With a nudge from a friend, I decided to forget my plans and start glazing. All it took to make that happen was relocating some seldom used dry materials. That made enough space to absorb about a third of the moulds, clearing some needed table space.
I mixed and sieved thousand gram batches of all the colours of the base glaze as needed. A thousand grams of the black was just the right amount to do three coats on the interior of all the open forms I had to glaze. There was about a brush full to spare when I finished the last one. I love it when that happens.
I’m running low on the rare earths, especially the neodymium. When I looked into ordering more, I realized the thousand gram batch of brushing glaze I just mixed used $45 worth. Erbium and Praseodymium are priced similarly. Still, their properties are unique and would be tough to give up. Time to place an order.
I finally ground the Black Hole polymer I prepared months ago. I ended up with enough sieved material of the right meshes to make three or four batches of glaze (I add by the level teaspoon, not by weight). The remainder of the material will be sieved into six finer meshes than used in Black Hole. In the next round of glaze tests, I want to look at the relationship between mesh size and surface effect.
I am using six colour variations of Black Hole for these first of the new modules. Four where the first and second coats of glaze are different and two where they are the same. Black Hole is the third coat for all.
Had to make some more firing cookies. They should be dry enough to use in a couple more days. Then I will start firing.
