Post #790652 by danlovestikis on Wed, Oct 24, 2018 7:57 AM

Wish List #8. Some projects just require more time than they should. When I did the first one I didn't keep track of the time because I was learning how to make this mug. But now I realize these take far too much time but they are almost worth it.

So we returned from our trip. After two and a half months of PT and then a vacation I'm feeling good enough to face all the re-glazing all four of the mugs still required. Here's just one of them. I didn't actually start for a couple of weeks because I caught a bad cold at the very end of our trip.

Back into the kiln for a third firing for all four mugs.

All cool and ready to once again do my inspection. Are they done??? Can you spot my grievous error?

Yep, the one time I didn't check because there's so little in the kiln I had two mugs touching. Horrors!

I am not happy but at least I found my own face mask.

So now the dremmel is put back to work.

I grind off the glaze.

I grind it until I've exposed the clay underneath.

I glaze it with the same glaze again.

Then it's time to do it with the green coconut.

This is such a smooth surface that there may

still be a defect after it is fired.

Then I put on layers of the same glaze.

I always run my hands over each mug feeling for any glaze that has cracks. You can feel them as well as see them. I used a needle to pop off some glaze. Then I sanded this area and washed it well.

Then I re-glazed it.

After careful inspection only two of the four required a fourth re-glaze and firing. I'm not going to stick them together.

The area on the coconut where I did the repair is invisible but the defect on the coconut shows. Can't fix everything.

Next I noticed that there is a separation of glaze on the forehead. It was in a U shape so it wouldn't pop off. One end was stable.

I corrected this by using enamel as a glue and just elongated the bangs. I think this mug just got a price reduction. I will discuss it with the wisher.

Once I had all the mugs fired and the faces painted on after 24 hours I bake them in the home oven to set the enamel paint.

All done, fancy photos tomorrow. Cheers, Wendy