Yesterday, the glaze firing went perfectly. See the firing cone on the left, this is exactly how it is supposed to look at the end of the fire. Bent over lightly kissing the floor of the kiln. The items from this first firing came out gorgeous, a new glaze I used really surprised and delighted me on one little Sake set (will have proper pictures later), and pretty much everything else turned out just the way I wanted it to also.
Today's firing....the cone on the right completely melted to the kiln floor and even took off a layer of the actual kiln when I removed it! I have never seen anything like this, and can't imagine how I over-fired by this much. I am the "kiln sitter" for the small test kiln I use for the miniatures, and normally, I am watching/paying attention to the actual hours besides using a wind-up timer. Must have lost track of time some how...
Good firing...
Bad firing...
The bad news to me is, most of the best vases were in today's "bad" firing. The good news is...I think most of the pieces can be saved with new glaze and re-firing. Not sure though...because the clay itself turned into something else. The little trays I had with the melted glass warped, and the glaze on almost everything sort of melted off. Will be giving it a try tomorrow and hope for the best.
4 comments:
Oh wow! What gorgeousness all over on the other tray and then the forms on the other firing are just beautiful. I do hope they'll be fine! I would think some of the vases that have weird glaze now could be used on something like a halloween scene or some kind of fantasy-scene with odd colours all over if the glazing does not work. You are getting more and more amazing in sculpting!!!!
I'm liking all of it! Even your "rejects" look great to me! I love the blue/green tea pots. That tiny flamingo caught my eye too!
I think your minis are amazing!
Oh my! I remember when you posted in the team thread about this, but I hadn't made it over here to check out the pictures. Regardless, they all look awesome!
p.s. I left you a little award on my blog :)
Hey, the 'bad firing' looks as good to me as the good firing! Do you hand-throw or use molds? I have a kiln and really need a book: 1,000 Things to Do With Your Kiln. I never learned to throw on a wheel so feel ever so far behind and ignorant.
Jody
Mini Leaps and Bounds
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