HOPE & TESTING

I hate putting too much hope on tests as they escalate in scale but this is one of those, surely hope it works pieces. I have put my new glaze through its paces on pods, slabs and two test cups and am now moving on to a good size teabowl for the next phase of the testing process. This all started back at the end of last year with a simple query regarding a Hagi style surface to which I responded that in the past, most all the testing avenues had ended rather poorly but since I am a sucker for punishment I would give it another try. Rather than start from square one, I took an existing glaze that I have and altered it and am using it sparingly thin on the surface to allow all of the clay texture, marks and sand to show through the glaze. This particular attempt on a yunomi sized pot is not based on the traditional Hagi surface but rather the white style surfaces made popular by the Miwa family though instead of being thick and curdled, this is intended to be rather thin and almost translucent allowing the clay texture to be part of the surface. I am just at the beginning of a cycle and time will tell, if you never see any result you can guess the outcome.   

Though hope is not a testing strategy I am constantly reminded when dealing with anything in life; " Sperare optima Parare pessima Expectare inexpectata* ". ("Hope for the best, Prepare for the worst, Expect the unexpected".)