After breaking the first version of this piece, I decided to remake it, this time in Black Clay. It's funny though, as I just didn't think this one was as successful, I thought I had followed the same steps, and had reference images to follow but is just didn't quite flow the same

I realised after it was fired that I hadn't got the balance right, it was off centre when it was fired resulting in a wedge being needed underneath so the piece would curl and lift.

I used a Linda Bloomfield special effects glaze on the surface called Mari Lee Lava and coloured it with cobalt carbonate. I was still experimenting with special effects glazes and this with another lava glaze I had been testing. I knew it performed well on black clay.

I think this piece does have some merit, I like aspects of it, and I think the line of the form is interesting so I will continue to experiment with the shapes I am making and see what emerges.

Form has always been paramount in the aesthetic of the sculptures I was trying to make, connected pieces are a very important part of this as it is intrinsically linked to the narrative behind my work. I still wanted shapes to emerge that were inspired by fungi without being too referential, so I decided to experiment more with form as I was seeking both a change of tone and a way of resolving the breakages that I had experienced to date.

The above is a piece that I did not feel worked, it looked too clumsy and off balance, it also did not survive in the kiln so became another piece that was discarded.

The piece below I felt was more successful, I liked the combination of spheres and ovoids in this and inserting ovoids into hemispheres was also a new way of working with the forms. Am pleased to say this did survive the firing and I decided to use a glaze that I had done a little bit of experimenting with previously. It was a lava glaze recipe on Glazy made by Akiko Hirai, In the initial tests of this glaze it had expanded a great deal so I knew I needed to be cautious in applying it.

Above is an image of the piece before the glaze had been fired, I had taken to doing this to ensure I had a record  given the high rate of kiln disasters I had had previously.

I was really pleased with the way this glaze behaved, I knew it would be too much to cover the whole piece, but I love the way it has joined up and 'grown' in the kiln, feel very relevant to the work I am making. The only thing am not really convinced by is the colour of the red clay body when fired to Cone 8. At bisque it has lovely rich red tone that is warm, but this reminds a bit of offal! Am not sure if red is the way to go anymore.