Planning 100724

For the past several years while the courtyard was being developed, I've envisioned a curved, raised hearth for our cast-iron chiminea.  When we had the landscaping work done in 2008 I had Bill lay out the curve; Robert formed it up and poured it in concrete.  I asked Bill to cut out a cardboard template with sections that would mimic the lines in our living room windows.  I used the template to cut oversized stoneware tiles, with my slab roller set at 3/8" thick.  Among other valuable lessons, I learned that I needed to add extra grog to the clay to help keep the tiles from cracking.  If they made it through bisque-firing without obvious giant cracks, I glazed them with cobalt blue M7.  When loaded in the cone 10 kiln, they needed a flat shelf and a layer of grog underneath.  I had to re-make several of the tiles because they weren't flat or had spots where the glaze didn't stick.  Overall, I've messed around with these for a year now, and finally got the last tiles I needed out of the glaze load at Gavilan last week.  Two of them have cracks, but I've decided I can live with them.  They're flat and blue!

This morning, Bill moved the chiminea out of the way so I can see how the tiles fit on the hearth.  My fingers are crossed!