I spent most of the week mixing and brushing glazes. Will be ready to start glaze firing in another day or two.
Getting low on the right mesh sizes of polymer additive for Black Hole. Had to grind the coarser meshes down to get enough for a new batch of the glaze. Burned out the blender jug in the process. Got twenty two 500 gram batches of ground polymer from it in total. Factoring in the cost of its replacement, there is $2.50 in depreciation for each 500 gram batch of ground polymer additive.
Need to make more of the additive right away. Wish it were spring already because it is so much easier to sun dry. That takes two or three days. Indoors takes a week to ten days.
We are in a freeze-thaw-freeze weather cycle at present. I do not know if these are good drying conditions. Going to make a double batch and dry one half inside and the other half outside. Then I will know what differences if any these weather conditions make.
Whichever approach turns out to be the faster, the dried material will need to be ground in the blender. Then the ground material needs to be sorted by sieve into various particle sizes.
Three of the seventeen particle sizes I sieve for are used in this version of Black Hole. I expect the effect could be scaled down with a finer particle mix. Larger particles would leave larger burn holes.
There is enough Black Hole mixed to finish this round of work. The new batch of additive has to be ready for the next. Not sure if there is any of the oxide on hand so possibly a trip to the supplier first.
Glazing and firing through to next week. Should have some finished plant pot sets by then.
