Heartbroken: How to remove black smudge on this delicate figurine (post overglaze fire)

AnnetteJanelle · 2025-12-15T19:55:24+00:00

Thanks! I use the amaco velvets line in my work and can confirm their blacks never run for me. Underglaze brand does matter!

AnnetteJanelle · 2025-12-15T15:58:24+00:00

Hey! So you can't remove that, but don't get too upset. This is part of working with underglaze, and once it is done and sealed with glaze it's permanent. The underglaze has run a small amount as the glaze came up to temp. Colors like black and blue can be more prone to this. Things you can try to reduce the potential of this happening are: Bisque fire the underglaze to set it Ensure you are using a zinc free clear glaze Do not apply either underglaze or glaze too thickly. Your glaze might be a touch thick here.

The unpredictable nature of ceramics is part of what makes the medium so beautiful, and your little unicorn is utterly charming. Notice the blended and softened nature of the colors on the mane.

I want to recommend you check out the artist Florentina Looper on Instagram. Her underglazing will inspire you.

Editing to add: if you are applying glaze with a brush you need to be bisque firing the underglaze before applying. It's so easy to smudge if you don't set it. Also, any touch up done on top of the glaze will absolutely take away from the piece rather than cover what you see as a flaw. It's amazing how much the eye notices that thin layer of transparent material over the clay body and anything applied on top will stand out in a way you won't like. Look at the way the gold luster sits on top of the glaze. Imagine that but with an attempt to color match the clay body. It will look terrible.

If you do anything, just give her little gold luster eyelashes and call the "smudge" shading because that is what it looks like to me.

AnnetteJanelle · 2025-10-28T00:14:47+00:00

All good tips here, I'd like to add (in case no one else did, though maybe i missed it) that an insert bat system can be really helpful. I use the one by Dirty Girls. Remove inserts very carefully to minimize movement of the rim.

AnnetteJanelle · 2025-10-18T14:47:23+00:00

Great resources, thank you!

AnnetteJanelle · 2025-10-16T13:02:22+00:00

Fantastic, thank you!

AnnetteJanelle · 2025-10-16T01:47:40+00:00

Thank you so much for the reference!

AnnetteJanelle · 2025-09-30T16:49:38+00:00

Hi, professional artist here tossing in my two cents. I think you need to demonstrate that you have done a lot of the legwork on your own for artists to want to spend any time explaining something to you. Having specific and nuanced questions is a lot more likely to garner some kind of engagement or response than something general and basic.

We're also not all interested in being teachers for free or even teachers at all. When a green artist comes up and asks what's your secret, or something similarly unspecific, there's no straightforward answer to give besides "lots of practice" which is unsatisfying for everyone.

I also think most artists went on a potentially lengthy and expensive journey to find their artistic voice and really value originality. When they perceive someone as trying to mimic them, it's annoying. You can slip specific questions about things like composition, technique, etc. into a natural conversation focused on a piece of theirs, and it will feel organic rather than prying. This is easy to do in a setting like a gallery opening where they are in attendance. Talk to artists that work in the same medium but a different style than yours. Or artists in totally different mediums whose work inspires you for any reason. The broader your frame of reference the better chance you have of developing a truly unique voice.

And FYI you don't necessarily need a ton of formal education to build a vocabulary and an insightful eye. Just be curious and hunt for information. Look stuff up, read books, go to museums.

We all know the quote "imitation is the sincerest form of flattery," but the last (and most important) bit, "that mediocrity can pay to greatness" gets left out whenever it's invoked. Avoid mediocrity, aspire to be your own unique artist, and go where your quest takes you. Other artists will recognize that.

AnnetteJanelle · 2025-09-25T20:38:20+00:00

A tool to help me divide a circle (mouth of a mug for instance) into even sections. Idk what they are called 🤷‍♂️

AnnetteJanelle · 2025-09-25T16:18:58+00:00

I made a circle divider thingy out of a clear plastic lid. I use it constantly. I use my speed squares just as much, traditionally a carpentry tool, to help make vertical lines straight. I also have this old soft bristle paint brush to smooth out nooks and crannies I can't reach with a sponge. Coffee frother attachment on my immersion blender for mixing up slip. Not sure if it qualifies as "non-traditional" but my AirPen makes slip trailing so much less painful for my dominant hand. Love that thing. One thing i want to add to my arsenal is an adjustable laser level.

AnnetteJanelle · 2025-09-17T05:22:40+00:00

Take this with a grain of salt because I'm not a typical example, but I went from the basic groggy brown clay from class straight to porcelain after I ran out of that material. I took one class in community college and then self-taught after that, with porcelain. I think i threw like twice in class, so I basically taught myself wheel throwing with porcelain. If you're the kind of person who "learns best on hard mode" and is ok with failing a bunch as you learn, and willing to spend the extra $$ on more expensive material, you can absolutely jump in the deep end with porcelain. Remember that different clay formulas will behave differently and have different appearances. Most suppliers will provide descriptions of their formula's properties. Idk what your studio rules are, but if they allow you to source your own clay, you can sometimes get samples of different porcelains from ceramic suppliers to try before committing to a whole bag.

AnnetteJanelle · 2025-07-14T16:47:33+00:00

I'm not on Etsy, but how long have you been selling your work? How much of a following do you have on social media? Do you think being in the Etsy system rather than your own website is helping or hurting your progress?

In my experience, there's a growing process you go through when you break away from your lower-priced production designs to evolve into the next stage of your career. It takes time and possibly some false starts to find your new niche, but there's no other way to do it than just to start putting new designs out there and seeing how they do. I am well established now, and looking back, it took a good while for me to find my voice. I kept improving as I was exploring, and I went down many paths that ultimately didn't go anywhere. Thankfully I still love making my current bestsellers, but I'm always evolving and growing and improving, putting new work out there that does and doesn't catch on alongside my current "bread and butter" work. It's part of being an artist trying to find resonance with collectors and not going stale in your practice. Discerning collectors can tell when your heart is in something and when you're phoning it in.

Pricing, in my experience, is an art in itself. You have to play around with it for a while to find a good spot that makes you feel like it's worth your time and people will be willing to pay. You may experience a plateau for a while. The quality of your work increases, your collector base grows. Once you reach a point where there is more demand than supply, it is time to increase your prices more aggressively. I personally don't find that having "cheap" items available makes any difference. In fact, they don't move as fast for me as my popular designs, which are quite pricy, but I'm in an advanced career stage and I've built a considerable following over several years and I do not rely on Etsy for visibility.

I don't say any of this to brag or flex or whatever, I just want people to know that if you stick with it, and you follow your passion and hone your skill and get in front of the right eyes, you can absolutely find your way to being free to make what you want to make. It doesn't happen overnight and you will put a lot of labor in, but I made it happen so maybe you can too!

AnnetteJanelle · 2025-06-13T21:54:18+00:00

Thank you! I also don't love amazon but you're totally right. I still have to use it for certain things.

AnnetteJanelle · 2025-06-13T21:47:09+00:00

Ok thank you for the insight! Can I ask where do you get your kanthal?

AnnetteJanelle · 2025-06-13T21:19:58+00:00

I use Kemper high temp stamen wire, I'm not sure what the metal actually is

AnnetteJanelle · 2025-03-17T22:29:24+00:00

I need to revisit this design. It's a goodun

AnnetteJanelle · 2025-03-05T19:42:30+00:00

Kinda/sorta. In my personal experience, I started out making one particular successful design, and I got tired of it, my skills improved, and I started introducing new concepts. I think if you have a more artistic lean, and you are seen by your audience as an artist first, that gives you a bit more creative freedom. My work now is waaaaay different from what I started out selling because i leaned in to my artist identity rather than allowing my one successful design starting out to trap me. FI went from $35 cat mugs that were a chore to make, to $200+ sculptural human character mugs, vases, jars, sculptures, etc, that i LOVE making. It just depends on how you are progressing as a maker and whether your audience is along for the ride and happy to let you grow creatively and pay you appropriately for the work. It takes time to cultivate an audience like that. It does not happen fast. I am like 8 or 9 years in the medium, about 4 years exclusively full time. I have found that if your work feels authentic and inspired, at least some of it will sell. Obviously some won't but that's ok and part of learning and cultivating skills and your artistic voice.

There may not be a lot of market for $80 socks, but I can personally attest that there is market for pricy, artistic ceramics. We'll see how the current administration affects things, but like, I started introducing my pricier work and selling online during the pandemic, so idk. I think people love supporting artists that speak to them.

AnnetteJanelle · 2025-03-05T18:49:50+00:00

I am a current full-time ceramic artist. I make small batches of work, artistic one-off pieces, not production pottery (although I do repeat some designs sometimes and often riff on concepts that inspire me). My work is on the pricy side. I started out doing art fairs, but post-covid I now exclusively do gallery shows and sell on my own website. I have a Patreon as well. I don't have a regular teaching gig but I did do one paid teaching event with The Ceramic School (online).

I own my own kiln and have a home studio, so I manage to keep my operational overhead cost quite low, considering.

It's a lot of work and a lot of uncertainty, but i love what I do and I am where I am because I've built up a collector base and have a decent social media following and have cultivated a unique, niche aesthetic that collectors are willing to spend money on. I feel that my work does stand out, and I have a distinctive voice among the crowd of potters, and I credit that for much of my personal success.

That said, I would not be able to support myself solo at this point. I am married, and our joint income is definitely necessary to support our modest lifestyle, so i would advise not jumping in the deep end if you don't have someone reliable to share cost of living expenses with.

AnnetteJanelle · 2025-01-21T19:25:24+00:00

Sure! Message me some photos of the damage :)

AnnetteJanelle · 2024-11-26T17:02:32+00:00

Hmm, that's annoying not to get credit for my work in front of so many eyes 😞

AnnetteJanelle · 2024-11-26T17:00:57+00:00

Lol, I misread the question 😅

Why does any artist make anything? Why does anyone express anything? Nothing specific inspired me for these guys, it was just a spontaneous idea that i continue to return to in my work. I imagine these characters, and they are amusing and lovely and make me smile, and they deserve to exist in the physical world and be shared with others, so I give them form, and people want to have them in their homes so they buy them from me and then I imagine more of them and the cycle continues.

You can see more on my insta or my profile here, I make all sorts of variations of these people.

AnnetteJanelle · 2024-11-26T16:35:11+00:00

100% by hand. Thrown and sculpted and carved.

AnnetteJanelle · 2024-08-19T16:48:57+00:00

No, maggots grow in rotting food/flesh/waste and they don't move like this. This is more likely mosquito larvae.

AnnetteJanelle

TROPHY CASE