they're back...

I picked up my glaze load yesterday on the way home from work.  I think it is safe to say that at this stage of my education in the making of pottery, every firing is going to be a lesson in accepting small victories, and hopefully learning what not to do next time.  ;) 

These pieces of pottery are OK, but overall I am just not very happy with the results of this glaze firing.  On every piece (almost without exception) the glaze appear thin, with long streaks of glaze dripping down in some spots.  And in other places, there are blotchy areas with almost no shine on the surface at all.  And I also had some bubbling or blistering on a couple of them.  Ugh.  The good news is, I am pretty sure I know why they turned out the way they did.  I made the mistake of thinning the glaze down this time, thinking that it was too thick last time.  Hmmmmm... It's just a guess, but everything seems to point in that direction.   Also, between the two glaze loads I've sent to L&R this year, both have had blistering; with the common factor between them being Amaco underglaze.  I used the Amaco on a few of the pieces from this load, and those were the ones that blistered.  On everything else I used Spectrum underglaze.  At any rate, these are not a total loss, but they do need to be better.  A lot better... especially if I'm going to start putting them out there for the world to see (and hopefully buy).  I will take another critical look at them, but I doubt any of these pots will make it to my Etsy site.  We'll see.  Nevertheless, every step of the way I feel like I am learning. 
Out of the dozen or so pieces from this load, these four jugs have kinda risen to the top of the heap.  Even with their flaws, I can find positive aspects in them, most certainly.  I like them, and I don't want to sound too down about all of this... I still think it's really cool.  I just need to keep moving forward with them... and try to make them better next time.