It's Spring! Time to make rattles

It's baby season again. Every few years, the cycle begins again and I get requests for wooden baby rattles.

It started when I made a rattle for a friend who had a baby, I turned a simple rattle on the lathe, and then made a small commemorative box to hold it. Over the years, the box has become more elaborate, with the baby's initials or birth date carved in it. Then someone requested a second compartment within the box, to hold the baby's first pair of shoes. It's a lovely little keepsake for a family.




So I've been in the studio, making rattles and boxes. It's somewhat repetitive, and my mind tends to drift a bit. Then something dawned on me!




In one of the earlier posts here, I showed a sample of a REAL blue glaze I've been developing. Here's a picture of it again. (Scroll down a few posts and you can read more about this glaze, it's based on a recipe in the book- Mastering Cone 6 Glazes, by John Hesselberth and Ron Roy.




Since the box that I make to hold these rattles is a simple "pencil" box with a sliding lid, it dawned on me that it might be nice to add tile to the sliding lid. Or even made the entire lid out of one large, flat tile. The tiles I make are very flat, and I've learned how to make them quite thin without warping while in the kiln.

So now it's back to the drawing board for me. I'd like to try and develop a pink version of this glaze. Any suggestions?