Mosaic Update

As I am sure everyone is wondering, I will give a full update on how the mosaic progresses. In addition to needing many, many more polyps, I need the little "arms" that reach out from the polyps. Here is one:

Here are lots more, all piled up and waiting for the kiln to fill so I can do what is called a "bisque fire." (That is a light cooking that turns the clay into a porous cookie, or biscuit-like substance that will accept the glaze.) Don't worry, they can be piled in heaps at this point because after the bisque fire, they will be nice and dry, and won't bake into a solid mass. I've got lots more polyp disks and polyp arms on the two shelved below this one.

However, the problem arises after the bisque fire, after they little arms are dipped into the glaze: during the glaze firing, which is much hotter, the glaze will become vitrous and will melt onto anything it touches--so it is vitally important that the arms not touch one another, or even the shelf. I lost some sleep over this until I came up with this idea: a big clay cookie with lots of holes stabbed into it. I'll hold the arms by the very end, dip them into glaze, and then pop them (standing upright) into this holder (which will also go through the bisque fire and be dry as an old cookie). Then, they can fire and, if the glaze is just right, they will pop loose when cool OR, if the glaze runs, they will stick to the cookie which is no loss (except for the one arm) and the kiln shelf will be clean and undamaged.

Now that I have written out the process, it sounds really tedious.