The video above explains everything. Cobalt human rights violations, which are happening right now and likely to increase, are unacceptable. I refuse to sit by and do nothing.
The best thing I can do to help solve these horrific problems is to talk about them publicly to our hundreds of thousands of followers, and minimize my use of cobalt blue.
I’m discontinuing this pottery, effective immediately, until further notice:
I will try to reformulate glaze chemistry to get blue without cobalt, but it’s unlikely I’ll succeed.
Blue Spiral Cosmic Mugs
There is also pottery that contains cobalt that I’m not able to discontinue today. For those pots, I’m working to reformulate my custom glaze chemistry to eliminate cobalt, but maintain beautiful blue colors. Those include any pot that has my custom “Oil Spot Black” glaze, specifically the “Cosmic” glossy black pottery, including all Cosmic Mugs and Moon Mug interiors for cosmicmugs.com.
Here is the exact glaze recipe for my Cosmic Mugs, with how much cobalt I use today.
Oil Spot Black, Cone 6-10
| Silica 325 mesh | 17.4 |
| EPK (Kaolin) | 8 |
| Calcium Carbonate, High Purity | 13.6 |
| Custer Feldspar | 47.4 |
| Bentonite | 4 |
| Red Iron Oxide | 8.1 |
| Cobalt Oxide | 2.5 |
| Total | 101 |
Some of my pottery will still require cobalt, like the Neptune Mugs, which I make about 100 of per year. But for the other 5,900 pots I make per year, my goal is to eliminate cobalt entirely. I can’t guarantee I’ll succeed, but I’ll try.
Do you know an ethical source of “Cobalt Oxide” powder available for purchase? Please reach out to us anytime if you discover any solutions to this problem: contact@cherricopottery.com