Purple Beans Turn Green

While I was selling at the Blairsville farmer's market this past Saturday Gary bought some fresh produce for us to take home. He got some purple beans, garlic and tomatoes.

As I cooked the beans they started turning green. Fun to watch them turn. I sauteed several cloves of garlic and chopped two large fresh tomatoes and cooked them till the purple beans were soft and all green.

I cooked some red potatoes separately and then added them into the pot near the end. The fresh tomatoes cooked up nice and dark, I suspect the pigment in the beans changed the tomato color.

See how dark the beans are before cooking, a beautiful dusky purple.

At the market I put up signs in my booth, saying 'please touch the pottery' and 'please pick up the pottery'. Many people looked at the blue bowl and touched it; I placed it at the front of the booth near the crowds. The woman who bought this bowl said she loved the shape and the especially the glaze depth and color of the bowl and she plans to put it on display in her home.

Lots of folks touched this bowl too. I think they thought the texture was rough when it was actually smooth. I need to use this technique again to see what I come up with. The woman who bought this bowl said she was the tie-dye queen and she just had to have this bowl. She was wearing a tie-dyed dress. I love that. Thanks for reading and for all your comments.

Multicolored Experimental Results

Here is the multicolored bowl after firing. It fired much darker in the colors than I expected. As I mentioned before although the interior looks textured, it is actually very smooth.

I also used a rutile glaze on the reverse and wish I had just left it white or used a black glaze. This was one of the last pieces I glazed and sometimes at the end  when I'm tired I don't always make the right decision about which glaze to use. I find choosing the glaze is sometimes the most difficult decision for me.

Here's what the bowl looked like before firing so you can see the change in colors.

After I made the bowl above I had leftover colored clay and didn't want to waste it. I decided to make a purse shaped form. These purse shaped forms are good for flowers arrangements or potted plants. Maybe you don't see it as a purse but a cloth bag. It has that look to it, what do you say? The form got away from me and I pretty much obliterated (muddied) the lined colors but decided to fire it anyway. I didn't even glaze the exterior but left it natural. The form is about twelve by four inches.

But look at the interior. This is that same overlapping glaze combo I used on other pieces in this firing. Look how much gold I got. Too bad it's hidden in such an ugly duckling. Of course if I bring this to a sale, it will be the first piece someone wants to purchase. I learned a lot with this firing so each piece no matter if I like it or not is worthwhile in the scheme of things. Stay tuned I hope to have some bells to show you next week. Thanks for reading and for all your comments.