A Little Light Chemistry

Mixing slips follows a fairly simple recipe, and involves expensive, brightly colored chemicals. Cobalt blue is a striking shade of fuchsia.

And that will turn to a nice shade of blue. Chemistry - if I knew more about it, maybe I'd have a better explanation of what goes on that makes chemicals turn certain colors than "science does it."

After some brief internet research, it looks like I can only find an explanation on how colors work (thanks, ceramics monthly) and some chemistry equations which are a little bit beyond me, and seem to only vaguely relate. But I learned that the word "cobalt" comes from the German word "Kobold" which means "goblin" or "evil spirit." The term was used by miners who found cobalt to be difficult to mine and harmful to their health.*

Loading of the glaze kiln continues. 

I managed to squeeze another mug on this level

We have a couple masks from a special needs class to be fired that are large and flat, so I put two up on stilts and slid the others underneath to save some room.