Bubble glazing
And a quick update on my ceramics journey (and life)
Hello new and old readers alike. It feels cheesy to say “I’m sorry” for not updating this newsletter for so long. In a way, it’s paradoxical, because I started writing as a way to chronicle my on-again off-again relationships with all my hobbies. As it turns out, writing about said hobbies was in itself a hobby, and therefore subject to my habit of abandoning them.
My pottery was on the back-burner between the start of 2022 and August because of work. When I returned to the city from vacation with free time (for the first time), I signed up for open studio and re-taught myself how to use the wheel again. My muscle memory let me make simple pots like before, but what I really needed to work on most was expanding my creativity when it came to forms, and letting myself relax enough to create something without expecting it to be my best work.
After an intensive three weeks, I was left with 10+ bisque-ware pieces that I didn’t get the chance to glaze, and no time to glaze them. I started my PhD during the first week of September, and haven’t stopped for a second since.
Since pottery was always a form of therapy for me, I made the executive decision to start classes again recently. I love having the routine of going to the studio every Monday night, and I definitely seek refuge there to decompress from real life.
That brings us to now. Remember all that bisque ware I haven’t glazed? Well I figured out exactly what to do with them. I first heard of bubble glazing from a friend at my studio. The concept is really simple, you mix glaze with soap and blow it into bubbles, which you can then transfer onto your pieces to create this beautiful pattern. I really like how organic it looks juxtaposed against an otherwise uniform wheel piece.
In round one, I took this vase I made months ago and put it on a makeshift pedestal with an empty Chobani yoghurt cup. I took another cup and mixed about 1:1 spearmint glaze and some random soap I found in the back of the studio. I had to run into the bar next door to get a straw, but it was essential to the project. The result was cool once dried, but everything went to shit in the kiln.
The huge mess I made. But hey that’s what first attempts are supposed to look like, right?
Here were the problems:
Spearmint glaze is way too runny, and regardless I should have been using underglaze instead of glaze (which makes the pieces glassy.)
The yoghurt cup didn’t give me enough control and I ended up spilling thick layers of the green around the vase, which all melted together.
The soap I used didn’t allow me to make large bubbles, only tiny ones that added texture but not definition.
Taking everything I learned from this piece, I returned the following weekend with a small, plastic water bottle I dug out from the recycling, my own Dawn soap, and some underglazes.
The water bottle worked great because it was flimsy enough that I could squeeze out the bubbles from the top once I blew them inside the bottle. I really wanted green bubbles again, so I mixed in Aqua underglaze with the Dawn. Unfortunately, it turned out to be way too light to be seen on the pots. I went in instead with black and mixed equal parts water, glaze, and soap. That finally did the trick, and I layered it over my failed green bubbles to create a cool pot. I also used the rest to decorate a cup I made a while back, and topped off both pieces with a clear topcoat of glaze before letting them fire in the kiln. The finished product should be out by next week, so I will update everyone with photos as soon as I can.
The definition of low production. I think I shook the bottle too hard and didn’t use the right proportions. This glaze was more thick and less pigmented than I needed.
The cup I made using only black underglaze based bubbles. I love the way this one turned out, and I topped it with Molly’s clear so the black would really shine through.
The whole production reminds me of when I was a kid. There’s something so carefree and delightful about blowing bubbles as an adult, and it was just so fun to figure this whole process out. Even my failed vase looked interesting. So if I have one take-away from the experience, it’s to find pleasure in my hobbies again. Try something new and ridiculous just because it brings pure, unadulterated enjoyment, and dissociate the process from the product. I think by removing the expectation that I need to be good at this, I finally gave myself the space to be creative and just fuck around a bit.
I hope you, as the reader, found amusement in my story. Take today to do something purely for your contentment, and I promise I won’t take such a long hiatus until the next letter.
Thank you to my friend Shelby for sending me the perfect meme to end this post with.