Untitled (Real boat glaze tests).

some of my real boat casts are not up to standard because they have walls that are too thin or big air pockets in the rim of the boats that I couldn't/couldn't be bothered to fix, which is actually quite useful as it allows me to test out my glaze to see what consistency and firing temperature works before I fuck up all of my final casts. This one below was on a cast which I burnished smooth to see how the glaze would behave on that and as you can see the finish came out beautifully with an even coat, consistent colour and crackle and a tiny bit of pooling in the corners which I like.

However this one did not turn out well at all:

The pitting from air bubbles in the side of the cast (which looked sort of cool in the raw clay although not what i wanted) have created pits in the glaze which just look terrible, so I will need to make sure I smooth out all of my final boats to remove any pits or bubbles. Also the glaze ran on this one, probably becuase the clay is thinner so maybe got hotter in the kiln? but really its just an indication that that firing was too hot and i need to bring the temperature down slightly in future.

The clay also became much more yellow and dirty looking than before when it was brilliant white, which is caused by water, so i think i need to make the glaze thinner still so that when i dip it i literally hold it in there for a couple of seconds instead of 10-20 seconds like i held these ones in for. this should stop the moisture seeping up and keep them whiter.

Also look at my little slab boat what a sweetie.