I love when my glaze is crunchy

Crazed | 5/2/2020

Krasa is an old Swedish word meaning crunchy. Atlantic trade and war would thrust this word into the vocabulary of the English during the middle ages. Co-opting this word through Germanic means they used the word “crazed” to define something that was “full of cracks and flaws”. It wouldn't be long until the word's attachment would shift from intimate objects to disturbed humans. Crazy has often been used to slander people whose psyche has cracked under tension. Most humans at some point will start to feel this breaking point. Sometimes we can out stronger, often we come out permanently scarred. Stress is natural part of life, but then again so is cyanide. Struggle and stress have both created and destroyed beautiful things and beautiful people. As with most things balance is this key, tension can create, but tension can also destroy. Tension is good, destruction is not.

Matching a glaze to a clay is like matching a suit to a body. It's important to get a snug fit. Too loose, the pot will find it's coat of glaze falling off to reveal it's bare naked body. Too tight, the pot may tear itself like a pair of jocks in deep squat. Between these two extremes there is a lot of room for style. A perfect glaze fit, meaning the clay and glaze shrink at the same rate, will provide a comfortably fitting piece of clothing for the pot. Smooth and orderly this outfit is relaxing, inviting and functional. If however someone chooses to ditch the utilitarian style of clothing and go for something that shows off their form, they might choose clothes that hug tight. If the glaze fit is slightly miss matched you can get a glaze that will hold onto the body and yet splinters with small cracks of tension. These cracks and valleys can be comfortable homes to whatever coffee or tea stains choose to settle in these lesions. For my sculptural work I love to use sumi ink, the fine particles of burnt pinewood provides a great medium that lodge themselves into these cracks. Crazing, like a pair of fishnet stockings, can show off the pot's form. The spiderweb like pattern wraps itself around the pot giving an otherwise flat form depth and definition. The thinner the glaze the tighter the pattern becomes. I love a crazed pot. A crazed pot demands your attention, it's form so tangible it allures you to really understand the piece. Crazed pottery shows glaze for what it is, not a flat 2d print but thick, rich layers that smother the piece below.