And There Was Glaze...

Last night I was able to do my first glaze firing! Sometimes finding a solid block of 4 hours can be tough but I fired the kiln last evening and was able to wake up this morning to a cooled batch of glazed beads! Considering this was my first attempt I think they turned out pretty good! I learned a lot about how the finished product completely depends on how you apply the glaze. I think I need to work on my brush technique and do some test tiles but I couldn't resist glazing some of my first batch of bisque. Thankfully the glaze adhered to the beads, there were no beads stuck together or stuck to the rods, there was no pools of glaze in the bottom of my kiln and I didn't burn my house down.
All in all I'd label this first glaze firing a success! ;-)

Here are the beads before the firing


And after



The beads!

I doubt I will end up using any of these but I have learned a lot and can't wait to fire another batch! The best part though is that my kiln firing jitters seem to have disappeared! I can't wait to do it again!

Smiles,
Lisa

PS: Happy Valentine's Day Everyone!