Today was far more successful than yesterday. That probably had a lot to do with having a car and not having to brave public transportation, which meant I got to get started earlier. This morning I started by emptying the bisque firing kiln to take out a bunch of section pots from the ceramics class. After that I pulled a few handles for a pitcher and mugs, finished trimming my larger bowls, attached lugs to my tea pot, and threw a few more lids and spouts. I also threw a few more bowls and mugs before deciding to test my luck with making glazes again. After spending hours looking for ingredients and finding nothing I needed, I talked to Dale and he told me about the alternative names for a lot of the materials. It turns out flint is the same thing as silica and china clay is also called cornish stone or EPK. The one ingredient I needed for a lot of the glazes I wanted to make was barium carbonate which turns out is so toxic that it would be a risk to my health to use it. I settled on making "A mottled dark turquoise glaze". Heres the recipe if you ever need to know how to make a glaze:

A mottled dark turquoise glaze

Standard borax frit (same as frit 3134)     75

Ball Clay     15

Zirconium silicate     10

Copper cabonate     6

Cobalt oxide     3

A smooth, shiny, opaque glaze with a mottled, dark turquoise colour. 

Here is a picture of the books description of how to mix a glaze. Since I was doing a test and therefore making a very small amount (I used the percentages above as the gram amount) instead of using the strainer I used a milkshake machine. I'm worried that my ash glaze may be a bit too watery but ill find out tomorrow when the tests come out of the kiln.

I carefully measured everything and then mixed it with water. I was very careful to avoid breathing or touching the ingredients, until I stuck the glaze in an old milkshake maker and sprayed it all over myself. Hopefully nothing was too toxic. I'll let you know if my skin starts peeling off or something. I glazed two bowls, one with the turquoise glaze and one with the ash glaze I made yesterday and put them in the kiln so that they will be out tomorrow. I'm really excited to see how they come out and will post pictures. Tomorrow i'm hoping to make an antique green glaze and some kind of iron glaze (which will turn out brown). I may also try a dry rust glaze but I need to get some red clay first. I left school around 2:30 and headed to the Museum of Contemporary Craft in the pearl. Unfortunately I think they are kind of between exhibits so there wasn't much to look at. There was a display of thrown shapes with a small hope in them. They were shaped like smooth rocks and glazed so that they looked exactly like rocks. I already had the idea to make thrown shapes like swallow nests that can be a wall display, and the rocks were fairly similar to what I want to make. Tomorrow my plan is to visit OCAC in the morning, make a list of questions to ask the artist who I am meeting with, mix more glazes, and hopefully throw my swallow nests.