More turtles (on plates this time)

Here's everything you ever wanted to know about how I glaze plates... I made 4 small salad/pasta plates (about 9 inches in diameter).

Preliminary painting... I don't like to draw on the piece first. Pencil lines will burn out and disappear during the glaze firing, but I find them distracting. Instead, I lightly paint the most important parts of the design.

...And here's the finished painting.

Next, I poured clear glaze in the center of the plate. I planned to dip the plate in another color for its rim and back, so I carefully painted wax on top of the clear glaze. This will act as a mask and cause the second glaze color to not adhere to the plate's center.

Here's the plate after being dipped in the second glaze color (Coyote Light Green Shino).


All done!


A detail...

The finished group: turtles and toads


Sadly, one toad plate cracked during the glaze firing. The crack is on the lower left, running from the plate's rim to its center. What caused it? I accidentally "klonked" this one on the table when I was painting. It seemed to be okay at the time, but I guess it wasn't. Oopsydoodle. I'll make more.