The test from Thursday night came out okay. The areas that were double dipped came out like i had hoped they would so I did another test Friday night this time dipping each pot twice. These had cooled by good by Saturday morning so I check them and they came out just right. I took those pots to Mrs. Ricks of the committee and she liked they way they looked so it was a go full steam ahead from there. After returning home I loaded the kiln with the remaining 60 pots for a bisque firing and then trimmed 10 extra pots I had thrown during the week. Then I waxed the bottom of the 40 pots that had already been bisqued and then brushed on the glaze to the logo area of each and then waxed that area so that it wouldn't be too thick after the rest of the glazing.
Sunday first started out as a nightmare. When I checked the kiln Sunday morning the firing rod hadn't dropped. I checked inside the kiln and one of the shelves had blocked it from dropping. Did that mean that the bisque firing was over fired and that all the pots in it were ruined. They looked okay but the only way to tell was to fire at least one of them and see what happened. Then I started making a 5 gallon batch of glaze for the real firing. As I was ready to add the last ingredient which was a colorant I noticed that I was about to pickup Copper Carbonate. I looked back at the recipe and noticed that it called for Cobalt Carbonate and that confused me. Which one had I used when I made up the 3 test batches? The only way I could tell was to make up a test batch using Cobalt Carbonate and then fire a pot with it and one with the previous test batch. That meant I couldn't finish with the 5 gallon batch so I made up that new test batch and glazed two more pots of each and also used two of the pots form the previous night's bisque firing that may have been over fired and then I fired them that afternoon. I did go ahead and add water to the 5 gallon batch and mixed it up good and got it to the thickness that I wanted. I will add the last ingredient tonight when I get home. Then I waxed the bottom of the remaining pots that were bisque fired Saturday night and then brushed on the glaze to the logo area of each and then waxed that area so that it wouldn't be too thick after the rest of the glazing. I finished working Sunday around 5:30. It was a long sunny cool day.
During the glaze test firing I did on Friday night I also fired this batter bowl. It came out pretty good and was pre-sold.
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