A "Learning Experience", Anyway.

I did LEARN from this firing!

I learned that my glazes need to be applied thicker; that I need to use my own "Ramp-Hold" program so the kiln doesn't fire quite as hot; and I learned NOT to turn off the fan but let the kiln cool using the vent (a thing I thought was bad and allowed the kiln to cool too fast, but I allowed too much heat-soak time instead).

Whew! That's a lot to learn from one firing. Maybe that's not all I needed to learn from this first go, but I'm so new at firing, that I'm not really sure of what sort of questions I need to be asking myself. There are no constants yet! Everything is a variable: the time, temperature, glazes... all of it!

Nothing was "ruined" as you can see... some of the glazes were muddy (over-fired I think) and some (well MOST, actually) were applied too thin so the texture of the clay body affected the finish. but there were some successes as well.

The new "Bailey's Red" - an Ohata-type rust - came out beautifully when thickly applied. Very pleased with that one! It has a nice black "break" over the throwing marks, so I'll be using that one!

"Britt's Mint Julep" was a dud as far as I'm concerned: a very pale Matt Green that crazes where it is thick. Not my idea of a good glaze, but it may do better the second firing when it doesn't go so hot.

I really liked my "Nutmeg Variation"as well. I was discouraged from testing it because it can fire a boring beige in reduction, apparently. I added a bit of ash to see if it could be more interesting and got a warm brown with lots of specks in it. I was pleased... that one seems to be a keeper, too.

An interesting thing happened to the "Eggshell" glaze. The color turned out more amber than I remembered it being a the Clay Place Studio. It was supposed to fire a nice glossy speckled oatmealy color with reddish breaks over texture. I don't have anything with that particular glaze on it to compare. The clear glossy amber is a nice effect, but I'm left wondering if I incorrectly mixed the glaze, or the heat caused the color change. I'll use this glaze in the next fire to see if it was a temperature anomaly that caused the lovely color.