Ceramics; Test Tiles

In Ceramics it is necessary to test out the glaze options before using said glazes on your actual artwork, so we make Test Tiles.  Normally, test tiles are simple cut outs from slab rolled pieces of clay, usually with a stamp or texture on them so you can see how the glaze runs on a piece or fills in the divits.  I have my test tiles from last year, but they're useless, they showed me what the glazes looked like and then that's it.  Nothing useful or pretty about them after that.  So, this year I thought I'd create something that I can use again.

I made a tiny garden gnome and mushrooms.  They're going to adorn my garden after they serve their function and they will each be unique and colorful.

Here an assortment of the pieces before their first (bisque) fire.  I made a total of 20 pieces.

Here are a few after their bisque fire, before I dipped them into the glaze:

Here are some after their Glaze firing at temperature: cone 10:

All done, now I look at the bottom of each of these bad boys and see what number they are, then I match them to the log I kept about which glazes are on which piece.  After I choose which glazes I like best, I am free to decorate the garden with them.