Remember I was talking about blue slip? Well, the pieces finally came out of the kiln and looked great.

Sadly, another piece (a wedding gift) also came out of the kiln looking lousy.

Can you tell which is which??? I'm SURE you CAN!

It's been a great week in the studio with sgraffito (carving through colored liquid clay to reveal the lighter clay beneath) galore.

In addition to aba (father), ima (mother), saba (grandpa) and savta (grandma) mugs, I took some of David's animal sketches, along with a stencil, and made three whimsical mugs. There was one I love so much it might well wind up in my cabinet for coffee, rather than in the etsy shop.

Of course, with sgraffito, the great consideration is glazing. Which glaze will show the carving, without being boring. I've been leaning toward clear glaze on the outside, with brighter colors lining the interior of the mug. As someone who's always loved contrast: color/black and white, matte/gloss, etc., this is a compatible voice for my designs. However, I'm in love with a lovely transparent cone 6 glaze called oribe (quite different from the cone 10 version). So I glazed a couple of the mugs with it.

They're out of the kiln. But I haven't had a chance to go over to the studio to see them, since someone else unloaded this firing. Tuesday is going to be fun!