So I’ve wiped off the drips from the liner glazes & cleaned the rims of the mugs. Next I’ll add some wadding to the bottoms and they’ll be ready for loading into the soda kiln… my “Plan B” in case my Soda-Firing Workshop students don’t have enough work to fill the kiln tonight when we load in class later tonight. If these don’t make it in… there’s always my next soda kiln… one step ahead…

Getting ready for soda-firing, so I’m not glazing the exterior of the mugs. The soda kiln atmosphere will do most of the work by adding some shiny glaze surfaces, flashing marks & will also make the colored flashing slips pop in color! But I do glaze the interior of each mug… this time with a simple tenmoku glaze to “visually connect” with the color inside the stamps.

Wiped clean with the tenmoku glaze staying inside the stamped impressions. Next up… liner glazing…

After adding a layer of tenmoku glaze over & into the stamped textures, I gently wipe away the “top layer” to reveal the glaze inlaid in the impressions. It also really helps “pop” the dab of colored flashing slip in the middle of each stamp… details matter!

Getting ready for tonight’s SODA-FIRING WORKSHOP at Lillstreet. My students will be bringing their own bisque to glaze, wad & load tonight. I am glazing up some of my own work as “kiln filler” in case they don’t have enough work to fill the kiln. It’s always tough to estimate the amount of work going into the kiln load. Some of my workshop students have never soda-fired or even been to Lillstreet before… so it will be an interesting mix tonight, and I just want to have a back-up plan ready in case they don’t bring enough work!!!

And the quest continues… my friend & master tile-maker Mike Skiersch fired some more cone six test tiles in his kiln for me. There were a few “duds”… but for the most part VERY encouraged by some of these new colors & combinations. I’m always looking for good glazes that pool & break in all the right places to accentuate the stamped patterns… and not cover them up!!! I think we’re onto something here…

And while we’re struggling under another big blanket of snow here in Chicago… here’s a little Mugshot Monday shout-out from sunny Puerto Rico!!! That mug looks pretty happy hanging out in that exotic location!

Thanks Katherine for sharing your mug & your sunshine with us!!!

More snow means more shoveling… which also means more hot chocolate!!! Which is really just the “vehicle” to get more marshmallows into my mouth!!!

Luckily, I have more in the kitchen… as pottery classes at Lillstreet have been cancelled for tonight & tomorrow morning due to the snowstorm!!!

Feeling “blue” with all this cold weather?!
Well, here’s a nice cobalt blue mug for MUGSHOT MONDAY
to brighten your day!

So excited to get some good glaze results back! I’ve been working on making a few more Cone 6 glazes for my studio. I’m still working on “refining” the recipes a bit… but I wanted to see what they might do when fired to a higher temperature. I’ve always thought it would be great to have a collection of glazes hat work well in Cone 6 oxidation, but ALSO work equally well at the higher Cone 10 reduction temperature!

I’m pretty excited by the look of these… most of them are showing some definite promise.

On each of the test tiles, they have a single dip of glaze over all… followed by a second dip of glaze only in the upper right corner on an angle. Thus the drippy run on the right side on some of them.

Here’s what my new LIME glaze looks like in Cone 6 oxidation firing… followed by the same glaze in a Cone 10 reduction firing on different clay bodies.

Here’s what my MALACHITE GREEN glaze looks like in Cone 6 oxidation firing… followed by the same glaze in a Cone 10 reduction firing on different clay bodies.

Here’s what my CELADON GREEN glaze looks like in Cone 6 oxidation firing… followed by the same glaze in a Cone 10 reduction firing on different clay bodies.