After I glazed my ceramic pieces last week, they were glaze fired. For those who don’t know, a glaze fire is similar to a bisque fire but instead of baking the clay to harden, the liquid glaze that was used on top becomes the permanent color they are meant to be. This is the last step of a ceramics project.

In regards to the projects that I have been working on, they are finally done. It is safe for me to say that I am mostly happy with how they turned out. I say that I’m only mostly happy because two of my mugs came out differently than I thought they would. The one mug, with the blue glaze (right mug in the picture below), had too much glaze on it so when it was fired the excess glaze was heavy at the bottom and created extra material at the bottom.

The second mug that came out differently than I expected was the one with the big handle and leaves engraved on it. When I put liquid glaze on it I thought it was going to come out a different color. I was under the impression that it would be a dark gray, but instead it came out brown. When I saw this I was slightly disappointed because it isn’t how I thought it would be. However, when I thought about it, I realized that maybe I didn’t put enough glaze on it since it was such a thin layer. In the end I am using this as a learning experience because now I know to double check the color that I want to use and to make sure I put enough glaze on it so the color will come out correct.

Besides the two mugs that I learned from, the rest of my pieces came out nicely. The mushroom looking tea pot came out with the color brown that I was expecting and the other green mug came out correct. The serving plate, on the other hand, came out with a yellow and brown that I was not completely expecting. For this piece though, I did know it was going to be yellow and brown, I just didn’t know how yellow or brown. I do however enjoy the outcome. Now that these projects are finished, I get to make new ones! I am unsure as to what I will be creating next, but I am excited to explore more ways to create objects whether it’ll be practical or abstract.