When we started this body of work, our goal was to merge the bright simple colors of early 20th century American Ceramics with the satin surface sometimes seen on some high fired reduction glazes. Our goal was to find a way to achieve saturated colors that were both semi-translucent and satin at the same time. Tall order for any glaze!

After testing numerous glaze bases we arrived at our current glaze which is primarily frit and calcium based. We learned very early on that many materials in glazes can have deleterious effects on color development. Most notably for us was learning that rich dark purples can be turned into the most putrid of blues when the claybody contains any sort of magnesia. The upshot of that discovery was moving to our current claybody from Tucker's Pottery Supply in Ontario Canada.

When Nancy and I began to develop a palette of colors, the first order of the day was to find a way to create oranges and reds. After testing the new zirconium-encapsulated stains from Mason we knew we were on the right track. Many of our glazes utilize titanium as a way of introducing some minor crystal growth and some visual texture to our pottery. Our latest glaze, Turquoise, uses not only a Mason stain for part of its color, but also uses zirconium silicate and chromium and a tiny amount of cobalt. Talk about fussy! I think in the end the final color was well worth all the testing.