This Kiln Load is Complete - So What's Next?

Main Photo:
Hand Crafted Turquoise Porcelain Bowl with Eggs
Sio2 Lagoon Turquoise Porcelain

This kiln load of porcelain clay pottery included one (1) bisque firing and two (2) glaze firings. It was a glorious journey of trials, errors and some successful pieces.
I always say,
"I learned so much this time, and there are a few things I won't do again!"
But . . . it never fails - I usually make my mistakes another go round, because in the excitement of it all - I FORGET valuable information!

Two glaze lines I've wanted to try, and finally did.
Mayco's Glosses (SW-500 series), and
Amaco's Satin Mattes (SM Series).
The Mayco Glosses proved very challenging for me.
For the way I apply glaze, I did not get the gloss needed at the amount of coats comfortable for my glazing technique. 
After three attempts, I passed on the Mayco gloss series.

The Amaco Satin Mattes - you could knock me over with a feather.
I may have gasped at the UNEXPECTED, surprisingly LOVELY results.
Truly shocked I was!
Never in a million years did I expect to LOVE the look and texture of the Amaco Satin Mattes. 
Now, mind you, I messed up on MY color choices for the piece I chose to glaze, and that miserable CRACK showed up out of NOWHERE after glaze firing - BUT that is not the glazes fault - it is operator error! That would be ME! 
The Amaco Satin Matte glazes have a REAL SATIN MATTE look.  
They almost look surreal - if that's possible. Even where the glaze is a little splotchy, it still looks good. For me, three (3) coats works fine. I always water down my first glaze coat, as I paint in between lines of tape or lines of rubber latex, and the first coat, at least has to be on the thin side. The next two coats can be applied a bit heavier.
The colors are clean and crisp after Cone 6 firing - but the thing that really got me was that look of satin matte. I've never seen that before when glazing an entire piece of flowers in different colors.
It might be a tad difficult to differentiate the subtle color variants when glazing the flower petals, as the colors dry a little lighter than what they high fire to.

(Underglaze colors are easier to differentiate in their pre-fired state, but are usually covered with a clear glaze on top to add gloss/satin and also for food safety reasons. These Satin Mattes do not require a clear glaze on top. They are food safe without clear.)

It's important to stay focused on the flower at hand rather than skip all over the place, then come back to discover you forgot what shade this petal was. Another words, it's best for me, to work on one (1) flower at a time - three coats each flower, then move to the next.
I only glazed one (cracked) pot with Amaco Satin Matte glazes -
I HAVE got to try again with pots that don't have invisible cracks in them.
Pots without cracks are preferable for this experiment, AND every other piece of pottery as well!

Dennis had quite a successful kiln firing. 
He only lost one plate to some minor crazing.
To Dennis this is - well . . . let's just say Dennis likes to have entire kiln loads of successful, non crazed pottery pieces. 
I don't really want to mention how many pieces of mine were not acceptable in this kiln firing. As a clue, I'll tell you only 2 of my pieces were uploaded to Shopify, and 2 more were considered successful. 
Only FOUR successes!! What can I say?

So, what's next for Dennis and me on the pottery side of life?
We have a little homework assignment.
Create an entire kiln load of functional pottery glazed with Amaco Celadon glazes.
Amaco Celadons are glossy, transparent glazes that come in a variety of colors that are 100% intermixable.
Mixing clear is a Celadon that is used to lighten the color without loosing transparency.
Snow is a Celadon that can be mixed with a Celadon color, lighten it, as well as opacifying it. (make the transparent color more opaque)
Mixing Clear can also be used as a clear glaze, and Snow can also be used as a glaze on its own, or layered with other glazes.
This assignment includes various techniques to be applied to PURE WHITE porcelain, as Celadons are transparent, a colored porcelain would spell color troubles.
Celadons look their absolute brightest and most colorful on white clay bodies - porcelain should do just fine.
Dear Potter, (that's me)
Leave the cracks off the pots - please!

I've added a new section to the home page.
If you scroll to the very end - right above the email sign-up block.
I've added a Teresa's Microblog Section.
This section is to keep you informed as to what we are currently working on, with just a  paragraph or two of type.
Sometimes I'll photograph our flower vases with actual, real live flowers in them.
Since I have deleted my social media accounts, this section allows me to "socialize".