CLOSE CALL

Illustrated is a picture of the bottom of a covered jar, the pot was glazed first in temmoku and then in my runny red iron glaze and is what is known as a close call. It is immediately apparent that the glaze is rather runny and if you are going to dance with the devil, best to build in a glaze trap just above the foot to slow down the momentum of the molten glaze. The other thing that shows up well in the picture is the glaze runs and thins down, collecting to create a crystalline like surface of mostly pure iron with reflective speckles scattered among the glaze runs. This effect shows up rather brilliantly in bright direct light or in sunlight and gives more depth to the glazed surface. This is obviously another one of those unpredictable happenings which makes working with these glazes all the more interesting, each pot comes out with its own individual version of the same two glazes.