The testing continues....

So back to my testing adventures...

After all the tests that came out of the last kiln, I decided to try some simple stripes on some small bowls I had sitting around. I thought this would give me a better idea of how the colors work together. 

Here's those pieces: 

There's actually quite a lot happening here. The black around the rim is a trailed line of licorice - from Mastering Cone 6 glazes. I like where it tumbled down the outside of the bowls and mixed with the stripes, but where it blends on the inside of the bowls, I find the streaks too dark. This is easy enough to remedy. My slate does a similar thing and isn't as dark. 

As for the narrow, dark stripes - a dry, moss glaze I had kickin' around that is 5% blackberry wine - while the colors work, I'm not too keen on how dark the stripes are. If you'll notice, I accidentally forgot to fill in those narrow stripes on one bowl and I think it works better than the darker stripes. The black pinstripes here are a plain black underglaze. It obviously works better than the licorice - it doesn't get pulled into the surrounding glaze and the line maintains its integrity.

As for the other bowl I was working on - the one with the arabesque lines on it - I was contemplating doing some carving around the edge of where I wanted my decoration to go but then thought against it.

Incidentally, I actually had a dream of what to do with the bowl. I know, weird right? What can I say. My subconscious never seems to stop working on problems. And this actually isn't the first time my dreams have led me to pots. This pot came out of sensations of movement while I was laying half asleep one night, several years ago:

I realize that probably sounds pretty corny, but I can assure you, I'm not someone who's big into dream interpretation or anything of that nature. My subconscious just does what it does and if I'm lucky, it shares with my conscious.

But, I digress. Back to the arabesque bowl. I'll make some with the alterations I'm considering, and pair that with some of the glaze combinations from these little bowls. So stay tuned to see where it goes!

For information on the glazes I'm currently testing, please see this post. 
If you are interested in trying any of these in your own studio, you should also have a look at this post.