Yesterday, as I was starting up the kiln, I took some time to clean up my studio and turn out some more reclaim clay. Right now it’s just kinda a pile of goo. But soon enough, after a little drying & wedging, I will soon have a bunch of “free” clay!!!

The kiln is loaded. My glazing is done. The kiln has been started.
Sadly, not everything fit in…

As I was cleaning my studio this morning, I “created” a couple stacks of bisque that didn’t quite make it into the glaze kiln. Looks like I’ve got a good head-start on my next kiln, huh?!

I’ve already waxed the bottoms… and therefore stacked them with newspaper in between just in case. I don’t want to risk any transfer of the wax resist while they wait for my next firing!

Did my own pseudo-triathlon today.
Rode my bike 35 miles.
Then ran another 5 miles.
Followed by an evening marathon of glazing in the studio!!!

Okay, so I’m not sure that last one counts…
as I also finished off 1/2 a bag of Oreo’s!!!

As much as I hate glazing, you’ve got to start somewhere. So I’m getting ready to pull out the buckets, stir ’em up and start the dipping! Let the glazing begin…

So there’s been a lot of “stray” bisque piling up in my studio. Lots of leftover pieces that didn’t fit into my last firing. So I’ve decided to share a cone 10 glaze kiln this coming week. Now I’ve got a lot of glazing to do… and most people know how much I hate glazing!!!

Last night, after my IRS audit and incredibly yummy “lunch”…
I wedged up a bunch of small balls of clay. Each of them 3/4 of a pound.
And then started throwing them all. On the wheel that is… not against the wall…

They all kind of look like cupcakes at this point?! But I’m hoping that after some stamping, detailing & trimming, these might become even cooler. Maybe even cool enough to become salt & pepper shakers?!

Okay, so I’ve mixed up a few. Dipped a few.
And now the results are starting to come back from the kiln. These were the first four tests… which were designed to be cone 6 glazes, but I thought I would try them in a cone 10 kiln as well. You never know when it might work in both, right!? You can always dream…

So here’s the deal… I’m looking fro some glazes that cover well, accentuate my stamping and maybe even do some really cool breaking or color variation along the way?! So I’ve decided to try a few new glazes. And if I need to start a little cone 6 firing for an added pop of color in my inventory, then so be it.

Like I said, these are cone 6 glazes fired in a cone 10 reduction kiln. I’m pretty pleased by the results. Encouraged by these results. And hopefully that the cone 6 tests will look even better – after being fired in the kiln they were intended for! I’m hoping to get the cone 6 samples back later this week!

In the meantime, if anyone out there has some good cone 6 glaze recipes that you would be willing to share, send ’em my way! Again, I’m looking for good colors that break well on stamped textures.

Well, I’ve run out of bisqued test tiles. Yeah, the ones I made back in January, but who’s counting? Since I went through that first batch so “quickly”, I figured I needed to make another batch so I can get them bisqued and move forward!

So I started by throwing two bottomless cylinders, one in stoneware and another in soda clay. I added a bit of texture & stamping to help simulate how the glaze test might react on one of my “real” pots if I ever get that far.

Once the cylinders were leatherhard, it was time to cut them up to create some standing test tiles. I threw them with some intentional “glaze traps” at the bottoms. That way if the glaze test runs a lot it will get caught on the tile, and not run onto the kiln shelf.

As I smoothed out the edges, I also added some numbers to the fronts of them. I figure it’ll be part of my coding system, to keep track of which test tile matches up with which batch of glaze after it’s been fired.

So now they’re all lined up and drying overnight…

So I’ve mixed up a few more batches. Hoping for something new.
And dipped a few more test tiles. Now I can’t wait to get them fired.
Hoping for some good results! Some new colors to play with!

I’ve been putting it off for too long.
But I’m finally doing some new glaze tests… fingers crossed… I hate triple beam balances!

And more to come… hopefully. I think I might be on a roll.