This past weekend’s firing…

Sometimes, no, always - potters always have an idea in their mind’s eye of how a piece will look when it comes out of the kiln when they have used that glaze before and know it well. The lighter glaze is a forgiving semi-matte glaze that turned out as I had envisioned.

This beautiful dark clay is a new clay body for me - M390 by Plainsman. I started looking into whether there was a recommended firing schedule for it - for semi-matte glazes. Something I’ve never done in the almost 30 years of being a potter. The dark glaze I’ve used before - it’s my own recipe - but I’ve never used it on this clay body. And the last time I used it, a number of years ago, on a white stoneware, I’d have to say that my regular firing schedule was doing the trick. It should have been a straight forward load and fire the kiln.

So why would I look for a new schedule? Yes, why would I? I can’t answer that. A change? Some excitement? Just trying to mix it up a bit? I don’t know. But this controlled cooling schedule to achieve the best semi-matte created a glossier than glossy finish in two of my bowls. Why? Because. Because the kiln gods were reminding me of their existence. The kiln gods knew I had a good firing schedule and that I was chasing a better firing schedule. And we all know that the enemy of good is better, said the kiln gods.