Black Powder Farm Silhouettes

On Friday I received an order of color from Sylvie at Colour Fusion - this included my Mocha Brown powder, as well as a blue powder that I'm blindly trusting. I talked with her about how I was having issues with my black, as all the blacks I knew of were reducing in the kiln. G50 was the last black I could try, but she didn't have it (or something, to be honest I can't remember). Anyway, when I showed her my failed tests, I noticed that one of the tests looked a lot better than the other, almost acceptable in fact. So, seeing as I have a half a kilo of black that I have to use SOMEHOW, I decided to give it a shot. These are some tests which compare white vs black powder, as well as a new shade of soft green that I grabbed at Fantasy in Glass. I was unsure of it before the firing, but now I think it's absolutely adorable.

Some of the black pendants came out better than others; a few looked like I had thrown black powder at the glass in a fit of rage or something. All of the black pendants aren't properly fused. That is to say, they are fused, but not fully so, so there's a lot of texture left behind. Maybe this is one of those times where you want a high temperature for a short time, to increase the aesthetics of these darn things.

I know, I know, bad photos, you can't quite see the difference between the shades of green - but there is one I tell you.

I would say that I should completely write off the black, but I'm sure that someone out there will want, and enjoy, those black bunnies instead of the white ones. Overall though I think I prefer the aesthetic of the white for two reasons;
1) I usually see black silhouettes on colored glass.
2) White is a happy, free and open color. It's much more inviting to the theme of sustainability and change.

Fri March 22, 2013
Mercedes
1) 1 to 755°
2) 11 @ 755°
3) 12 ↓ 516°
4) 1:15 @ 516°
5) 1:30 ↓ 390°
6) 1:31 ↓ 50°

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