Glaze Samples and not so happy accidents

A little while back I got hold of some new watercolour glazes which can be used on the clay and over glazed with a clear glaze to create a watercolour appearance.
 The tester pieces came out as expected but I used them on my fox hooks and I'm not too keen on the look of them so they are going back in the kiln for a third firing with some extra coats of glaze.

These are the Amaco glaze samples fired on

And at the stage of painting them onto the bisque fox hooks.

I feel a bit let down really as  I thought the colours would be softer and I'm annoyed at myself for doing them all at the same time without really knowing the end result. (not that you really know what you're going to get when you open the kiln when trying new glazes)

Mmmm not v happy when I opened the kiln and saw these.

Unfortunately this project will just fade into the background for a while so I can concentrate on other work, I will post back when Ive given them another firing and see how they come out next time.

Sorry to end on a bit of a negative but as I had got such positive reponses to the hooks in the original post, I thought it fair to follow up with what happened to them. 

 Well its all part of the making process I suppose. 

Live & Learn!!

Porcelain Deer Head... Something for the house.

I have been meaning to post pics of this so here it is. I made this a few weeks ago for my house out of porcelain clay. I didnt hold out much hope for it as the antlers are really fragile and needed to be supported whilst drying out. Infact I thought if it made it to the kiln for the firing it would be nothing short of a small miracle. Yet, here it is, quite sweet and small and now hung on my wall.

Here it is hung on my wall inside an old frame.
This blog shows some animal head hooks that I have
been making in my workshop.