Always A Surprise

When you work with glazes, you don't really have any control over the outcome.  That's something that's hard for me to explain to people who don't have any experience with ceramics.  I had a lady ask me to make a pendant like another I had made and I explained that I couldn't guarantee that it would turn out the same.  She didn't understand.  I explained that even when I do things the exact same way and fire them the exact same way, sometimes they come out differently.  So I showed her these:

This first one was done in a white stoneware clay.  I put burgundy underglaze in the recesses of the stamped design and then added 2 coats of the olive glaze over top.  I then fired it to cone 5.

I used the same exact clay for this pendant.  I added the burgundy underglaze the same way and added 2 coats of the olive glaze just as I did on the other.  I fired it to cone 5 and LOOK!  See all of that blue in there?  See the ghost like mist around the stamped image?  None of that is present in the first one.

The only time I can say I will get the exact same result is when I use underglazes under clear glaze.  That has always been reliable and boring... lol  I quite like the mystery of opening the kiln lid when I use colored glazes instead.  However, when someone wants a commissioned pendant to be exactly like another, that can be both frustrating and impossible.

The second pendant is available in my Etsy Shop along with two others like it.