Process

First, how are ceramics made? (generally)

1. Raw Clay
   • Throw or Handbuild the piece
   • Trim: refining the form and bottom of the piece, clay should be “leather-hard”, or dry enough to trim
   • Carve: designs can be carved into the piece during leather-hard phase
   • Underglaze painting: designs can be painted on the piece during leather-hard or bone-dry phase
   • Piece should be bone-dry before bisque firing!
2. Bisque Firing
   • Underglaze: can be applied to the piece after it has been bisqued, but it is best applied in the raw clay phase.
   • Glaze: apply glazes by dipping or painting
3. Glaze Firing
4. Sand Bottoms
5. Photography and Marketing

As you can see, there are a lot of opportunities to vary the design at each stage – that is what makes each piece unique to the artist.

Designing with UNDERGLAZE

The benefits of designing with underglaze are that you can often be more exact with the style and application of color. This tends to result in more colorful and detailed work. The style of the resulting pieces also can tend to shift a bit more contemporary, but this can depend on the artist style.

For example, painting with underglaze can be as detailed as painting every single line on a planter. Or ensuring a ribbon is fully opaque, in a single color (this would require 3-5 layers of underglaze).

Typically, pieces with an underglaze design are then fully covered in a clear glaze for the glaze firing. A clear glaze can also deepen the color.

In some cases, the underglaze can also be left exposed, as seen in the Year of the Snake mugs. This was intentional, as I only wanted the fluted mug texture to be covered in a white glaze.

Designing with GLAZE

The downsides of designing with glaze are also some of its best qualities: glaze combinations, imperfect brush strokes, cool dips, etc. Some glaze interactions are really beautiful. Some glazes are just beautiful on their own!

In the cases where I’ve chosen to use glaze design as a design element, the imperfections of brush strokes and dips have helped the pieces stand out. Each piece is 100% unique. See for example, the White and Blue Amber Dinnerware Set for Two in the pictures below.

In a similar way, this set of four cereal bowls used contrasting colors as a design element. A plus is that these two glazes interact when layered – almost like stars.