For several weeks now I've been focused on working. Usually, because my studio is small and my kiln is also quite small I keep work moving through the kiln. However, over the past couple of months I have just been bisque firing. Whilst I was in this mode I just happened to run out of ochre for producing orange. My two main colours are green and orange. I bought many of my oxides and stains in the early seventies when they were cheap and they have lasted well. Anyway, when the orange ran out I got another tub of something that looked the same. However, at the end of last week when I eventually did a glaze firing I found that they were definitely not the same. You can see how awful the result is on the pot on the left.I am horrified and at the moment I am not sure how much work is spoilt but I suspect pretty much all of it. There is no point wasting nervous energy getting upset I've just got to get on and keep working. Some of the work was for commissions so that may need to be re-done.
Having had such a bad experience I found it very interesting watching a little film of Greyson Perry talking about his work. The bit at the end about anticipating work coming out of the kiln struck a cord - see what you think the link is here.
