I made 120 more tiles for the kitchen yesterday. Sadly, the colors were too bleached out or too lime green, so I had to redo most of them today. They are nestled in the warm kiln right now - like I'm supposed to be nestled in my warm bed right now! (LOL)
Time to load the kiln:
Many shelves filled with the glazed tiles. Ready for firing about 5 hours at 1860 degrees.
The colors change dramatically after the extreme heat of the kiln. A reddish color unfired might actually be emerald green after firing!
These tiles required two or three different aplications of glaze to get these textures/
So about 75 of yesterday's 120 tiles had to be reglazed and are in the kiln right now. I had forgotten that you cannot put red glazes in the kiln with copper-containing glazes because it has a chemical reaction that obliterates the reds. So back to the drawing board. Hopefully this kiln-full will be the last!
Jan 6:
Down to business. Most of the last batch of tiles looked great, so tonight I'm starting to lay out a couple of hundred 2x2" tiles on the new black countertops. They will become sparkling new back splashes for the remodeled kitchen. DRAMA!
Jan 7:
Real busy tweaking the tiles, making sure the colors and textures are just right on each wall.
Jan 8:
Dug out my notched trowel from the tool shed. I wanted to at least get a couple of rows of tiles on tonight. I'm going to have to cut several tiles around the sockets and light switches, so getting some rows done tonight will be great. Unfortunately it's already after 10 PM and I want to get some sleep. Work, work, work! Here we go . . . Two hours later, here's the progress:
Using thin-set mortar, I started with the bottom rows of the smallest wall. I used 1/8" spacers between the tiles to (hopefully) keep the rows and columns straight.
I'll have to cut the tiles closest to the sockets . . . tomorrow!
Here's the wall closest to the refrigerator.
Here are the first two walls almost done. I like it! Just a little TILE BLING in an otherwise sparse kitchen.
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