Glaze Combo Club

Merhaba from Alanya. I grew up in Germany and threw pots in Cologne for ten years, but this year my partner and I came home for good and bought an apartment by the sea in Alanya. It came up on https://yektahomes.com/ after months of looking and the deciding thing was a small room with a north window where my wheel now stands.

Last month I spent a week in Istanbul just staring at the Iznik tiles in the old mosques. That deep cobalt with the turquoise next to it, under a clear glossy glaze. I want something close on stoneware, not a copy, just the feeling of it.

Has anyone here layered a cobalt underglaze with a turquoise on top and found a combo that does not go muddy at cone 6?

I do pottery since four years in a small studio in Hamburg-Altona, one evening a week, mostly bowls and cups for the family. My husband and I are buying a condo in Hua Hin for the winters, the handover is in January.

In the beginning I wanted only the view. Then we saw a unit on the ground floor with a covered terrace, and I stood there and thought: a small table here, a bucket of slip, and the dust stays outside.

Three units were left on our list from https://thailand-real.estate/ and this one won because of the terrace. The sea is visible from the corner only, it is fine.

Of course I will not bring a kiln. I want to find a studio there for the firing and do the forming at home. My plan is to take my favourite glazes with me, two of them I mix myself…

Ciao from Santa Pola, Spain. The house we bought in spring from https://alegria-realestate.com/ has a garage with a window, and the corner by the window is now for a small kiln.

First firing is next week. Question for this club: the air here is humid and salty, the sea is 300 m away. Do you see difference in how glazes dry before firing? I want to make a wall of test tiles like the one in your group photo, very beautiful.

I've been thinking about how creative hobbies can affect everyday stress and mental wellbeing. Pottery seems particularly interesting because the process requires attention to small details, patience, and being comfortable with things not turning out exactly as planned.

Glazing probably adds another layer to that. You can have an idea of how a piece will look, but the final result can still surprise you after firing.

I wonder if that's part of why people find ceramics relaxing. Having something physical to work on can create a break from screens, work, and constant distractions.

For those who regularly work with clay and glazes, do you find the process genuinely helps you switch off from daily stress? Or is the experimentation itself sometimes more stressful than relaxing?

I'm especially curious about what other people do when a glaze combination doesn't produce the result they expected. Do you try to reproduce it, change…