The Great Blue Hole of Belize

One of the things I love most about art is it how closely it can relate to nature.  Crystalline glazing in particular amazes me the way nature does.  A maple tree, for example, in full bloom, is covered in beautiful green leaves.  If you study those leaves, however, you will never find a leaf that is the same as another.  Every single one is different.  That is how the crystals are in this particular glazing style.  You can do a hundred different firings, but no crystal is ever the same from one to the next.  Amazing!  That is why I am always so excited to open up the kiln after a glaze firing to see what crystal formations grew on the pots this time.  In this last firing, I glazed a low-profile bowl in the cobalt crystalline glaze and added a splash of copper to it as well.  I love the way colors blend and bleed into each other during firings when you combine glazes or overlap them.

When I pulled this bowl out of the kiln I couldn’t shake the image of the Great Deep Blue Hole off the coast of Belize.  It reminded me so much of that natural wonder.  I have always been intrigued by those pictures and would love to see it for myself one day.

I thought it was a pretty cool similarity.  I love when that happens!  Well, I have lots to do today in the studio and another kiln load to fire up!

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