September 21 – 23
Last Month we were blessed to have world renowned potter, author, educator and glaze specialist John Britt here at the J for a 3 day glaze workshop.
Now that we’ve had a moment to digest the wealth of information he provided, we wanted to share some highlights from his visit.
1st Mate John Brings in Dinner! We started out by giving John a true PNW experience by giving him a Seahawks raincoat and taking him crabbing. Later this meal would be shared by all at the opening meet and greet at the J.
Like most people, ceramic artists love a good excuse to eat, drink and share stories. Fresh crab and delightful company seemed like a great way to get the workshop rolling.
Glaze chemistry can be daunting to say the least, but John kept us entertained through personal stories and comedic relief as we digested a wealth of information.
Let the work begin! Each participant mixed a different base glaze by carefully weighing and mixing several materials from a recipe.
Always eager to help, John guided each participant to get the best results in their search for the holy grail of glazes.
1900 different glaze tests were labeled and loaded into the gas and electric kilns. Then it was time to kick the tires and light the fires to cone 6 (2232 degrees Fahrenheit).
Post firing revealed some beautiful results, but the exciting part was yet to come!
Test tiles were laid out and quickly organized by the crew.
All 1900 test tiles were carefully organized in order to analyze and understand the results of everyone’s hard work.
As the results were analyzed, John explained how a change of a single ingredient in a glaze can have a profound effect on the overall result, and we had the test tiles to prove it!
For many of us the wealth of information John shared will keep our ceramic minds full of possibilities and our clay ever changing.
We were blessed to have John come for a visit, and equally fortunate to have such wonderful participants that traveled near and far.
We simply cannot wait to have John Britt back to the J again for such a fun and educational experience!