Cobalt is famous for being reliable, which is exactly why mine wasn’t. Every recipe I tried came out either denim-flat or so glassy it looked bought.
Test tile forty-one
The breakthrough was boring, as breakthroughs usually are: a slower cool and three percent less of everything I’d been adding to show off. The blue that came out of that firing has depth without shine — a pool, not a mirror. It breaks to almost-black where the throwing lines catch it.
It’s on the mugs, the dinner sets, and the one vase I can’t bring myself to sell. When people say they’d know my pots anywhere, this blue is what they mean.