Cascade glazes are back!

New shapes in cascade glazes for trunk show October 5th and 6th.

Years ago I made bunches of pendants using cascade glazes.  Below is a picture from April, 2007.  As you can see, there are puddles and puddles of glaze all over the shelf.  The support posts were even glazed into place.  Those pendants were all between 11/4 to 3 inches big - so they needed lots of glaze which lead to all that dripping.  I still have some of these left, they were with me at Beadfest Philly and will be with me at my trunk show on October 5th and 6th.  I really love the look of the cascade glazes.

At the beginning of this year I gave the cascade glazes another try - not a complete fail, but not a complete success either.  http://elaineray.blogspot.com/2012/01/cascade-glazes-fired-some-success-some.html

Well, I gave the cascade glazes another try this past couple of weeks on a limited basis and am happy with the results!  You can see the samples in the top picture.  I like the look and feel of the pieces, they didn't drip onto the shelves, and it worked with all three of the clays I use.  I'm going to do the shapes pictured and a few more.  The picture in the lower right hand of the collage is a shot of the process of dipping the pieces (twice) and letting them hang to dry.  Cue the happy music.......

PS, notice how the sets in the first picture are held together with jump rings, rather than tied?  I totally stole that idea from Diana Ptaszynski.  Diana is an incredible ceramic bead artist and all around great person.  Check out her shop and blog:
http://www.etsy.com/shop/suburbangirlbeads
http://vintagebluestudio.typepad.com/

Thanks for stopping by,
Elaine