Post #684521 by danlovestikis on Wed, Jul 3, 2013 4:38 PM

lunavideogames all it takes is 7 days a week. I really enjoy doing these wish list requests and reading all the fun comments. It's a great life with Dan by my side helping. That glaze is beautiful for bowls and mugs that have no add-ons.

littlegiles you are intuitive. That became the blob from the old horror movie. Creeping and crawling across the landscape without stopping.

I found one of my cats whiskers and just like you I tried to paint with it. I think is it the type of glaze I use. It's not recommended that you add much water so it is hard to lay down thin lines.

hang10tiki and only minor re-runs when I'm doing a big run of mugs.

GROG I thought it was hang10tikis head. You fooled me. He looks great with a shaved head.

Hale Tiki your photo was too good to leave alone. This is fun art.

hang10tiki you can't go wrong with GROG on a stake.

hang10tiki did you think it was your head that GROG used?

GROG nicely done. You want to come here and glaze with me?

Fire up the kiln and cook Hale Tiki's mugs.

It was a joy to pack up this mug and send it on to Hale Tiki.

Now for the horror of Maddy's mug. I learned a lot so maybe I can spare you some of these troubles.

The story begins with the firing of Maddy's mug.

When I opened the kiln it looked great.

I picked it up and started an examination.

I found that some areas on the octopus didn't have enough glaze.

As I had told Hale Tiki the glaze had run. It covered the tikis face and went over the tentacles.

It ran so much that there were huge drips on the bottom of the mug.

Dan got out the dremmel and went to work.

After he ground off the drips he sanded the bottom smooth.

Not too bad but the date was wrong. I think by the time I sent this photo it had dawned on Hale Tiki that the month should be 6 (June).

I painted on more glaze and back in the kiln for a second firing.

More drips for Dan. The glaze continued to move and therefore became thinner on the mug.

After firing it twice the purple glaze began to pop off from the surface of the octopus.

I put on more glaze and

back in the kiln for a third time.

More drips to grind.

More glaze pops off.

Painted on more glaze and into the kiln for a fourth time.

After the forth firing a lot of purple glaze came off. I had even used a different purple but it didn't help.

I made a decision. I would have to accept failure and to start over again. The big event was coming soon so I needed to at least make this mug usable for the event.

I started off by using enamel paint to change the dates to June.

I used some dental instruments to pry off any glaze that was loose. In doing that I managed to pry off some of the suction cups. Now the mug was really worthless. I used this putty to rebuilt them.

I painted the entire Octopus and then baked the mug to set the enamel. Now I had a temporary back up mug.

I didn't want to fail. This special occasion was coming up fast. Could I possibly make this mug again in so short a time? I was going to try. I wanted the up coming event to come off perfectly. Now it was time to get back to work. I told Hale Tiki that I would have to pick out the non-moving background glaze this time around. He wished me luck.

Cheers, Wendy

[ Edited by: danlovestikis 2013-07-03 16:44 ]