Post 4 Fall 2024

Hey guys we are back with some crystalline tests!!!! This past week I made the discovery that our kilns weren't going to be able to fire to cone 10, so I had to do a major switch to cone 6. Luckily after running a few tests, I have concluded that I will still be able to use the Poor Mans Porcelain which takes one less variable out of my multitude of things to refigure. I fired one of my cone 10 crystalline recipes early on in the week to which I discovered an error on the kiln the next day for rate of rise, which means the elements couldn't hold the temperature for the firing program I had set.

I then got to researching and emailing people with knowledge of Cone 6 glazes and found a few recipes to try. All but one of the cone 6 glazes I made for my first test came out underfired or too thin in my first test firing.

The glaze that came out is called "Green Marble" and I am astonished at how beautiful the crystal formations are. I immediately put the glaze onto one of the test corsets I had made to see how it would function on a semi-flat curved surface and I was so excited to see the results.

I am running another test on my last test corset to see how the glaze reacts to being applied thicker and if that would provide more background on the piece, I will open that kiln tomorrow! I have my work cut out for me but now that I have found a base glaze that functions well in our kilns I can explore other colorants and try to find 4 or 5 crystalline variations that can be fired at the same time to speed up my process of firing and making. I am so excited to have you all along on this journey with me, keep checking back for more updates as I might begin to post smaller blogs through out the week with updates on my firings!

See y'all soon!