JUST ONE DEGREE

What you are looking at is a sizable glaze run at the very bottom of one of my Oribe style covered jars. What is immediately apparent is that perhaps just one degree of temperature or minute more of firing and this pot would have stuck to the shelf and most probably pulled off part of the foot ring when it was retrieved from the kiln. As much serendipity as it was anything else, the fact that this glaze stopped just a micron short of calamity is in a small measure due to gaining some familiarity with glazing these pots as well as shutting down the kiln a few degrees shy of the cone melting, all gained from repeated firings and lots and lots of tests. I will admit it is very easy to claim some modicum of experience for avoiding the pot becoming ruined but if luck certainly didn't play a huge part in this affair, why do I still fire most of my Oribe style pots on wads or thin slabs of soft brick?