Glaze : A glassy coating melted in place on a ceramic body, which may render the body smooth, non-porous, and of a desired color or texture. (D. Rhodes' Clay and Glazes for the Potter)
I use a variety of glazes, most of them having traditional ties to North Carolina's pottery heritage. Others are more contemporary. Below is a list with descriptions and color representations.
Amber Celedon : This is a celedon base glaze with a percentage of yellow ochre for the colorant, instead of iron. I use it, most often, over a textured porcelain slip.
Catawba Celedon : The Catawba Valley region of North Carolina has a historical association with being one of the state's major pottery centers. It was known for its crushed-glass alkaline glaze (see below). Because of the variables I have encountered with such a rudimentary formulation, I developed this glaze to provide the clarity and color that can be achieved in the alkaline, but with consistency.
Chinese Blue : This glaze was first put into use in the Moore County, NC area by Jacques Busbee, owner of Jugtown Pottery, sometime during the 1920's. It was developed to emulate a Chinese glaze with random splashes of crimson on a greenish-blue background. When Ben Owen, Sr. left Jugtown and opened his own pottery in the late 1950's, he carried this glaze with him. While working at the Ben Owen Pottery, I became familiar with this glaze and learned the firing method of the wood kiln to achieve this blue/red combination.
Chinese Red : I was introduced to this viberant glaze, too, while working at the Ben Owen Pottery. Wade Owen began using it on forms sometime around the first of the 1980's. Ben Owen III states in a 1999 newspaper article, "It's a glaze my father developed and refined over a period of time..."
Crushed Glass Alkaline : This is a very rudimentary glaze, comprised of ground glass, wood ash and local clay. The Catawba Valley region of North Carolina (Lincoln and Catawba counties) was the state's major center for alkaline glazed stoneware by the mid eighteen hundreds.
Frogskin : This is a glaze that , in our eastern Piedmont region of North Carolina, dates back to around 1875. It is an Albany clay slip glaze that has been saltglazed. Earliest examples have been on ware by J.D.Craven, Moore County. The term "frogskin" is thought to have been coined by Jugtown Pottery owner Jasques Busbee, sometime in the 1920's. It was part of the Jugtown glaze repertoire, and later that of Ben Owen Pottery.
Saltglaze : As the name suggests, common salt is introduced into the kiln to produce this "orange-peel" textured glaze. By 1850, the eastern Piedmont region, particularly Moore, Randolph and Chatham counties, had become North Carolina's major center for saltglazed stoneware.
Shenandoah : The Shenandoah Valley region of Virginia was known for it's pottery in the mid to late 1800's. The Bell family, particularly, produced lead glazed figurals, splattered with copper and iron, resulting in runs of green and brown on buff-colored clay. This is my emulation of that glaze.
Tortoiseshell : The Chinese used a glaze, between the 1200's and 1400's, known as "tortoiseshell". It is theorized that they achieved this glaze by using a clay slip and splattering it with wood ash, resulting in amber spotting on a brown-black background. With that assessment, I developed my interpretation.
