What's Glittering Really Is Gold

The contrast between the white glaze e and the gold isn't huge, but I think t's just the right accent, not too much.

The opposite side

I knew I wanted to use gold on my ceramics before I even knew why! Real gold will evaporate, “volatilize” is the technical term, if exposed to the high temperatures needed to fire the clays that I use. I confirmed this the hard way, three years ago I embedded some tiny bits of gold foil around the rim of a pot, and even in the preliminary “bisque” firing (not as hot as the final glaze firing) the pot emerged from the kiln without a trace of the gold. You’ve probably seen fine china that has gold trim or accents, for example around the edges. The way it’s done, is that you glaze and fire the whole thing first, without the gold, at the usual high temperature. Then, you apply the gold and fire at a much lower temperature to “fix” the gold permanently onto the ceramic. This is what’s called an “overglaze,” and what I finally got around to doing!

This glaze is a simple mix of wild clay from my front yard and wood ash; the variability between the gold tones and the very dark tones gives a kind of tree-trunk look that I like, but I like it more with the gold accents

I think that I should have done the entire ornamental band at the bottom like I did on the Lady vase above, not just the little triangle parts. Otherwise I'm quite happy this. (Squirrel, 2024, C Body East 40 clay, wood fired)

With wood firing, you can’t control exactly how anything is going to come out, and honestly the serendipity of it is a huge part of the attraction. But sometimes a piece comes out of the wood firing and, well, needs some help. Well, I had some pieces that just needed a little oomph, a little spark, an accent.Two of them had a lovely, ivory colored satiny glaze surface; but they were to subtle, they needed an accent, some pop. On the other end of the spectrum, I had a  piece with a kind of mottled surface, mostly quite dark. Finally, I had a piece that had quite nice “flashing”-effects of the fire on the clay, which highlighted the sculptural form really well-but the surface was quite dull and matte, no shine. ​

It's easier to see the gold in the recesses in person, still, this piece taught me the gold works best on protruding pieces. I did simple rings of gold top and bottom, but think I should have done the whole ornamental band not just the edge. (Native Eagle, 2024, wood fired white stoneware)

I do like the eyes and the studs in gold. (Ox and Leaf, 2024, wood fired white stoneware)