Week 7 Spring 2024

Crystals like crazy! 4 firings this week to cone 10 with some round form test tiles. I got a lot of good information this week from my firings. Between colorants and firing schedules I am figuring out what works and what I like. I plan to switch around some of my base glazes and see how different colorants work in them. Norkins white seems to have great crystal production with the first firing schedule I tried that has a few different ramps in crystal growing temperature. The second firing schedule I tried has only one hold for 4 hours in crystal growing temperature and has only been beneficial for one of the crystalline glazes I've made, while it didnt grow large crystals it did create a beautiful dynamic crystalline blue.

It is amazing to me how different the crystals produced in the firings can be, John Tilton as a reference, you never know what the crystals will do in the kiln even after multiple tests. For example of the three tests below two of them were fired with the same firing schedule but had dramatically different results to each other. Two of the test tiles look very similar even though they were fired with different firing schedules. I am intrigued by the inconclusivity of results when looking over crystalline glazes.

This next week I will be focused on exploring colors and depth in my glazes and tests tests tests!