Yes, glazing and now firing

Later on Wednesday, I decided that I could use the plates that had cracks in the rims or the pop-outs for testing some overlaps of the glazes. I washed them off and waxed the bottoms so they are ready to dip into the glazes Thursday. I should get a lot of good information from these tests—hopefully!

Thursday was a busy day. I did glaze all those test bowls and cracked plates and hope to learn a lot about my glazes. I don’t think I have found ‘my’ palette yet. I also have several pieces that I am going to ‘refire’—mostly Touchstone Red pieces that have crawled spots—also the large salad bowl that is lined with Licorice which has tiny pinholes all over the inside.

I am not a very good observer. I carefully stirred the big tubs of glazes and then dipped my pieces into the tub. Only then did I realize the glaze looked very thick. Then I stuck my thumb into the glaze and could see that it was in deed too thick. Wish I’d get into the habit of checking first! I have several pieces that are crackling and will probably crawl because it was too thick. Touchstone Red is a real challenge—it really cracks and lifts off the other glazes that I put on top—just as it did to the Faux Ash on the mug I am so fond of. I am refiring that to see if it can be saved. Grace’s B Base Green is a maze of cracks as it dries. I don’t remember that it did that before—but then, I’m not a very good observer.

I loaded the kiln Friday morning. I may have made a mistake: I decided to sprinkle some Mt. St. Helen’s ash on the plates to see what would happen, since these are tests I might as well do all the tests I can think of. However, the glaze was already dry and now I am wondering if the loose ash will fly around in the turbulence of the kiln. Well, we’ll see! Maybe everything will show the signs of ‘fly ash’!