Anticipation is always exciting for us here at JoVic Pottery, however, it’s also a little bit nerve-wracking. How will things turn out in this firing? We do our very best to continue to develop glazes, always pushing limits. We also continue to use those glazes we think of as tested, tried, and true, especially some of the layered glazes we so love.
No matter how often we use some of these glazes, the results are never fully guaranteed. Electric kiln firings are more easily controlled now than ever before in the history of pottery, and the variety of glaze approaches available in mid-range oxidation makes the process truly exciting. We use computer controlled kilns, giving us the ability to carefully control the firing time and even some of the time we allow kilns to “soak” at a specific temperature.
But even with such controls, the firings have a way of leading to both disappointment and joy. Some pots come out of the final glaze fire giving us just what we were hoping for, some exceed those hopes, and yet others appear with unexpected flaws.
The kiln furniture attests to some of the surprises thrown our way (and I do mean thrown, pitched, or perhaps spit). We find evidence on shelves that suddenly require grinding because crawl glaze spitting occurred during the firing and the bits of glaze hitting shelves has fused onto them.
We’re even more disappointed when the spitting affects nearby pottery–turning a winner into a second and affecting the bottom line when it comes to earning a living from our work. This is an added risk when we’re using layer upon layer of glaze and adding crawl glaze texture for a final firing. In other words, we’ve already spent tons of time getting the pots to this final firing, and have put in the energy, literally as well as physically, into as many as 2 or 3 previous firings.
We’re experienced. We’ve been at this work for over 35 years. But that doesn’t matter in the least when it comes to the occasional failures in the final product. We get to load beautiful pieces into our kiln, knowing the quality of our work is truly awesome, but sometimes we still end up unloading a pot that just hasn’t made it to the level we’re seeking.
Whether some spitting hits an interior or the beautiful rim on the base of a pot, it’s still disappointing. It’s just a good thing that the majority of what we pull from the kiln makes us feel blessed to continue our work. We’re thrilled to say there’s always something to strive toward; because as long as there is a goal ahead, we’ll want to keep working, and for potters who won’t likely ever earn a great retirement package, that’s a really good thing.