So my new vibrant color at cone 10 started with this whimsical mug, and now I’ve created a whole new realm of surface possibilities with what I found. My newest idea is to mix different metallic oxides into my magnesium satin matte glaze to create different colors to contrast with the color windows– I mixed 2% copper carbonate into the base white glaze yesterday and fired a kiln today… so hopefully tomorrow I can see my results 🙂 I might try to take a snapshot of the open kiln before I unload it… but here are a few more photos from this shoot:

Heliconia Cereal Bowl with magnesium satin matte glaze fired to cone 11 in oxidation with 0.3% chrome oxide. This is one of my favorite pieces of the new batch so far– the color combo is vibrant, the glaze is smooth, non-crazing, and reflects light in a soft and inviting way. The back side got a little uneven reduction so it went a little bluish.

The other mug that helped start it all. This black glaze prefers to be fired to about cone 8… so it’s tricky to not over fire it with my magnesium matte pots in the same kiln. Firing in oxidation tends towards the top half of the kiln to be cooler, so I’ve evolved to placing black glazed pots up top. And I use black glaze on taller pieces for that reason. I’m so excited to see my kiln load tomorrow! The firing went surprisingly smooth. It put itself into body reduction, so I had to pull it out (to fire in oxidation) but after that it was smooth sailing and I finished it in 7 hours. That big kiln usually takes 11-15 hours. I hope I didn’t go too fast…