First Look at my First Ceramic Collection...

by Amanda Billing August 5, 2026

After this year's 100 Day Project finished, I knew that my ceramic project Household Gods was going to continue. I'd had a ball working with clay every day, forming, firing, glazing in four different kinds of clay using mostly hand-building techniques. I looked at my collection and decided I would make a new body of work based on a form I like the most.

With my 2026 daily project, Household Gods.

You can see the little piece I chose right in the middle there: a round urn with four little lugs (handles) and a black rim. I wanted to continue in a similar vein: using a strong speckled clay to make jars, urns, vases and bottles with handles or the like, and continuing to learn about glazing.

Small lug jar from my 100 Day Project 2026.

A couple of days after the 100 Day Project finished on 1st June, I bought a bag of groggy clay and set a goal to finish the bag by the end of the month. I figured I would make things with varying amounts of clay, including the biggest things I had made so far. Near the end of the month, I'd nearly achieved my goal:

Close to the end of the bag, only a handful of things yet to be made.

You can see a mixture of candlesticks, urns, bottles, vases and a jug. They're all made with a clay called Buff Raku Trachyte (BRT). The white piece, back right, has been painted lightly with a light coloured slip. I had no plan at the beginning. I just had those rules: make a vessel, with some kind of handle (decorative or otherwise), using the coil technique I'd been practising over the previous months.

The first completed piece in the June collection, with works in progress under wraps behind.

Most of the June collection after their first bisque firing, standing in the sunlight at The Clay Centre.

Clay forms need to dry out completely before they're fired for the first time, in a "bisque" firing. June in New Zealand is mid-winter, so drying things out took a while. By the time the bulk of the collection was fired, the last few pieces were still on the drying shelf.

Over the course of July, I glazed and fired small groups of pieces at a time. I purchased some brushable glazes to experiment with, incorporating the dipping glazes at The Clay Centre when I'd discovered more about how the purchased glazes worked. I wanted to combine the two different types of glazes somehow, without them running everywhere.

Early glazing experiments in the series.

The form below, my favourite and the last one to be glazed, is an example of the combination of different types of glazes, a matte green underneath and the top half painted with a matte brushable glaze. You can see the small rivulets as the glazes have interacted. I'm very cautious when combining glazes and avoid painting them on too thick - I want to find out how to use them effectively. I think it's best to begin with a "softly, softly" approach. Thickness (and risk) will come later.

My favourite piece of the series - a keeper!

Here's the bulk of the June collection in bisque form, clustered together in the light box at The Clay Centre:

And again in the lightbox, glazed this time:

Hugely gratifying. Nothing broke. Nothing ruined a shelf in the kiln. A few pieces I would have done differently, in hindsight, But together, they're a wonderful family.

I've bought another bag of BRT and have started a new collection, aiming to make bigger pieces (clay work shrinks!) and enter an exhibition at my ceramics school. I love treating glaze like paint. But I'm also happy to leave many works made in this sort of clay unglazed, to complement the "shiny things" and to allow the character of the clay to just "be what it is". It suits the ancestral feel many of my pieces have.

I have found a new fascination. I'm very, very happy.

xAB