[Claybot]

Hi. I have a few pots that were ruined by dipping them into too-thick clear glaze, matte finish. The glaze pooled in the pot's decorative textures during firing and now the recesses look milky - like the pots were dipped in a watery Elmer's Glue.

The pots were fired again in an attempt to reduce the milkiness, and re-firing did help, but the pots still look terrible.

I like using 04 underglazes. Can I paint underglazes over the milky clear glaze and refire the pots, thus hiding the milky clear coat? Each pot took about a day to fashion and I really want to rescue them.

Or should I refire the pots again and maybe again, and hope the milkiness diminishes enough to the point where the pots look okay?

Is there some other solution better than the ones I mentioned?

Can anything at all be applied over a clear coat? Or is a clear coat the final step in the pottery-making process, like varnish on an oil painting?

[bciskepottery]

Since you have a few pots, try refiring one or two and see if the glaze improves. Refiring will completely remelt the clear glaze. But, if the coating was too thick to start, all you really might end up with is the same look. If you see some improvement, then try one or two with some underglaze on the clear.

Another option might be using china paints and then firing to a much lower temperature . . . that allows the china paints to fuse to the glaze surface but not completely re-melt the clear glaze. You might have better control covering the areas of milkiness you want to cover, while leaving other areas okay.

[Marcia Selsor]

Underglaze will not flux on top of a glaze. That is why they go UNDER the glaze.
I agree that china paint or OVER glazes would work better. You could try making some majolica overglaze decorating colors with stain and Frit 3110 or Gerstley Borate. 1 part stain to 4 parts grit or GB. fire to ^04.
Marcia

[Chris Campbell]

I am saying this with a ... from someone who has been there more than once!
There seems to be a law in pottery that the more you love the work, the more it will punish you

You are spending days chasing a crack ... By that I mean the time we have all spent trying to repair a crack in greenware instead of just sending it to reclaim and making another piece. That glaze is not gonna look better any time soon ... even if you repair it with paints and glazes it will never look the way you dreamed it would before you glazed it. It will disappoint you every time you open the kiln on a refiring ... Every time you see it on a shelf.
Take this as a lesson learned, make another batch ... your experience with this load will make the next one even better.

[JBaymore]

Claybot,

Hi. This is probably not the answer that you would want to hear......... but it is one I give to students many, many times when similar occurances happen:

Just make the entire pieces all over again. They will almost always be better executed when you re-do the ideas that you had the first time, as you keep the successful aspects and slightly refine the parts that need a bit of addressing. I am sure that you learned some things in the original making process, and that you looked at some aspects of the almost finished pieces and wished they were slightly different.....but they were now "done".

Now build upon those achievements and move the pieces to the next level. Fixing the glaze application issue is just ONE aspect that will get better. It will be a much more productive use of your valuable time than trying to "save" the originals.

Unless you have made the latest incarnation of "The Scarab Vase"........ this "do it over again" approach is almost always the way to go. It is basically the concept of "working in series"...... which is a very important concept to learn to exploit in your development as an artist.

best,

...............john

[JBaymore]

Chris and I wrote those at about the same instant.

[Claybot]

Thanks, pottery people. I am going to abandon my five ugly pots and move on.

And I deeply appreciate all the excellent reasons given for doing so.

[clayshapes]

You've had lots of good advice here, and I'm sure you'll make some wonderful new pots. But I wouldn't abandon the disappointing ones permanently. When this happens to me, whenever I have room in the kiln, I do a few more experiments in the name of learning. I've done this with disappointing pots a few times and am surprised when I look at them months later and find them to be to my liking after all. Often, it's about expectation. Sometimes, when you make some adjustments, and then leave something alone for a while (in a cupboard you never go into), you might be surprised at how much your vision for that piece can change!
Never smash a disappointing piece until a few months have passed!

[WillowTreePottery]

You have received some good advice. I tend to use my rejects a way to smash away frustrations. I've used enamels and china paints extensively and they rarely salvage a bad pot,plus they are very expensive to use, and tricky to apply and fire unless you use a preliminary coat of something called Klyr Fire.

[Teresita]

You've got some great advise from everyone! I would go into it with the mindfullness of experimenting with new ways of playing with glazes, instead of "fixing it" and in this way you won't be disappointed but will learn from it. Think of the pots as a test tile, and take mental or physical notes as a student would. You may or may not come up with a great pot overall, or you might. I look at it as "a happy accident" of opportunity to learn more.
Namaste