And Sometimes Magic Happens

OK
This bowl started out as a simple experiment.
Used a known quantity. A copper wash which i've had good results with before; know it produces beautiful greens; and know it will irridize awesomely.
The experiment?
To introduce small wood chips into an electric kiln to see if a state of reduction could be achieved which in turn would turn the copper greens to red. Haven't had much luck with the barrel post firings doing this. Thought i'd try alternative methods.
Yep! Am still hunting for those illusive reds. Thought i'd throw some ingredients which are spoze to create lavenders into the pot while i was at it.
Firing #1 was not successful. The lavenders didn't lavender, the greens stubbornly kept their green, and we now had black or murky gray smoked areas. Quite unattractive.

The wood chips burned though !!!

Effort #2: Rescue the bowl. It sure wasn't pretty the way it was.
So! Applied Amaco Burgundy Luster and Duncan Lavender glazes over the smoky grays.
Yep! I know that isn't kosher if you plan on bragging about creating your own glazes. But what the heck. I was tired and this was the third firing. I didn't, after all, want to live with this bowl. Just get it done and in saleable condition.
Had kind-a taken into consideration that the Duncan products vitrify at different temps than the Amaco. But was that worried because both temps were much higher than my home-grown, low-temp glazes that i decided to compromise and fire in a range between the three maturing levels.
In theory -- it coulda worked. You know -- give a little here; lose a schochi there. Not too much in any direction.
However, the kiln elves just didn't see the possibilities from my perspective.

Effort #3: Rescue the bowl. It sure wasn't pretty the way it was.

Ought-a mention that my home-grown, low-temp glazes and washes boiled in the 3rd firing which left zillions of pit-holes. O.k. With our national debt in the trillions, comparatively, the pitholes seemed to be in the zillions. Probably, in actuality, there were only a few hundred thousand or so.
Sanded the heck out of that bowl. Then used a 60-grit paper and sanded some more. The afternoon hours waxed into early evening. Felt unbelievably tired, but then i had been up at 5am to start the kiln!
Probably should have waited to refire until today, eh? When, renewed by sleep, i could attack the problem afresh?
But noooooo. Once having gotten the bit in my teeth, so to speak, wanted to rescue the bowl right then.
Hated to use my good Hanovia gold on this project, but it was the only thing i could think of that might work. The vitrifying temp of the Hanovia is 1261 degrees F. Meanwhile, inside the kiln, temps had dropped to 524 degrees. What's the procedure here? Can a thoroughly cooled piece be re-introduced to an environment sporting those temps?
By 9:45pm, we'd open the kiln, refume the piece (for the 3rd time) and see.

Ah . . . . . more than likely, you don't want to see a hundred pictures of one bowl. Do you?
( "Do you? Do you? Huh? Huh?" said the little dog with his tongue lapping air, ears flapping and tail wagging vigorously.)
OK then, we'll limit it to four. But i have a hundred, doncha know! It's an awesomely magical bowl. Full of the color of varying shades of gold, emeralds and areas of irisdesence. Just awesome.
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Would like to say the camera did it justice, but the bowl's many splendors of gold (it's harder to catch gold on camera than it is to catch irisdescence!) and other visual delights didn't materialize in the photos.
As the bowl is rotated, every angle sparkles with gold highlights !!!
May all your hours turn into golden days with irisdescent highlights
Chae