Post #718088 by danlovestikis on Sat, May 24, 2014 8:55 AM

Thanks Zero Tiki. I'm going to collect that hug someday.

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After the recent visit to the ceramics store I need to do glaze tests for all the new glazes I'd bought.
I do strips of each color in 3,2 and 1 layer. Babalu taught me how to do these tests.

This time around I also tested some non-fire stains to see what would happen if I did fire them. They are those on the bottom left. They also have a strip of clear matte glaze over them.

Continuing on with the kickstarter project for Tiki Atari. I'm holding the glaze test strip for the color being used for 9 mugs.

Three layers of Teal Blue and then wipe it off the high surfaces. To make them different from the Tiki Farm version I then put a very thin layer of glaze back on these surfaces so that they wouldn't be completely white.

After I finished I went over each mug to see if painting on them would enhance any areas where the glaze had been wiped off.

After they dried I couldn't tell the difference between the wiped and the unwiped areas. So I decided to do a MadDogMike Trick.

He said when in doubt about your underglaze fire the mug before you put on the clear glaze. After it's fired you can wet the mug and see how it will look with the clear. If need be you can touch it up and then proceed with the clear.

So first I put the mugs outside to dry and then

I loaded the bottom and then

the top shelf of the kiln. I fired them with a pre-heat of 4 hours and a slow ramp of 13.5 hours.

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Two days later I opened the kiln.

Top shelf reveals the glaze test strips.

Closer view of the three different kickstarter mugs and

two of the wiped off mugs.

The test strips on the ceramic stains shows that you can't fire them once they are on the bisque ware. They just burn off. Even the clear glaze does not protect them.

Bottom shelf with one of the Sacramento Crawl mug tests.

The first mug showed that the blue glaze turned the brown on the tiki and pier to black.

The green for the water wasn't as strong a green as I wanted.

I found a small chunk of matter on the side of the mug. Maybe it came from the thermal couple. Can you spot it?

Close up.

I have a micro dremmel so

I ground out the chunk. Dan asked if I could do his dental work with this. Benzart does use dental equipment.

Much better but now I

needed to re-glaze this mug. I hope this works to enhance the green and to cover the spot.

This is the inside of the same mug. The waves were supposed to look like this but what I've learned from this project is that the carving of the waves made the glaze run off the flat surfaces and into the grooves.

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This is a Caribbean blue mug. I'm leaving this one alone.

The inside again is the same glaze I painted on the outside of the mug but it ran into the grooves.

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The last of the three different mugs.

Here is the inside and again this was also painted on the outside of the mug on the waves.

The brown spots didn't stay put like they did on the inside of the mug.

I decided to add another chunk to each brown spot to see if I could enhance them some.

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The Sacramento crawl mug test showed that three layers of glaze is too much. It ran to the bottom and glued to the stilts. Better that than to the shelf in the kiln. That's why I always fire on the stilts.

I knocked them off with a hammer and Dan will dremmel the bottom flat.

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The last thing I did was take the mugs into the house and squirt them with water. They did have a good contrast between the wiped and unwiped surfaces. So next they will be glazed with clear and fired again.

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Did I really spend 2 hours posting today? Yes. Am I crazy? No I just enjoy entertaining you all. Thank you immensely for the visit.

Cheers, Wendy