April showers and a small revelation

The weather is matching my mood today..sunny then cloudy, then sunny again in quick succession. The bisque firing I did yesterday was very successful with no cracks or explosions. But then, as I was putting the fired pieces on the shelf, I pulled my hand back, and the back of my glove (pots were still very hot) caught the knob on top of a  lidded jar and off it went, falling to it's death on the concrete floor below. *Sad face*.

Next, I pulled out this little coffee cup, and was amazed to find that the white slip had stayed completely intact. I'd already fired this once before with a layer of black slip applied at leatherhard, and I thought I'd try doing some hakeme brushwork over the top. The slip was applied fairly thickly onto the bisqued clay, and normally I'd expect at least some of it to peel off. There is a bit of cracking in the crevices of the handle, but that will actually look great under a clear glaze. Not sure if I could then apply glaze over the top of the slip without re-bisquing, that will need another experiment. It would be useful if I could, as one of the problems with hakeme at the leatherhard stage is contamination of the white slip with iron oxide etc. from the dark layer below. Ofcourse, the mingling of the slip layers may also add something to the decorative effect, so it will be interesting to see what the differences are after glaze firing.

The white slip is 50/50 hvar ball clay and china clay. It might work really well..if the glaze is applied over the still-damp slip layer, it may result in a thinner application of clear glaze, which is something I want to achieve. We shall see!

Apart from stabbing myself in the finger with a needle tool, the day is now back on track. Time for some throwing followed by lots of decorating and glazing.