Heavy Metal

It appears that glossy/shiny,smooth is functional and matte, dry, crusty is art. I unloaded our glaze firing the other day and thought maybe I'd do a quick firing of some pots without glaze and cool them in reduction. I fired quickly to Cone 9 and turned the burners off, closed the damper until there was only a small opening for flame to pass thru and left all 8 pilots on. I fired down to 1450. Our clay body on it's own wasn't all that interesting however I did like the gun metal black of the pots sprayed with laterite. I do like the texture of the stamping on the unglazed ware. Sometime glazes can pool and break to give a beautiful texture but leaving the surface alone made them almost metal like.
Please excuse the commercial handles but I wanted to show ya the reduction coooooool and I'm pacing the floors worrying about my teaching in Italy. Usually I'm very fond of lots of ash.