My new dragon tool bucket made it out of the glaze kiln, and whoa! I was blown away. I had tried a new combination of glazes based on some photos posted in a Facebook glaze group, but that vase was smooth. My tool bucket is heavily textured with dragons and I wondered if that would affect the final outcome.

I do believe it did, as mine was a bit more golden/coppery than the vase had turned out. But it’s still drop-dead gorgeous! I did make some tweaks to the original recipe, including adding Ancient Copper to the rim and label. I also applied Georgie’s interactive Indigo pigment as the first coat and wiped it back. It makes such a difference with textured surfaces.

I also used Georgie’s Copper Patina on the inside and as you can see, it’s a beautiful matte compliment to the exterior glazes. For the outside, I applied two coats of Mayco’s Birch glaze, followed by two coats Mayco’s Desert Dusk glaze, letting each coat dry before applying the next. I added the Ancient Copper last, after wiping some glaze drips off the rim and label to avoid pinholes as this glaze is known to form pinholes if layered over other glazes.

I now can replace the plastic bucket I use for my pottery tools this this beauty, and I know I’m going to smile every time I pull out a tool for another project. I brings to mind a funny story from my marketing career. One of the agencies we were using for a few projects had a single page website with their logo and contact details, and a headline that simply said “We are Served Last” and some text that they were too busy helping their clients to do anything more with their own website. I thought that was a hoot because it’s true — many people are so busy helping everyone else that they seldom take the time to do something for themselves (especially working moms). As I said in my first post about this project, I’ve never made anything just for my own, personal use. I was tired of the tippy recycled plastic bucket I was using to hold all my tools, and I was on the cusp of buying a heavy stoneware kitchen spoon holder on eBay when I remembered that I could make something myself, and it would perfectly suit my tastes. By taking the time to do something good for myself, I have a useful and beautiful tool bucket just for me, and I’m so glad I did!

I probably need to do that more often. Enjoy the photo gallery!