Success!!

It was with some trepidation that I loaded my kiln for its first stoneware glaze firing; would I have mixed my glazes correctly so that they did not run and fuse my work to the kiln shelves?
I needn't have worried (something I do very well after a great many years of practice); when I opened the kiln this morning all my work was sitting happily on the shelves with not a dribble of glaze in sight.
It was with great excitement that I unloaded and examined each piece; all small pieces that had not taken too much time to make, in case things went wrong. Really I should have started with lots of test tiles to check out glazes and oxides, but find these pretty tedious to make; I am in the process of making lots at the moment so that I can start experimenting.
I was so pleased with my little blue-grey pots that I immediately got the drill out so that I could put on their handles, made from small pieces of hand carved yew and paua shell, and take them in to work to show to colleagues. Judging by the reception, think I will need to get busy making more to satisfy the demand.

Here are some of the other small pieces which came out of the kiln this morning.

The fig leaves were made from one of my leaves from the garden and are designed to be used as spoon rests. The green is from copper oxide in the veins and then a brush on glaze over this. In two or the heart bowls I was experimenting using an underglaze pencil to draw over the white slip, finished with a clear glaze; lines are very faint, so obviously did not get enough underglaze from the pencil.
My firing also included lots of fungi and lichen which I am busy assembling with some of the beautiful spalted beech that I have been given; watch this space....