This softly dappled medium grey with dark points was the “kiln-mate” to the light grey Boreas in the previous blog posting. I just love how this particular color makes his face look so soft and friendly. He was a commission, and is going home to North Carolina tomorrow.

I did find a buyer for the flawed light grey Boreas; thanks to everyone who inquired. I’m glad to say I could have sold about 6 of them! I should be getting more of the chinas in from England in the coming months, so be sure to get on the waiting list for a custom glazed Boreas (or Optime) if you haven’t already. It is hard to tell when I will actually receive each china, therefore I’m just putting names on a (non-binding) list, and when the china you want arrives, if you are next on the list I then contact you about it and quote a price for your color.

I ended up with a pretty large list after I announced the opening of the glazing books a few weeks ago, so don’t wait too long to get on it. I’ll reach my limit for this year soon!

I’m really really happy to see that there is still demand for these pieces. Glazing ceramics has been my creative salvation this year—it will have to keep me going until my sculpting muse comes off her extended vacation and visits me again. (She had better be doing something FUN…!)

Also: I received my ceramic molds for casting the new Keeshond dog tile in porcelain (and other kinds of ceramic) and they look great! I’m just waiting for my order of various slips to arrive, and then I’ll start pouring. I’ll post a photo of the first glazed tile when I get a chance. I received two test tiles made from the molds, which I glazed just in time for them to be taken to the Keeshond National Specialty dog show in San Francisco a few weeks back. I had to hit the ground running the week I got back from the Italy/Croatia cruise in order to make that deadline! May has been a busy month, and I have to say it feels great to be humming along so nicely and have the kiln cooking all the time. Maybe it’s just that spring has finally sprung here!

Coming in a few days: The Kiln is a Harsh Mistress, Part II: Mystery Solved!

I got back from our simply wonderful vacation last week, needing to get up to speed on the glazing work I have taken on this spring.

I learned yet again, that the kiln does not suffer fools gladly at all.

I had my first-ever kiln accident on Thursday, with a china piece owned not by me but by a customer, unfortunately. It was the Tumlinson “Majestuoso” I mentioned in this blog post in March.

It was in the kiln for the first firing and I forgot to prop it up on stilts off the kiln floor. If you don’t do that with these pieces on big china bases, they are almost guaranteed to break a leg. Which is exactly what it did. The front down leg broke clean at the pastern. (The back leg is still attached to the base.) Apparently these bases cool down at a different rate than the thin legs, and if you don’t get air circulating under the base in the kiln the base expands or something and the leg breaks.

I did know about this base issue, and have glazed other pieces on bases with no problems. I simply forgot this time when I loaded him in the kiln. (Normally the non-base horses go right on the kiln floor with no props, and I was firing other pieces at the same time and forgot to stilt it).

Anyway, AAARGH! Fortunately and incredibly since this is a sold-out edition, I was able to find another Majestuoso in bisque, and will start again. I had put a lot of painting hours into it even though it was the first firing, since this is a really detailed color pattern, sigh. This was the first year I had relaxed a personal rule I had about not custom glazing any chinas for other people on a piece that was rare or not easily replaceable. Because of this very thing where a mistake was made or something went wrong in the kiln beyond my control. And the thing I feared has happened! I am very lucky even though I’m paying for the mistake with my wallet.

Interestingly, since the piece still had one leg attached, and it was a loss anyway, I tried a kiln-repair technique where you push clear gloss glaze into the break, and then paint more glaze all around it, and then re-fire it to the original gloss glaze temperature. And it seems to have worked. The glaze reflows all around the break and re-seals it. I’ve been handling it just as I would a non-broken piece and so far it hasn’t re-broken. It’ll never be as strong as the original, and I can never sell it as mint, but I think I will finish painting this one too and see if I can find a buyer.

Too bad, that when you do the re-glazing the colored glazes fire off all weirdly. He’s now sort of blue-grey instead of bay-black!
Here is how it looked after it broke and before I re-glaze fired it:

and here’s how it looks now! I think I can coax it into a blue/grey roan appaloosa…!

I also broke a tile this week due to my absent-minded stupidity. I think my head must still be somewhere in Italy. Probably in some dreamy little out of the way canal/street in Venice, ooooh aaaah what a wonderful place that was!