It’s been a hectic two weeks since the last post. It took most of the first week to get the glaze prep done. Then I was knocked off my feet for a few days with a nasty cold. Days later, when the worst had passed, I was able to spend time glazing and firing.
On one of those days, I grabbed the wrong container of wax to use as a resist for the panelled coffee mugs. It had added alumina. Ten of the sixteen mugs came out of the kiln with a dry crust over the black as a result. The offending surface has since been ground off with a Dremel, reglazed and fired again. Results will be out tomorrow.
Decals from the Staffordshire Cat series were applied to the six panelled mugs that made it through, as well as to a set of small white cups. The shaded background can make the decals hard to read. The red of the iron toner makes it particularly difficult to see the images over the green. Considering transparent backgrounds for the remainder, assuming the results of the firing are good.
The landscape mugs are finished. They have a ‘wintry’ sort of feel. Will be pushing the idea much further once I get back to the wheel. The chocolate brown spots that the cobalt free black makes as a polymer came as a surprise. I had expected something darker.
While I may have removed the blue from the steel cut mix of polymers by using cobalt free black, I inadvertently added it back in with the new grey. Caught the error in time to keep blue out of the landscape mugs but not the cat mugs.
Rushing to finish everything possible by the weekend. The 40th Anniversary celebration at Stoneware Gallery is Saturday April 21. Wine and cheese from 4 P.M. to 7 P.M. Free gifts for the first 200 people from 4 PM. If you are lucky, you might be one of twenty people to receive a white cat cup like the ones shown here. Hope to see you there!
