vases before, and after. this is a perfect, textbook example of what happens when you have a poor glaze fit. this is when the rates of expansion and/or shrinkage for both the clay and the glaze do not match, and the pieces just literally break apart in your hands, sometimes even as you pick them up from the kiln. its kind of a crazy phenomenon, and in this case it was the glaze shrinking more than the clay, literally pulling the clay apart.
i could hear that these were not right...you know, that dull "i'm cracked" kind of sound, and then they just split apart as i twisted them. i felt macho and strong, but really they were ready to go. so sad. and sudden. got a lot of these beauties out there before this started happening...i hope i don't get any calls about it, but i anticipate that i might. needless to say i'm currently on the hunt for a new red. oh, the humanity!
