First Kiln

Yesterday afternoon Ted opened the glaze kiln. I had quite a lot of ware in it (for me, anyway). Some came out well, and some was a bit disappointing. I had forgotten that as much as I like ash glazes, the are really not appropriate for the inside of bowls as they are pretty rough. So the small bowl that I glazed with goldy ash came out visually nice, but impractical. I used it for ice cream last night anyway!

One of the better pieces is the slab formed footed bowl/plate. The green glaze turned a nice blue because I applied "red iron"to the very textured surface, and then wiped it off to reveal the texture more. The iron combined nicely with the glaze and gave a nice "hare's fur" or Temoku finish where it was heavy.

I had some ware come out of the bisque kiln as well, and spent the time after watching the Hamada Film glazing so Ted could fill the next glaze kiln...it should fire on Tuesday night and be out Wednesday, but maybe not until the weekend.

I like the small pitchers, but think I made them too small... everything needs to be 10 to 12 percent larger to allow for clay shrinkage in the two firings - I forgot, I think, or I'm just throwing "small".