for me, one of the biggest draws of this material
is how it feels to touch
the soft surface & the hard shape
the way it takes the warmth from your hand.

and I often think glaze takes some of that away.

Artists often talk about the integrity of material
and that matters to me too,
though 'integrity' can have various interpretations
(and I won't get started on that rant today!).
It can be about not altering the material (a purist view)
but for me integrity is about not covering it up,
not glazing surfaces that don't need to be glazed,
leaving the surface open to touch.

Therefore, I'm staining my clay body before I cast it
(this means it is coloured porcelain,
not porcelain covered in coloured glaze)
& for some reason it's misbehaving in the firing tests.

I've been toying with this for about two weeks now
and its frustrating, also beautiful.
I'm surprised & pleased at how patient I'm being...
maybe tomorrow my tests will work out:

but for now can you see the tiny bumps in the photo below?