Min

I know you said the pots were dried for several weeks and they were candled but when looking at the images this looks like a blowout from an air pocket that contained moisture within. This isn't the same as an air bubble.
My hunch is that when you were centering and opening up the mass of clay there was some clay pushed down that overlapped the existing clay and formed a pocket. If the clay contains a fair amount of ball clay or other fine particle material and was also heavily ribbed over this would exacerbate the problem of allowing the moisture to escape. Think about a fully enclosed form, yes we can fire them without them exploding or having blowouts but it takes far longer for them to reach a bone dry state right the way through the clay wall than the same form with an opening in it. No clue what the weather and humidity is like in Northwest Arkansas, perhaps it's a contributing factor, don't know.
 

I rely heavily on a deer tail brush as part of my glazing process. They last a long time, but I taught myself how to make them just to make sure I would always have one. I made a video for anyone who wants to learn how, it’s free on youtube.
 

If you have a look at the Safety Data Sheet (SDS) you can get a rough idea of some of what is in the glaze. For Laguna's Tangerine Ice a snippet from the SDS shows this:

Doesn't include colourants and I think they have omitted whatever material is supplying boron but you can see from the first line there is a lithium material, this could well be spodumene. There is also silica plus calcium carbonate plus kaolin plus bentonite. From looking at the glaze plus looking at the components above I would hazard a guess this is going to be a microcrystalline glaze caused by a high level of calcium (ie a calcium matte or semi-matte) and that is what is causing the dappled look. I'm going to hazard another guess and think there is also titanium oxide in it also, perhaps from titanium dioxide or rutile. Is this glaze glossy if fast cooled and more opaque and dappled/mottled when slow cooled?

No i do not but they did stop importing it  back then ,but I heard they got it going again since the Custar deal went south-all rumors at this point. IKts cheaper than the EU stuff for them. I know someone who knows more that I will see in about 2-3 weeks I'll ask then.

If any of the glazes needs a slow cool to get the desired look of the glaze then no, I would not use a faster schedule. If all the glazes are fine and look the same with the kiln just doing a free fall then yes it would be okay. You might find refiring them causes the glazes to be a bit overfired if going to cone 6 as they have already had some heatwork. If in doubt I would include one pot in the next firing and see what happens.
Bigger issue would be why the bottom shelf is underfiring.  Is this a kiln with a single thermocouple in the middle of the kiln? If so then going forward pack less mass in the bottom of the kiln, ie taller pots on the bottom, more density (short pots and more shelves) in the middle of the kiln. If it's a 3 zone kiln then I'ld be looking at doing a tc offset for the bottom thermocouple.

Laguna supplies many of the smaller clay suppliers with their spars. It's my understanding Laguna might not continue carrying the Mahavir spar in favour of carrying G200EU, this needs to be confirmed though. Thread on Custer situation here. https://community.ceramicartsdaily.org/topic/29747-custer-feldspar-again-new-chemistry-2021-data/

Hi and welcome to the forum.
Bones won’t survive the heat of the kiln. (think cremation)
edit: I was rethinking what I wrote and looked up using bones for stilts. Came across the following article, turns out you can you bones. Link is behind a paywall but you can access 3 free articles a month.
https://ceramicartsnetwork.org/daily/article/Wadding-for-Wood-Firing

Hi Gabriella, there is a section here on the forum where you could post the kiln you have for sale. Link here to it: https://community.ceramicartsdaily.org/forum/33-community-marketplace-–-buyselltradefree/  If Craigslist is active in your area you could try there too.

To get started I would enroll in a studio ceramic's  class,  this will give you the basic knowledge and you can decide if this is a area you want to pursue.   I decided to take a stone carving class,  after a solid day of chipping I decided I had enough of stone carving.    I  managed to finish my piece,  it made a nice door stop.     Denice

It was the old wiring. I've literally seen it dozens of times. Even Skutt recommends replacing the harness if relays are burning out prematurely.

Hot spots at the elements connections don't cause the relays to fail, they just cause that connection to fail. There's no safe way to get access to a Skutt relay while it's under load, due to the way the box is constructed. You just track the number of firings you have on a set of relays, and if they're burning out under 150 firings then you replace the wiring harness and it's good to go.

Hi Erika,
In the book Contempory Porcelain there's an artist called Ole Lislerud who was making large panels (100x80cm @ 3mm thin) by pouring porcelain slip down sloped plasterboard with wooden battens acting as retaining walls. There's quite a bit of information in there about his methods but it's very advanced ceramics and would probably involve years of tests to replicate. Maybe paperclay would make it easier, or more difficult, who knows.

I'm certain you will enjoy experimenting with paperclay.
Just measured my printer paper, it's 0.06mm thick (a stack of 500 sheets measures 3cm). I cannot see you getting anywhere near that.
OTOH playing with home-made paperclay years ago I achieved 2-3m very easily with a rolling pin. I just rolled it out on under a cloth on a slightly porous surface and draped it onto a balloon. Handling thin sheets, especially when drying, may be an issue.
Pouring slip seems to be trying to cast it. I cannot see you getting thin sheets this way -- or getting them off the casting surface either.
Weakly related article.
THE MAKING OF PAPERCLAY PORCELAIN BANNERS
https://www.grahamhay.com.au/harrison1998.html
I mention it because he achieves 1.0-1.5mm with rolling. Which I suspect you could do with most paperclays.
Using a light weight cellulose/cement batt as a backing, spread a jumbo garbage bag over the batt, held in place with paper clips. Spead a layer of paper clay mix fairly evenly over the plastic sheet with a spatula. Place another sheet of plastic garbage bag over the top and roll out the clay in all directions with as much pressure as you can muster until it oozes out off the batt on all sides. Alternatively, the batt can be placed on the slab roller and reduced in that way. Keep rolling until it is as thin as you can get it. 

    PS Not relevant to you, but an interesting idea I haven't seen before, using ceramic fibre to strengthen the clay during firing (after the paper has burnt out). He apparently needed to do this because he was using very highly/deeply textured sheets.
Firing is to Orton Cone 8 in 4 to 8 hours, depending on the decoration. If the marks are many and vigorous, a longer firing is required to stop the tile splitting up along the incisions. This is why the ceramic fibre is added, as it doesn't bum out like the paper but persists. The paper does a sterling job at room temperature of binding the surface together but the tell tale waft of smoke at 250,C spells its end, and that is when the normal paperclay tile will crack if the fibre isn't added, as the fibre remains intact until elevated temperatures resisting any tendency in the tile to crack apart along the stress lines created in the decoration. Eventually the ceramic fibres dissolve into the ceramic body glass, which is created by the high proportion of nepheline syenite in the recipe.
 

I don't know how the price compares to Brent but I like my Bailey wheel with the removable splash pan. (bumping this thread, hope to get more replies)

Hi and welcome to the forum.
For sure it takes a heck of a lot of practice while learning to work with clay, who decides when a piece merits turning it from a recyclable lump of clay into something permanent that isn't readily recyclable? Is there value in a piece of functional work that with more experience a beginning potter could make better? I would say yes. Should the beginner be encouraged to only fire their best work? That's a difficult question to answer and I don't think there is a right or wrong answer here, it depends on the situation. I would argue for a child to have something permanent, regardless of the quality, it can lead to a lifelong enjoyment of ceramics and a feeling of pride. Should an adult with less than stellar skills fire their work? In a perfect world the instructor would have the student make multiple pots and follow this with a lesson in constructive criticism then with the students okay a culling of "lesser" pots encouraged. 
Are there lessons to be learned as we progress with our skills to be learned from looking back at early work? I think there are. I have made a lot of real clunkers while learning, it can take years to really see the flaws in design or workmanship. 
Perhaps this is a reflection of the studio environment. Are these classes set up as instructional classes with glaze theory etc or are they recreational classes? Hiring practice for the instructors set high enough?
This is a really good thought.  I don't spend much time on social media but for sure when I do go there it seems there are a lot of people working the system like you describe. Like I said though, I don't spend a lot of time looking, perhaps the question could be do makers of quality pots use social media and if so how heavily do they rely on it? @Callie Beller Diesel and @GEP, thoughts on this?

If you have a good blue already and just want to make it less fluid so it doesn't go clear on breaks try adding increments epk and silica in the ratio by weight of 1:1.25 epk to silica. ( to keep the silica:alumina ratio the same). There will be a point when the glaze is still melting well but won't be so runny. 200 base (include the cobalt) then add 2 epk + 2.5 silica dip a tile and repeat 2 or 3 times. Not super accurate and the cobalt will be diluted a bit but it will get you in the ballpark.

Some people find it helps to dip pots in water very briefly before glazing if the body is grogged. Theory is the water expels any tiny air pockets cause by the grog so when the pot is dipped in glaze there isn’t trapped  air which in turn can cause pinholes in the glaze firing. If the body is burnished with a rib after trimming this is reduced.

Some people find it helps to dip pots in water very briefly before glazing if the body is grogged. Theory is the water expels any tiny air pockets cause by the grog so when the pot is dipped in glaze there isn’t trapped  air which in turn can cause pinholes in the glaze firing. If the body is burnished with a rib after trimming this is reduced.

Falls Creek "Shino" and others that mimic that look are usually dangerously high in lithia. Ideally the maximum amout of lithia at the very top end shouldn't exceed 0.20 molar. Whichever iterations of that glaze you land up using I would really suggest lowering the lithia content if it's above that, whether it's supplied by spodumene, petalite or lithium carbonate. In your posted reciped dropping the lithium carb from 6.5 down to 4.5 and then really testing for shivering (expecially on low expansion bodies) would be a good idea. Before Alberta Slip became popular these type of glazes usually employed Redart (or a similar earthenware clay) to supply the iron, don't know if you have tried a sub with that? (and rebalanced) 
What are the recipes you have tried that haven't worked out? Need a hand with reformulating the recipe you have?

Some people find it helps to dip pots in water very briefly before glazing if the body is grogged. Theory is the water expels any tiny air pockets cause by the grog so when the pot is dipped in glaze there isn’t trapped  air which in turn can cause pinholes in the glaze firing. If the body is burnished with a rib after trimming this is reduced.

Don’t get too hung up on specific SG numbers. The number that works is the one that gets the right application of glaze YOU want on your pot, and that might be different than what someone else recommends. The 1.4 mark is a rough starting point, kind of like seasonings in a recipe. Some people will want more, some people will want less. 
First, water is the easiest thing to adjust in a glaze, and adding things like epsom or darvan to adjust how a glaze flows should be done only after you’ve determined it’s really necessary for getting the right glaze application. If the bucket has a layer of glaze materials in the bottom within 5 minutes of mixing, pulling out the epsom salt solution is the right thing to do. 
Adding epsom salts will flocculate a glaze, or make it gel slightly. This is why the glaze now seems thicker than it did, and it may leave a more generous layer on the pot than the same 3 second dip would without the flocculation. You might notice on some glazes it will start to crack while drying, potentially causing crawling in the kiln. And yes, it will also slow your drying time. That slowed drying can help smooth out application based drip marks. If your glaze is one that might be subject to crawling due to application, adding water will help resolve that. But know that adding water to a glaze that’s already flocculated will further delay drying. It may mean you have to adjust your workflow to allow for that, but it’s worth it if it means the glaze goes on the pot nicely. 
Another question worth asking is whether or not any of your ingredients are soluble in the bucket over time. It’s usually more of a problem with boron containing materials, but some feldspars can be subject to this as well. Solubles can affect glaze application if they cause additional gelling. 

Falls Creek "Shino" and others that mimic that look are usually dangerously high in lithia. Ideally the maximum amout of lithia at the very top end shouldn't exceed 0.20 molar. Whichever iterations of that glaze you land up using I would really suggest lowering the lithia content if it's above that, whether it's supplied by spodumene, petalite or lithium carbonate. In your posted reciped dropping the lithium carb from 6.5 down to 4.5 and then really testing for shivering (expecially on low expansion bodies) would be a good idea. Before Alberta Slip became popular these type of glazes usually employed Redart (or a similar earthenware clay) to supply the iron, don't know if you have tried a sub with that? (and rebalanced) 
What are the recipes you have tried that haven't worked out? Need a hand with reformulating the recipe you have?

I think I finally got a good blue that does not go thin on edges.  I'm at the point of having also tested it for crazing on 3 of our 6 studio cone 6 clays.  It looks pretty good.  Here is what I ended up with. Now that Custer Feldspar is no longer being mined, I'll have to retest with Mahavir Feldspar.  It looks like I'll have to add some more silica to get to the same chemistry.
whiting     5.9
dolomite     5.2
custer feldspar     28.8
ferro frit 3134     14.2
epk     17.3
silica     26.4
cobalt carbonate     1.9
rutile     0.3

GFCI protectors often do not work well with motors. The motor tricks the GFCI into thinking there is a ground fault and the GFCI trips. A common situation is when people have a refrigerator on a GFCI in their garage and the motor in the refrigerator sometimes trips the GFCI. Some motors work fine for a long time on a GFCI. I have a full-sized refrigerator on a GFCI that works no problem, but a mini-frig I have routinely trips a GFCI. So, yes, try using your wheel on a GFCI but be prepared to move it to a non GFCI outlet if you get too many nuisance trips. 
Another good safety thing for a studio is a WiFi smoke/fire/CO detector like the Nest that sends alarms to your phone. I use them in the studio and throughout the house. 

Pinholes can have a number of causes, if it's an issue that you haven't been able to fix I would be looking at trying a drop and hold (soak) schedule as a first possible fix. To do a drop and hold let the kiln free fall in temp to approx 40C below top temp then hold there for 20 minutes then kiln off (if you don't do a slow cool). If the glaze is fairly stiff then yes for sure having it too thick could be the cause of the pinholes. 
I also think you could try increasing  your second ramp to about 175-200C per hour up to 1120C. It shouldn't have any effect on the pinholes and it will decrease your length of firing. It's the last 100C of the firing that is typically slowed down to 60C/hr.