IS(N'T) THAT CLEAR?

I will admit, I have been a bit busy and thus remiss in regards to getting some overdue testing done. To that end, I was doing a line blend test a short while back and at the extreme of the tests was an attractive, ever so slightly (!) milky clear glaze that I have decided to act upon. Though this was an unexpected outcome, I have wanted to work out a less shiny clear that had some softness to its appearance and with any luck I can get there through this formula with a few tweaks along the way. I sat down and threw a few small teabowls and once tooled, I covered them in black and white slip to see how these extremes look under  the new glaze though I am going to run more test pods through the upcoming glaze fire before committing to making up 2000gr of the formula and the potential for just ruining the small bowls. It strikes me how differently I work today as opposed to the all in, devil may care attitude I had regarding the process when I started. I guess that every kiln load of liver ware (supposed to have been copper red), twister ware and other smashing failures reinforce the prudence, patience and multi-phase testing process are the best course of action to save time, energy, money and yes, even a few extra moments of sleep!

As you can probably tell from the before and after photo, the test came out a bit more milky (and blue) than expected. I think making up a small batch of this glaze has paid off and I suspect I know exactly how to get it to where I want it in the next glaze test. Simply put I will try two additional variations, one in which the glaze is just used in a thinner consistency and the other in which I alter the gerstley borate quantity. With any luck, I should get pretty close to what I am after in the next round of testing.

"Cats have it all, admiration, an endless sleep and company only when they want it."  Rod McKuen