Hulk

@Marilyn T, you could shorten the bisque schedule for typical domestic ware pots. Have a look at Steve Davis's schedule for problematic clay. Note the slowing down during carbon (both organic and inorganic) and sulphur burnoffs. (It's behind a paywall but you can access 3 free articles a month) Skip the length candling if your greenware is bone dry, shorten it to an hour or two if not. I usually warm the kiln up to 220F in the evening then shut it off and let the pots sit overnight in the kiln then start it up in the morning. Davis schedule is really slow, but still faster than the Clement one.
https://ceramicartsnetwork.org/daily/article/A-Bisque-Firing-Schedule-to-Help-Prevent-Glaze-Faults

Thank you Min, Hulk and Peter for replying with your insights.  Hopefully, with your help, I may be closer to a solution.  
To reply to Min first:  
Re: bisque schedule - I use Naomi Clement's 17 hour bisque schedule to 04 and only have a few pieces in the middle of the kiln as I am just doing testing at the present time.  My kiln is well vented (by Envirovent) - flame test okay.  
Re: glaze schedule:  Close up picture of pinhole attached.  Hole is an "innie" and there is brown clay spit out on the outside of the hole.   My guess was that it was feldspar which is why I started my glaze holds below 2050.  Firing to 2050 on Clement's glaze schedule had a few pinholes and the glaze was not fully melted, so I had to go to 2180-2190 (cone 6) to get full melt.  (Katz boron chart).  On her schedule with a  2190 peak had only two pinholes inside the bowl, and the glaze was fully melted.  
Reply to Hulk: (my reply in purple)

The circled defects (posted image by OP, above), is the bare clay visible?   Yes
Are the other(smaller) spots also defects? ...looks like tiny pits in the glaze.  They are smooth but yes visible (possibly healed)
The circled spots look like what I've called "large particle defect" - where something in the clay was off gassing, something that wasn't burned out in the bisque.  Sounds good to me.  
I'd added a hold at 1500°F to the bisque when experimenting with black and dark red clays*; it seemed to help, a lot. One full hour, or half hour on the way up and again on the way down.  I will try this on the next firing.  This is Naomi's 17+ hr. bisque schedule with your suggestion in it.  Look okay?
1890/180/ 1 hr. hold
50/200/10 min hold
150/300/0 hold
100/1525/1 hour hold. This was already part of her schedule.  
75/1750/0 hold
108/1930/10 min (original was 100/1920/10) but I changed it to 108 so the cone reading was more accurate.  
9999 to 1500/ 30 min hold.   ??rate

Since, I've left the bisque hold, against the occasional "large particle defect" which seems to happen more or less often, depending on the clay...
Running a powered kiln vent - supplying oxygen - should be helping with the burnout*.
Are there more defects where the clay is thicker? not on the bowl I was using.  Haven't done larger pieces yet.
More defects in thicker/heavier pieces?  There was no defects on the test tiles, but these appeared on the 1 lb. bowls (haven't gone bigger yet).  
The blue and green glazes aren't showing any defects? No.  The fluidity of the glaze seems to fill the holes and because there are colorant they aren't visible.  
Reply to Peter:
I could  try Whiting instead of Wollastonite to test this theory.  It would also make the glaze a bit more fluid but the LOI would go up from 3.1 to 6.
3.  I'll wait to hear what Hulk and/or Min says on this before trying it.   Hamer & Hamer has the melting point of wollastonite at 2813F and I don't know its melting behaviour in a mid range glaze, but I'd like to know.  
Thanks all for your help with this.   The dish set was supposed to be a Christmas present so I'm long overdue on gifting it.  They specified white on brown clay, so I have to stay the course.  
Cheers.  
 

Ok, now download the firing log and feed that sweet thang into @jay_klay_studio's graphing program to visually see the tracks of the 3 sections. And if you really want to have some fun, add another 9999 drop all the way down to 100 after your regularly programmed cool to log how looooonnnggggg it takes for the last several hundred degrees. Several times over the years I've printed the extended graph of a few kilns as a teachable moment for the students of the virtue of patience, i.e., "Can I get my piece tomorrow?" "No, next Friday."

Move it in sections, don't try to lift it all at once. Unhook and remove the lid. Stack the sections in the truck, making two stacks if you can. Put foam board underneath each section. The pink house insulation board works well. Set down the wall sections first, with the lid and floor slabs on top (if the floor is a separate piece). Foam board separating everything. Wrap it all up with plastic stretch wrap and secure the load as best you can. I use a cargo tarp and that works really well. If you put straps over the top, put foam board between the straps and the kiln. Don't crank down too tight with straps or you could crack the bricks.

The circled defects (posted image by OP, above), is the bare clay visible?
Are the other(smaller) spots also defects? ...looks like tiny pits in the glaze.
The circled spots look like what I've called "large particle defect" - where something in the clay was off gassing, something that wasn't burned out in the bisque.
I'd added a hold at 1500°F to the bisque when experimenting with black and dark red clays*; it seemed to help, a lot. One full hour, or half hour on the way up and again on the way down.
Since, I've left the bisque hold, against the occasional "large particle defect" which seems to happen more or less often, depending on the clay...
Running a powered kiln vent - supplying oxygen - should be helping with the burnout*.
Are there more defects where the clay is thicker?
More defects in thicker/heavier pieces?
The blue and green glazes aren't showing any defects? 
 
*credit to Forum member GlazeNerd
 

Those coatings may be beneficial in a typical reduction firing because they harden the surface of the fiber and make it more durable, but in something as corrosive as soda or salt it won't be able to protect it enough. The atmosphere is just too corrosive.

In case it's of interest-  googling  site:community.ceramicartsdaily.org fibre  soda firing
threw up some hits including
... which includes
In the 90's I decided to do a couple of soda firings in my ancient, Geil, fiber kiln. It sprayed the interior with ITC 100 and after just a couple of firings the old fiber just wouldn't stay put with the ITC. If you're looking for light construction you might try using IFB's, and coating 5 sides of interior bricks with the ITC 100.
 
... which uses fibre as a short-lived sacrificial liner

Elsewhere I found this thread
... which includes this post
 

Thank you Bill and Min for your replies.   I appreciate any ideas you put forth as I have a 100+ dinner set ready to glaze in a white.  I bisque at ^4.  
1.  recipe attached.   This was the best of 20 recipes I mixed up and fired.  The MC6 firing schedule also gave the least pinholes.  Other schedules were C5 and 6 of Digitalfire C5DHSC; Naomi Clement's schedule; and Digitalfire PLC6DS.  The next best performing recipe was Studio White.  
2.  Glaze specific gravity 1.40
3.  Clay:  Laguna #613 clay has a 5.91 COE. and fired cone is: (5 scrunched on shelf; 6 is 4:00 position and 7 is not bent).  My aborbency testing on this clay is 0.2 at cone 5; 0 at cone 6 and 6.6 at cone 7.  
4.  When testing on 1 lb. bowls, my firing schedule is changing every two days,  but the last firing I did which had no pinholes on the outside and two pinholes on the inside (photo attached) was: 
Segment            Rate                   Temperature               Hold               Notes
1                            100                     220                                 30
2                            350                     2000                              0
3                            108                      2190                             5                  
4                            9999                   2040                            30          (after feldspar off-gassing finishes)
5                            100                      1400                            off         (1750 glaze no longer fluid). 
Previous firings:  Lower top temperature had more pinholes.  A previous soak at 2080 had 5 pinholes on outside opposite element and none inside.   The latest firing (after the one above) with a soak at 2030 with another one of 10 minutes at 1900 had 3 pinholes on the outside next to the element and none inside.  I only fired that one down to 1700.   The other glazes on this clay,  that I fired successfully have a drop to 2090 with only a 5 minute hold.   They are Variegated Blue and Rutile Green (both fluid glazes).  
Thanks for any help you can give me on this. 
 
 

Really good information Marilyn, thank you for such a comprehensive post.
I'm not seeing anything really glaringly off with the recipe or the glaze firing. Glaze recipe looks like it would make a very durable glaze. I haven't used that claybody but I'm wondering if how it's bisque fired might be part of the problem. Is your kiln vented and do you really cram the bisque firing full? How fast do you bisque fire to 04, using a preprogrammed schedule? Do you have a closeup of a couple of the pinholes? 

Rainy today, good, err, ok for glazing!
"Good" on account o' I don't bike or yard work in the rain, hence more time to glaze.
"OK" on account o' no midday sunshine to warm up the Studio and no setting pots out in the sun to dry faster*.
Was doing seven to ten glaze loads/year, however, an accident (October 2022), then moving, some projects, and a few other things came up ...one glaze load in the new kiln at our new (to us) home since Fall 2022, glazing for the second load now.
Hope to get back to filling the kiln every month or so.
Before, I felt like there's a volume/time threshold where improvements ramp up, where there's some longer sessions and higher frequency, bringing along established "standards," and making time to explore variations, new shapes, sizes, forms, clay ...new stuff as well as moving along with the most familiar.
I like having a seven (6.7) cubic foot kiln to fill. There's enough repetition to get rhythm, but not too too much.

*I'm letting the pots thoroughly dry after liner glazing before glazing the outside - sunny weather is faster.
...add on that I wax, cut the transition, sponge for a sharp line - there's wait for the wax to dry, wait for the sponge-away moisture to dry, that's three waits.
Getting part of the load to the next step asap helps march them all along, like pipeline processing, heh.
 

Just realized, harder to do with LED Christmas lights these days!

Thanks for the advice. The protective glasses were sitting right there and I didn't think to use them
 

I usually fire my kilns at night so I don't really see what's happening with actual temps in the kiln, but today I started it up in the morning and was in the studio in the evening and got to see exactly what was happening during the cooling cycle. I do a slightly-slow cooling cycle to even out the results in my 3 kilns because they all cool at drastically different rates due to their sizes. I do a drop from the peak down to 2000F, then cool at 175F/hr down to 1500F. This gives me identical results from all 3 of my kilns. This firing I'm talking about here is in my 10 cubic foot L&L EQ2827-3, which has 3 zones, and was packed very tight in the middle. I was surprised at just how much slower the middle cools compared to the top and bottom. This photo shows how it's going part way through the initial drop from peak temp to 2000F:

As you can see, the middle and the top are nowhere close to each other. In a normal firing segment, a 73 degree difference would stop the firing with an error code. So why isn't it doing that here? It's because the cooling rate is set at 9999, or full speed. Any time you use 9999, whether it's climbing or dropping, the controller lets the kiln do its thing and doesn't care if the sections aren't even. Firing up or down at 9999 is the fastest, but you sacrifice evenness. As the temp continues to drop, we see this:

Here you can see that the top section (TC1) has started firing again. The set point for this segment was 2000F, at which point it should start cooling at 175F/hr, yet the top section passed that by about 20 degrees before the relay kicked on and the controller stopped the drop. Why did it let it get so far below the set point? Because it's averaging the 3 zones. Once the average of the 3 zones hits the set point it will start to fire each section again as needed to match the set point.
I get a lot of questions from customers about error codes and cooling cycles. The biggest problem is that the kiln can't always keep up with the programmed cooling rate. There are a number of firing schedules out there on the internet that people are trying that use a rate of 600F/hr or more for the fast drop portion of the cooling cycle, and many kilns simply cannot cool that fast, especially the middle section. When you have a specific rate programmed, the controller will send out an error code if the kiln can't keep up with that rate. So if you want a really fast drop you should use 9999F/hr, not a specific rate. For most people doing slow cooling with cone 6 work it won't matter if the sections are not totally even during the drop. If you do need more precision, like if you're firing crystalline work and it's important that you don't overshoot any target temps, then you'll want to put in a slower drop rate that the kiln can actually keep up with, and the controller will keep the sections even and not overshoot set points.

So @DrJillthe pots were red hot, but what was the color of the kiln atmosphere at this time. You should have seen a yellow-white interior. This is the color of the atmosphere at cone 5-6. Looking directly into the kiln to see pots is tough on the eyes, and at the same time it is often difficult to see the cones unless positioned for such viewing. 
As for cost, seems your elements are good, controller is the problem, and an electrician can probably check that out.
best of luck, 
Pres

So what turned the kiln off? Did the safety countdown timer turn it off too soon or did the cone melt in the sitter? If the sitter, then check it was not cone 05 instead of 5 (likely), sitter calibration ( that’s a lot of mis calibration, confirm everything else first before drastically recalibrating). You made it to red heat, that’s 1000f + so no stove oven would ever get near there. If all the above is not helpful, then testing the elements is likely next.
The good news, it made it to red heat and something shut it off. First task, what shut it off?

I fire daily some weeks, and only a couple of times a week other weeks.  But I am often firing my very small Olympic Doll kiln and only have one to three pieces in it at a time.  I only once in a while fire my larger Skutt.  If I'm working on a larger piece then I may fire it a few times a week for a while until that project is done.  Then months may go by without using my larger kiln unless I have a larger load.  A lot of my equine sculpture gets fired several times in the underglaze layers, then clear glazed, then may be fired a few more times with overglazes to build up the complex finishes I am known for on my horse pieces.  Especially if I did any claybody resculpting to the bisque then a piece might easily be fired 10 or 12 times (and in rare cases more).  So that can be a lot of trips in and out of my kilns!  Some days I have both kilns firing at the same time so they each have their own dedicated breakers.
Even with such a heavy firing schedule I have managed after 20 years to keep both of my kilns in pretty good shape.  My Olympic is starting to show wear and tear and needs to be rewired now (still haven't gotten to that yet) but my Skutt still looks shiny and almost brand new.  If I had to make an average over the whole year, I fire about twice a week.  Some weeks I fire every day, some weeks I take off from firing to work on sculpting,  molds or resin casting, etc.  But my art studio is my full time job and I am best known for my ceramics, so...
Edited to add a couple of photos.  This was a larger piece than usual for me, almost 15 inches long.  So I had to fire him in my larger Skutt instead of my little Olympic.  This was a porcelain bisque I resculpted the mane and tail on, made a new custom base for, and then custom glazed.  He was fired, I kid you not, exactly 20 times.  What a PITA!  Not a project I will take on again for a client anytime soon but he did come out very lovely and my client was well pleased!  Took a little extra TLC with packing him too, foam blocked and double boxed of course.  I was firing my Skutt a LOT when I was working on his china painting and enamel layers to build his color.  This is the Cybis 'Nashua' racehorse sculpture by JK Slick.  The brass halter ring was added after firing and due to the sculpture being porcelain, I attached the earthenware base using epoxy rather than trying to attach it in the kiln (and likely recracking later).  So anyway, pieces like this are why I fire so often.  Many layers can be delicate and need to be set and built up with a number of firings.  It took me all year to complete this commission due to various delays & distractions, other deadlines, etc.


I think it would be cool if you all posted a sample of your work with your reply or a shot of a typical kiln load, something!

My last fire was last August and when I read the QotW I thought I'd best skip this one. Well, I feel much better after reading Pres' comment about not firing since last September!  I keep a log.  Began in 2014 , when was doing 6, then 4,  then 3; since 2020, averaging 2.   Always low production w/ hardly any pressing deadlines, a too-big kiln, and self-permission to just go w/the flow of Lee-Life.  I should have a kiln load ready by March. I've had to adapt  "everything" involved w/the process to minor cognitive impairment (MCI), a result of minor TBI (traumatic brain injury). It is not--or so they say--progressive.  So, theoretically, once I get the hang of what I really can & can't do, I should be good to go w/no surprises. My motivation & level of acceptance took a near fatal hit, but I'm beginning to enjoy exploring a new style. The next fire is my first post-diagnosis test run--will she sink or will she swim?? The main challenge is that construction is fairly rough & funky , but I don't want the pieces to look too rough & too funky,  so I need to turn the heat up under the burner labeled "visually appealing", and pray.

I aim for 2 glaze loads a week. During the busy times I have 1 kiln firing while the other is cooling. 

I would estimate around 30  times a year,  I have past that number and my year starts in another 3 months.  I bought some clay Friday and started some hard blocks softening,  I hope to get some work done tomorrow.    I don't know if there is any football fans out there but it sounds like the 4th of July here.   My husband and I aren't sports fans but we watched the last 5 minutes of the Super Bowl.   The entire state of Kansas are fans of the Kansas City Chiefs.    Denice

@Mark C.I knew this, and thought it would be good to urge others to post how often they fired. No Snark about you pointing it out! 
 
 
best,
Pres

Good question I post my yearly firings for many years here and did so a few weeks ago
here 
 

I was looking at my poor kiln today, thinking I needed to fire a load soon, when I realized I haven't fired a load since September of last year. It used to be that I would fire a kiln at least once a month, sometimes twice. Back then I had a an L&L 23 that had 5 sections. I would mostly fire the 4 sections, but often in the Summer it would be all 5.  It would hold a lot of pots, and I could fire some pretty tall thrown vases and jars. However, when it came to plates it was tough to get very many in with the diameter at 23. The new kiln fires many plates at a time since it is a 28" diameter, but it is shorter so tall stuff is more limited. I really don't make a much of the taller stuff anymore mostly limited to 36' including the lid with handle/decoration. Seems of late I will get a load ready at an average of once every 2 months in the good weather.
QotW: How many times a month/year do you fire your kiln/s?
best,
Pres

Two googles that might be worth trying, and an example hit from both.
site:glazy.org "standard 266"
https://glazy.org/recipes/22329
Shows a base glaze with several different colourants.

 
"standard 266" glaze selecting the "images" option
https://www.flickr.com/photos/133519868@N03/32484512766

Finally ..
Glazy has an Alfred Blue at https://glazy.org/recipes/217896
... and the referenced "University of Maryland Glazes" article is on p32 of ...
https://ceramicartsnetwork.org/docs/default-source/uploadedfiles/wp-content/uploads/sites/6/2015/06/ceramics-monthly-feb80-cei0280d.pdf
 

All dark brown/black bodies do odd things with glazes. You have to do a lot of testing to find glazes that work well with them. Those that do can be really striking, though, especially if you leave areas of the clay body visible. My students use a fair amount of Standard 266, and it's a wonderful body to work with. Has a great feel. Don't go past cone 5 with it, though, or you risk bloating.

As a regular red clay user, darker clays are going to have a different effect on glazes than lighter coloured ones do. Even leaving out the possibility of oxide interactions, the dark background behind any translucent/transparent glaze is going to reflect light differently than a lighter coloured background will. If you take this effect into account and work with it rather than against, you can get much more satisfying results out of your glazes, whether they’re commercial or homebrew.
 Darker clay bodies DO work well with commercial glazes, they just don’t look the same as the sample they only show on white clay, and that’s frustrating. I have no idea why they only show samples on white clay, because there’s a huge range of clay colours out there, but here we are.
As a general rule, yes, if you’re using brush on commercial glazes, you will have to add more layers over a darker clay for best results. You’ll need the extra pigmentation to overcome that aforementioned dark background. Even on light coloured clays, a too-thin glaze layer is gonna go that yucky green or brown. With darker clays, doubly so.
You may find that variegated glazes, or glazes with titanium or rutile will actually look much better on red/dark clays than they do on lighter lay bodies. The extra iron kicks those rutile blues into overdrive, and it’s really nice.
 If you want a result that’s closer to the samples, you probably also want to choose more opaque looking glazes, or even add a white slip over your red clay to pop certain colours. Or even use it as a way of getting 2 different effects on a piece with only one glaze.
You are not likely to get light or pastel colours to come out true on red clay, unless they’re highly pigmented or contain a lot of opacifiers. Even then, they’ll have a more tonal cast to them.