I fired the kiln last weekend. Much of the work was ruined due to being overfired. The colors and glaze held up OK, but the clay body itself experienced extreme bubbling - I think it was starting to melt. If I had continued to increase the heat, everything may have turned into blobs. This should have been a cone 5 firing, but the bottom part of the kiln got to about cone 8 and none of the work from that part of the kiln was salvagable. Luckily, it did not get as hot in the top, and most pieces survived. This was purely a negligent mistake and in the future I will be vigilant about checking the kiln at close intervals near the end of the firing.

I have been making small bowls that can be used for eating sushi or holding measured spices while cooking, or holding a teabag after it has finished steeping… there are many uses for these tiny dishes. I put a quarter in the first picture to give you an idea of the size.

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These bowls are the same diameter but are about twice as deep as the previous ones:

This plate is about six inches in diameter:

The vase is about six inches tall:

The technical stuff:

All pieces but the vase are made with Laguna ^5 B-Mix clay. The dot work was done with colored slips. I make the slip out of the same clay body and color it with 5-10% Mason stains, and apply with slip trailing bottles and brushes. Slips are applied at the greenware stage and a transparent glaze is applied at the bisque stage.

The vase is slab-built from Laguna WS-5 clay and glazed with Georgie’s glazes. The small bowls in the first picture were made from B-Mix and glazed with the same glazes as the vase.

That’s all, folks. Thanks for looking.

I just finished loading the kiln for a bisque firing. I’ll candle it overnight and will complete the firing by early afternoon tomorrow. Here’s the kiln god for this firing. I planned to make a troll, but he turned out more like a dwarf with a Roman nose. I put more time into him than I intended to! He stands about six inches tall.

Onward!