Next in my series of color chart posts are the Duncan Courtyard glazes. These rank among my favorite, for the matte finish and the lightly speckled look to them. They go very well on both smooth pieces, where the glaze does all the work, and on carved pieces where the color fills in and gets darker in the carved spots.
While Duncan offers about a dozen different colors in this line, I have tried most of them and have chosen the following to be in my regular lineup:
These glazes play very well with each other (I've gotten amazing results layering different colors over each other) and also with other glazes in different lines. I especially like gloss glazes over the top two-thirds of a piece, and one of these matte glazes on the bottom third. The gloss can interact at the intersection of the two glazes in ways that are different and beautiful each time they're done.
These glazes are all food-safe, so fine on dishes, mugs, and anything else that might hold food or beverages.
These glazes fire to a Cone 06, and are compatible with most other glazes that fire to the same temperature.
I fire to this cone approximately every two out of three weeks, and coupled with time spent pouring or hand-building your custom order, firing to bisque, glazing and glaze firing times, there is about a 5-6 week turnaround time on custom orders with these colors (barring any extenuating circumstances).
Please feel free to drop me a line or comment here if you have any questions about these colors!
