Active Glazing

Habits die hard. I tend to do my decorating in the wet state: stamps, rollers, alterations, slip trailing. I had to make a concious effort this time around to leave the surfaces -- at least some of them -- smooth, to allow for more active glazing. In past I tended to just submerge the pot, and chose glazes that have nice pooling and breaking qualities, to work with all the impressed patterns I'd made while the clay was wet.

When I was a student firing atmospherically (salt, then; I knew little about soda. Was anyone firing soda, then? Probably. Just not at Edwardsville) I tended to glaze only the interiors, to let the flame do the work for me. I still like that look, and have used it on many pots that will go into the kiln tomorrow. But the results I am most eager to see are the pots which I covered with patterns, glaze over slip, glaze over glaze, or using latex resist. 

I'll be happy if the patterns emerge clearly, but I'll be ecstatic if, on some of them, a big, directional blast of vapor glaze softens or obliterates the pattern on one side, or even just a patch. 

Keeping my fingers crossed.