My new favorite glaze is this velvety gray. I keep wanting to touch it to see if it is as soft as it looks. I wouldn’t have thought I would like it so much, but there it is. It came into my life at a good time (this is kind of a love story) because I think I mentioned my daughter is engaged and she is getting married in August, which is not much time to prepare for the wedding she wants. The good news for me is that she is doing all the planning since she knows the event I would plan would not be the one she wants. My casual party plans don’t exactly mesh with hers and her intended’s.
OK, the connection to the glaze is coming: Since the wedding will be 2 states away in Olympia, WA, she wants to put welcome/wedding-weekend-survival baskets in everyone’s hotel room. (I’m getting there.) So I am making some little bowls to fill with chocolates (or mints or Advil or something). They think the gray glaze will be perfect for the bowls.
OK. The inside of the bowls is decided. Now we just have to decide on the graphic on the back. I had a stamp made with their initials and wedding date, but the little plant stamp I tried to use alongside it is just not what they are looking for. The next idea is the face of their English bulldog (Trixie). Trixie is adorable in a silly kind of way.
This is drawn from an actual photo of Trixie. I could get a stamp made of her face and stamp it on the bottom of a bowl with the initial stamp next to it, but I’m thinking of having a screen made of Trixie’s mug and the initials together and printing it on the bottom. That way I will eliminate the step of having to put color in the stamp depressions. Since I am making upwards of 100 of these, (couples only need one bowl, right?) saving a step or two would make me happy. Check back to see how it’s working. I’m curious myself, but before I can start, I have to find a place that has a thermofax machine to make a screen for me from my drawings. I’m going to be calling tattoo places tomorrow to see if I can talk someone into helping me. I’ll pay, of course. (Hopefully I won’t have to resort to getting a tattoo of Trixie on my bicep just so I can keep the screen afterward.)
Clay Garden 
oh- get the tat!
I did tiles for the wedding last year and ended of writing their names both first and last and the date on all of them! (130)
And gluing on a magnet.
The only good thing was I could fire up a load in my test kiln.
I would have preferred a throw item-one that Mark could have helped on!
In my book- one is enough per couple and it will be a sweet reminder of the event.
Good luck and remember to enjoy the wedding!
100+ bowls with stamps doesn’t exactly sound to me like “casual party planning”.
I still have and use a chubby light gray jug that used to have a lid that you made decades ago. The new gray glaze is beautiful, and if you don’t go off it after you make 100+, I’d love to get something in your next sale that’s the new black.
Congratulations for your daughter marriage! mine was married 3 years ago, and i am already a grandmother to a 10 months old granddaughter; i can tell you, it is a great joy!!
the glaze looks soft and beautiful indeed, although the hard work, it would be a real nice gift for your guests.
the technique I have used to decorate the porcelain called Mishima ( http://pottery.about.com/od/slipsengobes/ss/slipdecorate2_4.htm ) which i tried for the first time. I hope it will be nice after glazing as well.
Wow! Really? 100 bowls thrown, trimmed, glazed and shipped. Big project but what a perfect way to contribute to the wedding. I love the classic simplicity, lovely shape and sophisticated color (or lack thereof) and can’t wait to see how you do the bulldog imprint.
No throwing and trimming. The little bowls will have the gray glaze but will be much, much more simple. I’ll post a picture soon.
Yummy! Love that grey velvet glaze!