Tuesday, June 24, 2008

SPIKE gets his name on a glaze




(little pots by Gary Rith glazed in SPIKE celadon and Spike himself)
If you know me, you know I love celadon glazes, roughly described as: a shiny pale green with a little blue and grey in it, which tends to break over edges and decorations, originating in Korea and Japan. I made my first celadon mix 10 years ago, and altered it 2 years ago and named it after my deceased dog Petey. I mixed a different celadon which was gorgeous and striking, and named it after my old cat Sammy, who had bright green eyes. It was a very tricky glaze to use and would often melt off the pot onto the shelf, and the Petey glaze was good and steady, but lacked a little oomph. You see the results of the jade way up top, front and back, a glaze test. Looks good in some parts, awful in others.
SO, I mixed the jade glaze and the Petey glaze TOGETHER and added some of the Sammy parts and added more dark rutile and copper oxide and other stuff, and the first test was awesome--nice and even and not runny and so pretty! (basically, I tossed everything together, all the ingredients and voila!)
These 2 little pots are the first items glazed with a super looking glaze I am naming SPIKE, because it matches his eyes, and he is friendly and reliable and cheerful, like this glaze.

9 comments:

Anonymous said...

Now that's a beautiful green!

Hi Spike!

Unknown said...

Spike's glaze in Yummy!

gary rith said...

woohoo!

Unknown said...

Delicious! I've always been partial to celadon, and this is really great, Gary. Congrats! I have a large bowl with celadon glaze from Thailand but yours is much more beautiful.

Anonymous said...

Looks good on ya Spike! ;)xsbwg

Reb said...

Oh that is pretty! Spike must be so proud of you.

Newt said...

Awwww, that's just too sweet.

Anonymous said...

I never noticed till I saw this photo what cool eyebrows Spike has.
EH

soubriquet said...

Like the super glossiness of these.

I also like those pillar/pedestal pieces in the gallery-nook bit..
And I particularly like that teapot there too...
Tea, I'll go make some.