I'm a lazy bugger

It is true that if you leave a crackle slip hanging around too long it loses it's crack. Dan Finnegan explained at the North Carolina Potters Conference that he makes a new batch to add to what's left of his old batch. Dan has got crack down! Dan has made a living as one of the best crack dealers in the land.

Me, I hate making glazes and I hate small buckets of glaze. I am a garbage pail man. I use two or three glazes and I make them in garbage pails. That usually requires 30,000 grams. It means I can dip big pots and dip bowls and plates without splashing glaze all over the place. I have a garbage pail of crack, a garbage pail of Aussie shino and a garbage pail of Malcolm Davis Shino.  Small pails of accent glazes. 

 “I will always choose a lazy person to do a difficult job because a lazy person will find an easy way to do it.” 

It’s a great quote, that came from Frank B. Gilbreth Sr. He studied the best and poorest bricklayers and stumbled on an astonishing fact; he could learn the most from the lazy man!  He noticed lazy workers eliminated unnecessary movement and reduced fatigue. He also discovered that expert workers were the most wasteful of their motion and strength.  They had the ability to produce a large quantity of good work, but they tired themselves out of all proportion to the amount of work they accomplished.

So here is the secret to keeping your crack alive. I dip the pot in crack, give it a little shake  and then immediately pour or dip it into the Aussie shino. Remember the shino first or be cursed rule. It makes the glaze underneath crack. This is how you break a rule to solve a problem. Aussie Shino 70 Nepheline Syenite 30 EPK. or for a bit shinier 80 Nepheline Syenite 20 EPK. Bruce's Crack and Malcolm Davis Shino are both in John Britts High Fire Glaze book which is my Bible. Here's some pots to look at. The plate had crack poured on it, a shake and then Aussie shino poured on. This is the best case scenario for this method of reviving your crack.

If you let the crack dry and then pour the Aussie shino on you get the these little pot holes that I quite like and the glaze cracks. I used to stir my shino like a crazy man to get the bubbles on top of the glaze so they showed up on my pot. If you look at the close up you will see how the crack didn't crack too much until I poured the Aussie shino on.

Ever since Grade school when someone told me you can''t do that I wanted to do it even more. Shino first or be cursed unless of course you are me. 

I am listening to the new CD of Rufus Wainwright "Unfollow the rules".