Yummy!

I've finally gotten around to making a new set of test tiles for the studio. I've been meaning to do this forever and it's going to be so nice to have a set that I can hang on the wall instead of digging through boxes looking for mismatched bits and pieces. These are the underglazes that I use for painting the colors on my illustrations. I've tried a lot of different products, but these are my favorites. They are Amaco Velvet underglazes fired to Cone 5. Some of the colors aren't as vibrant at this temperature, but I've found a nice color palette that fires bright and consistent. I apply them to bone dry greenware (I use Laguna Bmix5 clay), then bisque fire and cover with a clear glaze before firing to cone 5. The nice thing about the velvets is that they can be fired without a cover glaze, so I sometimes use them that way for detail on the bottom of pieces. I usually use them at the consistency they come out of the container, but occasionally thin them with water to get a little more of a watercolor look (they are translucent when thin, opaque when thick.) These just came out of the last firing and when I laid them all out they look so tempting, like an amazing box of candy. Next task is to make tiles for all of my glazes.