501 and counting....

From comments below, and this became postworthy, my old pal Gordo writes: I was thinking about the chemistry of pottery the other day, Gary. Well, wondering about it, actually. Fire/heat brings about some cool changes in things, that's for sure. I envy you your strange dreams. I almost never remember my dreams when I wake up. To the point where I don't even remember having dreams at all.

Yeah, Gordo, there was a whole week's worth of dreams last night too. Not helped by the two am cat fight on my feet (the kitten won, as she usually does). Just odd bits and pieces. Typically, my dreams include:
1) people I have thought about recently, or not recently
2) school, esp. college, sometimes anxiety over finishing up my final year's projects
3) WAITING. I guess I don't like to wait.

We had extensive study of glaze chemistry in my ceramics program. It is one of those things that I am very grateful for. My program emphasized 'here is the info, now get to work'. There was no hand holding, just guidance and the expectation that you would work hard. I am very independent in work habits, and Bennington College is part of the reason. As for glaze chemistry, my first attempts at mixing my own glazes, and experiments, started in 95. I had some suggested recipes, and through experiments developed my own glazes. It was quite cool, that first batch of 5 test tiles all with the same base but different additions: the samples with cobalt and zircopax each looked perfect, therefore all my glazes get zircopax!!!! (oops, secret's out...) Then in 2000 gerstley borate, the backbone of those glazes, became scarce, and through trial and error over 4 months I developed a whole different series of glazes, better than before. Through research, I learned that one thing makes a good alternative backbone for a glaze, and certain additions develop glossiness, other additions cause a speckly appearance. The last glaze recipe I developed was a celadon last spring, based on BOTH recipe series, from 1995 and 2000, and in January I have an idea for a simple recipe to develop, for a wild and speckly blue. You never know how these things will turn out, though, as my first attempt at red turned up the awesome and useful piggy pink glaze.