As almost any potter will tell you, glazing is probably the most challenging part of making pottery. It takes a lot of practice and experimentation to get it right (and it is easy to ruin a successful pot by getting the glazing wrong—take it from one who knows!). Sarah Jaeger is one of those potters who gets glazing so right. Through her years of experience as a professional potter, Sarah has developed a palette of glazes that work for her and she enhances her glaze surfaces by glaze trailing beautiful designs on her pots. The results are stunning.
In today's video, an excerpt from her DVD Throwing, Altering, and Glazing For Function and Beauty, Sarah takes us through the glaze trailing process on one of her gorgeous pots. Watch the video, and then try it out in your own studio! – Jennifer Poellot Harnetty, editor
Glaze trailing is a super fun glazing technique that is somewhat similar to its cousin slip trailing in that both use a slip trailer, ear syringe or other such device to draw designs on pottery. But glaze trailing is done with two contrasting glazes. Because it is glaze on glaze, the lines
do not remain raised on the surface as they do with slip trailing. Instead, they move and melt into the surface. Experiment with your current glaze palette and see if you can come up with some good combinations. But as always, test on test
tiles first, and not your favorite piece, as not every combination is a winner! Good luck!
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Published Jul 29, 2022
As almost any potter will tell you, glazing is probably the most challenging part of making pottery. It takes a lot of practice and experimentation to get it right (and it is easy to ruin a successful pot by getting the glazing wrong—take it from one who knows!). Sarah Jaeger is one of those potters who gets glazing so right. Through her years of experience as a professional potter, Sarah has developed a palette of glazes that work for her and she enhances her glaze surfaces by glaze trailing beautiful designs on her pots. The results are stunning.
In today's video, an excerpt from her DVD Throwing, Altering, and Glazing For Function and Beauty, Sarah takes us through the glaze trailing process on one of her gorgeous pots. Watch the video, and then try it out in your own studio! – Jennifer Poellot Harnetty, editor
This clip was excerpted from Throwing, Altering, & Glazing for Function and Beauty, with Sarah Jaeger, which is on sale in the Ceramic Arts Network Shop!
More about Glaze Trailing
Glaze trailing is a super fun glazing technique that is somewhat similar to its cousin slip trailing in that both use a slip trailer, ear syringe or other such device to draw designs on pottery. But glaze trailing is done with two contrasting glazes. Because it is glaze on glaze, the lines do not remain raised on the surface as they do with slip trailing. Instead, they move and melt into the surface. Experiment with your current glaze palette and see if you can come up with some good combinations. But as always, test on test tiles first, and not your favorite piece, as not every combination is a winner! Good luck!
Find loads more pottery glazing techniques here!
To learn more about Sarah Jaeger or to see more images of her work, please visit www.sarahjaeger.com.
**First published in 2013.
Unfamiliar with any terms in this article? Browse our glossary of pottery terms!
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