Nailed it

Eagerly opened the tiny test kiln this morning to find the results of my 3 new, clear glaze tests; and am happy to report and they all look great - smooth, not a single pin hole; and the best part is that all are absolutely clear. They were all all applied over the same white slip, that had been bisqued to C04 and all have the same two Lug under glazes.

The first tile has no ghastly borate, the second has 5%, and the third has 11.5%. Other than the ghastly borate, the base formulas of all three glazes have the same ingredients, but different amounts... Since they all worked great over the test under glazes, I'll use the first, no ghastly borate version to do further tests, with some stains and test it over some colored slips. I am soooo happy with these results. These were fired manually, to C04; but most probably, reached 03 because of the setting of the cone sitter. The cone was much more melted than a true C04. I want to re-fire these with an 03 bar cone in the sitter to see how they'll work at cone 03 and even higher.

Other than the usual, daily, household chores and seedling tending, I'll have the bulk of the day for the studio. I need to throw more test tiles to further test this clear and mix up some other slip colors to test with it. I also want to test some of the Velvet colors over a yellow version of this glaze. All my Velvet testing has been under the glazes to this point.

It was a beautiful day yesterday and I took advantage of it, and planted some carrots, escarole, cilantro and sorrel seeds and transplanted some garlic and did a bit more cleanup. That takes care of all the colder weather seed planting for a while. The only thing I need to do with these now, is check them daily to make sure the soil isn't drying out.

The buds on the trees are getting fuller every day and the perennials are awakening. It's an exciting time for gardeners and everyone else who's looking forward to spring.