Sometimes after all the work has gone into them, pieces come out of the final firing with fatal flaws: the glaze crawls, white dotting covers them in a blizzard, tiles or pot bottoms crack. Majolica can be a frustrating process.
As have so many others, I've been much tempted in the past to switch to a different process or medium. Paintings you can fix. With this process, there's one shot at getting it right. Trying to fix and re-fire only causes more problems. But over the years, and with the generous help of others (Linda Arbuckle is a good example), I have fewer failures.
When we were in Italy, it was delightful and inspiring to see what happened to broken majolica. It was plastered into walls and fences. I'm not at all inclined to stucco our fence or house, but I have initiated an ongoing garden project in our back yard. All the pieces you see above came out of the kiln with some "fatal flaw," or they broke at some point with all the hauling and setting up shows.
As have so many others, I've been much tempted in the past to switch to a different process or medium. Paintings you can fix. With this process, there's one shot at getting it right. Trying to fix and re-fire only causes more problems. But over the years, and with the generous help of others (Linda Arbuckle is a good example), I have fewer failures.
When we were in Italy, it was delightful and inspiring to see what happened to broken majolica. It was plastered into walls and fences. I'm not at all inclined to stucco our fence or house, but I have initiated an ongoing garden project in our back yard. All the pieces you see above came out of the kiln with some "fatal flaw," or they broke at some point with all the hauling and setting up shows.
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