November 21, 2005
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Oh YAY!
I glazed my mouse and the tall figure today. I've almost finished the double figure too, so I can hollow it next week, and it'll be bisque fired and ready for glazing on week 9, and then I'll leave early. Perfect timing!
The sandpaper isn't doing much for my mouse's tail, so my little mouse will just have to have a tail without a tip... At least it has a tail, unlike some of the clay mice that I've made years and years ago which invariably lost their tails after a while...
You know there's something wrong with your chemistry class when... you learn more chemistry from your sculpture class than from your chemistry class.Just kidding, my chemistry classes are nowhere near that bad. Look at this mouse. I want it to be a blue-grey colour, so here it is, with the blue glaze. Looks too pink to be blue, doesn't it? Apparently, the cobalt carbonate (which makes it blue) needs some iron oxide (that's what makes it look pink now) to balance out so it's not so bright blue, and it'll be the blue-grey colour I want after firing.
As for this white one, I think it has titanium oxide or something like that in it? I know there's silica (silicon dioxide) and feldspar in all the glazes. The feldspar is supposed to lower the melting point. See? There's so much chemistry in this. I guess this will be plenty of motivation for me to work hard in chemistry. May be this will even give me a good start in one of the topics coming up? As if I'd be that lucky! Even if it doesn't, who cares? This is fun! I can always do with the extra motivation. This also makes me notice more about chemistry from a different perspective, and this will probably help me better than any kind of tutoring. Well, at least it'll help me understand things better.This class is great. I'm not worried about anything now. Not even about probably having to quit this class next term.
