It has been a hectic week with glazing and firing. I am having another working weekend. Definitely a bit of madness has crept in. Last night I worked until ten, but today, I have finished by eight. I am happy!
Bisque firing of masks went well, luckily. They came out in the morning on the 20th.
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| Bisque fired masks |
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| More bisque fired masks. |
Then they all went to glaze-firing on the 23rd. Glaze-firing takes about 12 hours. The kiln becomes cool enough to open after 30 hours.
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| Lower shelf - ready to glaze firing |
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| Middle shelf |
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| Top shelf |
Yesterday morning I opened the kiln. Disappointing! It was under-fired. One of underglazes blisters at high temperature, I tend to set it a bit lower when using this underglaze, but it was too low. Glazes didn't flux well, and oxides look dead. And a few masks had too strong colours. That's a shame, because I can't remove them. In ceramics, we can only add colours. Most will have to go back for another firing
But time was too tight to lament. I prepared the another glaze firing yesterday, and started the kiln in early morning today. These have been waiting for their turns for a long time. As they are tall ones, I can't have another shelf, so I had to wait until enough tall sculptures are ready.
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| 'Oh, it has been such a long wait! My head fell!' :D |
Now the kiln is cooling down. I can open it tomorrow morning, and I will unload it and load it up again. I will start another glaze firing back to back. I just hope there won't be any more surprises.
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| He changed from a girl to a boy today! |
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