color

Color is funny, isn't it?  How we feel about color is deeply personal and sometimes unexplainable.  I love love deep cobalt blue,  I adore jolts of red.  But purple?  I have an almost visceral reaction to purple.  Never mind that my favorite flower, lavender, is very decidedly purple.  I like green quite a lot, but I haven't been using very much green in my pottery lately.  And my beloved cobalt?  Well, it doesn't sell terribly well for me, and as I look at the body of my work, it doesn't really "fit" with it anymore.  I haven't been using it for much in the past year or so.  Cobalt will still show up on the occasional honeypot or egg cup.  It will still be available for special requests, but I may be finished with it in terms of large bowls and mugs and things.  Or I may not.  I haven't completely decided yet.

But back to the green.  Late this fall a friend gave me several buckets of glaze- the same brand that I currently use, some colors that I've used, some that I haven't.  I passed on the more earthy colors- browns and bronzes that I knew I wouldn't use- and kept a few that I would.  There was an entire gallon of celadon, which I took as a sign that I should begin using that again.  These egg cups are the first pieces I've glazed in this deep celadon green in almost a year.  I forgot how much I like how it pools in the ridges at the base.  I also did a set of teacups and saucers for a friend who sent me a huge box of lemons from her tree. 

This color can be tricky and often requires two glaze and firing sessions (that equals three trips to the kiln).  It also varies in its intensity- sometimes it comes out deep jade and sometimes it is very pale green.  I think that after years of trying to make everything the same in every firing, I'm starting to embrace the wabi-sabi in my work.  It won't be perfect.  It won't be the same every time.  And that's just fine by me. 

We're supposed to have a snowstorm tomorrow.  I'm going to hole up in my basement and finish glazing that set of dishes I showed you last week.  More on that next time.
Have a good week, everyone!