Playing with new clay

I finally got around to experimenting with some Georgia clay, Lizella. I have some favorite clays and have, over time, adjusted to their peculiarities. I had moved from mid & high fire to low fire years back because I like glazing the bottom of pieces. With higher temps you can't put pieces on stilts when you glaze fire as they slump over the stilts.

While Lizella lends itself to a wide range of firing temps from low to mid-fire, I like the darker brown-toned clay that you get when mid-firing (cone 6). I grabbed a bunch of high fire glazes when I picked up the Lizella with the intention of firing high.

One of the biggest adjustments I'm having to make is that I've grown accustomed to making low-fire pieces that can be glazed on the bottom. My designs flow down under. I keep looking at a finished wet piece and realizing I won't like it without glaze on the bottom! Habits. Ingrained.

But I do like to stretch myself so I'm sticking with it.

To semi-force myself to stick with it (cause I know I'll ultimately adjust and like), I bought a bunch more Lizella, more glazes and a couple of other mid/high fire clays last time I was up at Davens. Now I have to keep going!

Luckily for me, Lizella has a great firing range so when I "goof" and make a piece that simply MUST be glazed on the bottom, I can still fire it at a low enough temp to do so. However, I'm working hard to remember when I'm in my creative mode so I can make some mid-fire pieces.

I posted on Facebook a week or so ago that I was playing with Lizella. My FB friends are great --- a number of them who use Lizella added comments, gave suggestions and even posted some pieces for me to see. Art people are some of the nicest people in the world!

I just pulled out my first bisque fire load and will be glazing pretty soon. I learned that Lizella doesn't adhere to itself when wet as well as the clay I was working with... I have to re-fire one piece because part of it didn't "stick" to the other. That's part of the frustration and the fun of working with a new clay.