Opening the bisque kiln! Did everything survive?

Amy's fish is fabulous, but I am also excited about Sarah's horse mug and the lovely sgraffito plates. In the top right is a platter I made with stencils and underglaze. New classes happening with this technique soon!

I know I share with almost everyone my secret to avoiding explosions in the kiln. You have to know about water turning into steam. Candle it! These are almost all student pieces from the classes at my house, and even thought they are works in progress, they look great.

I was blamed once for a kiln disaster at school that I did not cause, so I am actually very careful about firing the kiln, and knock on wood, I haven't had many pieces explode or not make it. The bisque kiln work usually does not have any color because pieces are just getting fired to get them hard enough for glazing. But the underglazes that we applied to the leather hard clay made this kiln load extra colorful and interesting. The sgraffito plates have a layer of underglaze, but they won't be food safe until I add a zinc free clear glaze and put them back in the kiln for a glaze fire. They will be brighter and shinier then. The other pieces will really show off their texture when we add glaze--we will be trying to pick something that "breaks" well. Once you have taken a class and you want to practice your techniques and skills, sign up for a Fun Friday and come and play in the clay with me. I am adding content soon to the Members Only section, so if you like PowerPoints as much as I do, join us. It's free and a good place to share info. Yes, everything in this kiln load survived!