Debating...

Speckled tan fired at ^04, low fire

I mentioned my grand experiment in the last post. I found some old clay, made a kiln load of things, bisque fired it without bothering to look up proper temp. I low fired, ^04.

It turned out a nice pinkish color, that I very much like. It was impossible to tell from the color of the raw clay what color I'd end up with. It looked like a speckled clay and was a darker brownish color. I rather expected a dark tan.

I finally looked at the box - it doesn't say what cone range, but I did get the name, 'speckled tan'. I figured it was probably a mid-fire as the company doesn't make much in the low-fire range. Turns out I was right. It's a mid-fire clay.

I'm now debating on whether to underglaze as I'd also mentioned in the last blog post and re-fire OR go with it as is and glaze with low fire glazes. I'd be completely sealing it with glaze so the question of not hitting the correct water-tight range wouldn't be much of an issue. The pieces in question aren't going to be anything other than decorative so it shouldn't make much difference.

KPS Speckled Tan - How it is supposed to look
when fired to Cone 6

I may opt to split the load and keep some pieces for low firing, re-fire the others at cone 6. I've never double bisque fired at two different ranges before. I have double-bisqued when I needed to repair a piece (with mixed results). I have multi-glaze fired a zillion times. However, I'm wondering if it will change the color, cause the pieces to crack, or result in pieces that won't hold glaze?

I think if I re-fire at correct cone I'll be able to see the speckles. They're not visible at low fire temp.

I have a baby kiln so I guess I could pull out a couple of smaller pieces and experiment. There are a couple of small pieces that I wouldn't cry over if they were ruined. Shoot, I may just split it into a number of loads and fire them all different temps.

I'll keep you posted. I know everyone is just hanging on ever word I'm writing, the wonderment will keep you up at night. Uh huh.