Babs

The smoke effect I'm seeing in your pictures is kind of what I would expect from a kiln that got hot but didn't get over 1000F. The organic materials i the clay were burning up but not burning out completely just yet. I'm not 100% convinced that there wasn't something else burning in the kiln, though. Did you use a different kiln shelf than the first firing, that maybe had something in/on it that was burning out? Where is the kiln located? Was it sitting open between firings, and perhaps some sawdust or something got into it?
Inspect all the wiring in the kiln control box, and if everything looks good, try it again. Check the power cord during the firing to make sure it's not getting hot.

It’s also helpful to remember that whether you’re using stains or oxides, you’re only adding around 10% or less by dry weight to a given recipe. So if you’re only mixing up a 1 kg (dry materials) batch of slip, you’re adding 100g or less of the given oxide. With powerful colourants like cobalt oxide, 10g or .1% in that one kilo is enough to get a very solid colour. The 10% number would be for some of the lighter coloured stains. Many of the darker blues, greens, black, etc I’d start at 3-5% and see if that gives you the intensity you want. 

Also , you dont have to invent the wheel. Folk ha1ve been using coloured slip fir a long tIme. I suggest you tap in to other folks testings , select a range you like , remembering the colour of your clay body may have an effect and also your top temperature. Get a palette established for your pottery and then you may have to purchase just a few...to begin with.
All the best

Also , you dont have to invent the wheel. Folk ha1ve been using coloured slip fir a long tIme. I suggest you tap in to other folks testings , select a range you like , remembering the colour of your clay body may have an effect and also your top temperature. Get a palette established for your pottery and then you may have to purchase just a few...to begin with.
All the best

Also , you dont have to invent the wheel. Folk ha1ve been using coloured slip fir a long tIme. I suggest you tap in to other folks testings , select a range you like , remembering the colour of your clay body may have an effect and also your top temperature. Get a palette established for your pottery and then you may have to purchase just a few...to begin with.
All the best

Im with Bill. Ive seen this alot over the years with high boron copper reds in a supposed reduction atmosphere. Ive often wondered if the green is produced right after the firing while the glaze is still quite fluid but susceptible to an introduction of oxygen.

So you brushed a second layer on inside of bowls? Possible you used another glaze there? Quite crazy, eh? Or a slip over the glaze?

The clay will shrink as it dries, which can be  problem if the balloon doesn't slowly leak/shrink.
I found that a non-intrusive way to let a little air out of a balloon was:
- put a strip of sellotape on an accessible part of the balloon
- rub to get a good sellotape/rubber seal
- prick through the sellotape & balloon with a needle
- let some air out
- reseal the balloon with another strip of sellotape over the first
Try it on a spare balloon first.

To get a "blue" shino: 
Take your own plain shino glaze recipe.  
Add a "pinch" of cobalt to that glaze; make a test to see if you like the "blue";
If not enough blue, add another "pinch" of cobalt; if to much blue, use "half a pinch" (this is just like finding how much sugar you need in you coffee). 
warning: too much cobalt will produce black blue (or a blue black). 
the images are for cone 10 reduction on a studio clay body. 
one is plain shino, the other is shino with cobalt (aka blue):
 
LT

Yea, I would try a firing to only 100c first and figure out what's what. Something like 100c top temp, pot F1 set to 5, t.F1 set to 30 min and t.F3 set to 10 min and see what happens.

Had 80hrs worth of finished damp greenware on a ware cart rolled by a door. I left that evening and when i came back in the morning everything froze because I didnt close the door properly. Big bummer.

My worst screw up was generating an emotional wound. I know how to load a kiln properly. The mistake I made was in part due to cognitive deficts (memory/acting on flawed recall) , but also  due to arrogence (know-it-all ism/being over confident). My sister made some pieces in a community class. She was very pleased with her stuff and her pieces were really lovely. She actually hauled the glazed greenware up to NH from VA on her vacation.  One piece was a beautiful tray. My half shelves where I put the tray were not aligned at the same level--one was about an inch higher. I placed the tray with one end of it extending over the gap. My sister asked me if it would be OK that way. I assured her it was fine. She asked several times--I wish she had said she just plain didn't want me to do it. Each time I said it would be fine. I fired it like that and of course it warped and was useless. I have no idea what I was thinking or why I didn't reload the kiln to avoid the situation. I absolutely know/knew better.  The worst of it is we have never bounced back or healed from that, because the loss, the disappointment, was just one more in previous and subsequent other problems afflicting our relationship-still unresolved. Apology if TMI.  And just FYI, I'm OK-I've perfected the art of self-forgiveness when such is essential for my own well-being. 

Didn't calibrate a kiln with a new set of TC's. Kiln overfired by about 3 cones. Entire load had to be tossed and shelves ground. 
 
 

I decided to try and be more mindful of gas usage in the soda kiln I was loading mid January, and not turn the burners on while I was stacking it. Everything was outdoors, so the posts and shelves were all icy to the touch, even though it was a little above freezing. The wadding I was adding to the posts froze in place, so it felt solid enough. However when the kiln was halfway to cone 10, the stack fell over because it thawed and the previously even wadding shifted.

Two stand out
35 cubic foot car kiln load fell over with greenware rolling it in.-lost most of it. in the 90s
35 cubic foot car kiln fell over during a cone 10 moment wioth 7.0 earthquake -lost most of it in the 80s
small errors -10 cubic foot electric way overfired bisque load threw the whole load in trash bin-not so bad really,5 years ago

Last week @Kelly in AKleft a post in the QotW pool:
 “What’s the worst ceramic screw up I’ve ever made?”
It’s a tricky one for me to answer. There are so many! If I had to gauge by number of pots ruined in a single go, well, I seem to do that as a matter of course with my own work. Those aren’t screw ups if they help me get the next round right. Okay, yeah, some are just plain screw ups, still an opportunity to learn from my mistakes. In my studio there’s no one to blame if something doesn’t come out right. 
So then I go to other people’s pots I’ve ruined. I’ve blown up a few, enough to know I didn’t want to do that anymore. I’ve disconnected a (poorly attached) handle or two when loading the kiln. Some of those incidents are shared responsibilities, so I can’t take full credit for all the disastrous things I’ve been a part of.
Probably the worst is when I was learning to fire with a digital controller. I was a fresh-from-art-school tech at a community studio. They had better kilns than any I used in college. I was absolutely positive I put the numbers in right. Some how this bisque firing went awfully high. (?!) I had some earthenware pots in there, those came out great. Better than planned, clay was vitreous, the glaze was crystal clear, and fit like a glove. Completely unexpected. Everyone else’s pots, however, had become vitreous too! Cone 6 stoneware, I have no idea how hot that kiln got. I dealt with some unhappy campers that week. We learned how to glaze vitreous pots.
I suspect I fired it to cone 4 rather than 04, though at the time I was convinced it was an error with the controller. Never happened again though. Now that I think about it, it’s a wonder my earthenware didn’t melt all over everyone’s stuff. Could have been much worse! 
QotW: What’s the worst ceramic screw up I’ve ever made?
My worst is a balance between two. . . One was quite dangerous as I was firing a salt load first ever firing reduction with gas. Catenary arch kiln with bricked up doorway. We, my firing partner and I, had bricked up the doorway without enough key overlaps between inner and outer brick layers. In the upper end of the firing, the kiln pressure bowed out the brick door nearly two feet. This was around 3 am, and we were the only ones at the studio. Found two T braces of metal nearby and braced in the doorway. Saved the firing, but then as inexperienced as we were we did not close the damper when we reached temp to throw in the salt. Therefore the firing was quite dry, but still glazed. Second was when loading a glaze kiln, in the HS, I did not double check the pots enough the 3rd year of teaching. Seems a student glazed a greenware piece thinking to meet the deadlines. I did not catch it, and the explosion of glazed greenware went everywhere. 3 shelves down to the floor, glazed shard sticking to brick, shelves and floor. Yeah, weeks of repair.
best,
Pres

No replies.
So I would.
Set the temp you want in top dial, I would  put in, bisque temp first, say , 1000 degrees Celcius, cone 06, or higher, 1040°C, cone 04.
Put a few cone sets throughout tge kiln 07, 06, 05 if going for C06,1000°C
TF3 WOULD BE A SOAK AFTER TEMP  REACHED SO DEPENDS ON YOUR GLAZE, PACKING OF KILN  AS THIS EVENS OUT TEMP THROUGHOUT YOUR KILN, IT INCREASES HEATWORK. So 5mins to 10 mins
As the first ramp tF1, is most risky for pots, I would schedule that for 6 hrs for a bisque firing, and set time for whole firing for 9hrs, 10 mins., 
Have a go, can't lose, take notes .
Temp reached each hour,
check peep hole for colour inside your kiln. And state of cone packs when kiln opened.
 

No replies.
So I would.
Set the temp you want in top dial, I would  put in, bisque temp first, say , 1000 degrees Celcius, cone 06, or higher, 1040°C, cone 04.
Put a few cone sets throughout tge kiln 07, 06, 05 if going for C06,1000°C
TF3 WOULD BE A SOAK AFTER TEMP  REACHED SO DEPENDS ON YOUR GLAZE, PACKING OF KILN  AS THIS EVENS OUT TEMP THROUGHOUT YOUR KILN, IT INCREASES HEATWORK. So 5mins to 10 mins
As the first ramp tF1, is most risky for pots, I would schedule that for 6 hrs for a bisque firing, and set time for whole firing for 9hrs, 10 mins., 
Have a go, can't lose, take notes .
Temp reached each hour,
check peep hole for colour inside your kiln. And state of cone packs when kiln opened.
 

I too have used shelf props but topped them with bits of broken shelf size of base of pot 

Hi Maria and welcome to the forum!
Is this the Turner's White recipe you used? If it is did you include the zirconium opacifier both in the past and with this current batch?

Article on Turner's white with some examples
It Slices, It Dices! Some Simple Glaze Tests Reveal a Ceramic Glaze That Can Do it All (well, almost)
https://ceramicartsnetwork.org/daily/article/It-Slices-It-Dices-Some-Simple-Glaze-Tests-Reveal-a-Ceramic-Glaze-That-Can-Do-it-All-well-almost
.. I notice it says under Colour Development
The second part of our project was to use Turner's White as a base, but just exclude the Zircopax (an opacifier).

My thoughts after reading that you can get the product on the Big river website.
Great to read that there is so much love and caring in our Community. 
 

@CharliesMomma, since you now know what was used another option would be to purchase another kit and make some test pieces with it.(just use something from around your house to make some little pieces with creases, maybe wrap them with saran wrap to get the creases) Wrap them up and leave them in tissue and see if they develop the same discolouration. If they do then finish drying them in the same way as your original pieces. Test those pieces with a quality plaster mildew/mold remover and leave them alone for as long as possible ( a year at least) then check for deterioration of those pieces. I would also contact a plaster restoration company if there is one near you and ask them about this, have them test the sample pieces.

I've refired old and dirty bisques many times before.  Clients send me pieces from all over the world that are decades old and been handled with oily hands, etc.  I refire these clean as a matter of standard procedure before I attempt any glazing so that I know the bisque is super clean before I proceed.  I agree, wash off what you can but if the clay may be porous at all, do NOT SOAK in water.  Water can dissolve salts and calcium out of your clay so merely wash up with a scrubby and a little soap, then rinse.  Set aside to dry.  I use a heater fan to help such pieces dry faster.
If you don't want to wait days to be sure the bisque is dry enough to fire, I go ahead and load it up into the kiln and fire on a low temp pre-soak for a couple of hours  before going ahead with the new bisque firing.   Cooks off any moisture left but do it slowly.  Obviously that is not an issue if the ware is fully vitrified  but I advise it for porous earthenware.
If after firing you are left with any dirty grey ghost marks you may sand the bisque to remove it if the glaze or underglaze you plan to apply isn't opaque enough to conceal it.  Alternatively you can also add a layer of opaque white underglaze and fire that before you proceed with color.

I agree with you on the jabs and removed them as this place is not for that -sorry as I degressed .I thank you for that reminder as well. Its all about clay nothing else .
Now on point Laguna has a 3 year supply at current consumption rates of Gretsly Borate. The mine is played out and this supply is all that will be ever.
In terms of The EPK shortage-yes it real and Laguna says it a weather supply mine/ chain issue. Its also happening to red clay and other materials this year due to  wacky weather issues they said. Storms and rain he said are so bad its really affected many products they use (we use in clay). One can assume as weather is a changing in many spots  on the planet this will only get worse.
The best policy is to stock up when you can.