Curiosity glazed the cat...

You've heard the saying "curiosity killed the cat" right?  Well, in this case, curiosity glazed him instead.  (more on that in a few)

As we prepare for the Fall Hilton Homeplace Sale on October 14th, the ever-growing pile of bisque pieces haunts me to start the glazing process.  That's always been my least favorite part...you make something and love it until the color doesn't come out like you've planned.  (Maybe that's the reason there IS a pile of bisque!)

 
Well, as you may have heard we also have a pile of kittens who are growing up quickly and have decided they belong in the pottery shop.  There are 4 "teenage" kittens now, but three of them are primary pot shop residents...meet (from left to right) Sheldon...so named because he thinks he is smarter than everyone else and heaven help you if you end up in "his spot".  In the middle is Pep-purr, so named because her purr sounds like a Harley-Davidson it is so loud.  On the right is Jenner...who got his/her name because for the first 6 months or so we thought he was a boy, but turns out he's really a girl.  They have a sister (not pictured) we call two face because her face is half black and half calico and her whiskers are long enough to braid. 

Okay back to the cat glazing story...for those of you who have seen our pieces dad typically glazes in a color he calls oatmeal and then trims in other colors.  Because it is his primary dipping glaze it lives in a 20-gallon drum...sort of kitty cat swimming pool sized if you are trying to picture it.  Well, Sheldon, being the curious cat he is decided to hop up on the glazing table to see what I was doing and didn't realize the pool was open for the summer and took a deep dive into the Oatmeal glaze...dunked tip to tail he quickly realized this was a bad idea.  The Hilton Homeplace has been home to 5 Generations of Hiltons, and countless babies and dishes have all been washed in the farmhouse sink, but I'm pretty sure Sheldon was the first cat bathed there.  

  

  He hasn't given up on being a shop cat, but I think he may stay in the turning end a little more and is much more careful before he decides to go for a thick, oatmeal colored swim.  

I still hate balloons...

  Finally back playing in the mud a little.  I managed to make a few new coffee cups with fun little messages inside and came up with a new idea how to get the words to stand out a little better.  I'll underglaze them before I bisque and that way I can sand off any excess when they are leather hard making the color more distinct.  (keep your fingers crossed this is still just a theoretical fix) So after a good day of turning I had quite a few "word mugs" ready for the test.

The good news is, this idea appears to have worked out quite well...Once bisqued the words came out much darker and more detailed than the mugs I've tried in the past.  Hopefully, this theoretical fix will actually work.  

Next step is to figure out how to glaze the insides clear so the words are still visible and manage to glaze the outside in other colors.  I started with the clear interiors...so far so good.  (but the hard part is next) 

So I saw this really cool idea online. (stop laughing, I know you all do that too) In this guy's post he was using a balloon to keep from getting the glaze on the insides of his mugs, a problem I am intimately familiar with when trying to glaze the inside and outside 2 different colors.  

  The joke here is that I really hate balloons...REALLY hate balloons.  When I was a District Manager my store teams used to call and ask where I was going to be on event day because if it was their store then they knew there were NO BALLOONS!

  I had to give it a try...and guess what, it's really awkward, and a little scary, but it works!  Stay tuned to see if these mugs survive their battle with the kiln (the kiln is always the enemy!)

  I don't know that I am quite ready to give up my dipping tongs, but I may have a little less hatred for the balloons after this endeavor...until next time, stay muddy my friends!