Honestly, that gallery owner has a point. I started mixing weird stains into my slip, like a little copper carbonate with cobalt for a deep teal that's not just blue. Even just altering one classic shape, like making a lopsided bowl instead of a perfect sphere, gets way more attention. It's all about giving people something they haven't seen a hundred times before.
Totally get that. I messed around with adding some manganese dioxide to a basic white slip last month and got this wild, speckled charcoal effect. It's crazy how one little change can make a whole piece feel fresh.