I like to make things on occasion in ceramics but because Ceramics I tainted things...I think it ruined the chances of me "loving it". There's that and the fact that I really hate glazing. I'll love something I made...but then the glaze turns out like crap and ruins the piece. I can't handle something I worked hard on to be destroyed by crappy looking glaze. I try and try to get the glaze right...but I am cursed to fail. Something ALWAYS goes wrong. Even if I am doing something simple. Usually the things I make call for complicated glazing rituals rather than a simple dip in one fool-proof glaze.

Anyway...because of my constant disappointment...I developed a phobia of glazing. I haven't glazed anything this entire semester until today when other people I know wanted to glaze. For some reason...today was the day EVERYONE wanted to glaze which was sort of annoying. Anyway.

Below is the story of the disastrous downfall of one my most liked pieces:


I attempted glazing my 1920s boot. I wanted the heel part and toe part to be "Satin black" which is basically a glossy black. I wanted the rest to be "yellow salt" which is a cream/yellow color (the teacher said it would look good). So what I was told to dip the whole shoe in yellow salt. Then to put green wax on the part I wanted to remain yellow salt. Well...the glaze covered up the sections of the shoe. So I ended up waxing out of bounds >< then the teacher said I would have to fake the line and that it would look like a mistake. Later I asked if I could just scrape the wax off. And he said ...that since the wax was on top of glaze and not bisque ware that it would work out probably. So that's what I did. THEN...I dipped the boot in satin black and I tried to wipe off all the excess glaze that was sitting on top of the wax with a sponge. Little did I know that I hadn't put the wax on long enough ( didn't remember hearing the teacher say how long to keep it on...but I assumed 15 minutes would be ok). So then he was like "Oh no you are wiping the wax off...I could tell it didn't register to leave it on longer". Then later...I tried to save the shoe and carefully remove the chunks of glaze off later when the wax was more dry. Then the wax started to chip off and I couldn't tell if it took some glaze off because the glaze is the same color as bisque ware pre-firing. SO I had to throw some glaze on the patches...and hope for the best ><