativity, love and a little patching is redemption possible?
Each piece in this series is flawed; chipped, cracked...broken. Turn one over, inspect it...notice the glue, the wire, the ribbon restoring strength, revealing beauty, adding dimension.
Do you know anyone like that? Flawed...broken...and yet interesting and beautiful?
Are they...
broken or beautiful?
