THE KILN PRODUCED GIFTS

As soon as I woke up I rushed outside to the kiln and lifted the lid to see what my new bathroom tiles looked like after being fired all night long.  STILL TOO HOT!  So I propped the lid open a crack for an hour to cool then came back.

Oh no!  The colors were all washed out!

OMG, I forgot that I had put in a cone 1 thermo device instead of a cone 05 for the masks we made at our two studio shows a couple of weeks ago (see one mask at the lower left of the following picture)!

Too much heat had burned away the reds and oranges of the 3"x6" tiles that I had so carefully painted yesterday!  Using my bright yellow fireman's elbow-length gloves, I slowly removed each shelf of very hot tiles onto the concrete floor so they could cool.  The miracle of clay began to happen before my eyes!  Just like when paint dries the color changes, so does the color glaze on clay as it cools.  Like a mood ring (you gotta be over 40 to know what that is kids).

WOW!  I kind of like the burnished orange and blood reds that appeared with the warm butterscotch and black accents.

The blues are still not as vibrant as I'd like, but the subtle copper adventurine and reds are kind of nice, and the fire cracker red (with bright yellows and oranges and greens) really pops.  The amber around the edge is very (VERY) subtle, but it's OK. Maybe.

I'll probably not retouch any of these tiles after all.  The next batch of tiles will be very vivid though.  And then I'll be able to start laying them out to see if I can make something special to fit around the existing bland beige/whitish tiles in the shower.  

Stay tuned!