Teapot-Regalla Kine, Taking Risks

Came home this evening and unloaded the kiln.
The firing was okay, nothing spectacular.
Sort of the opposite.
First of all, the glazes I used on the Industrial Teapot cups didn't pan out like expected. I wanted more contrast, unfortunately the two glazes I used turned out to be pretty close in color.
I'll look at the cups for a couple of hours and decide what I'm going to do.
I could reglaze certain sections, but I don't really want to do that.
I may just use the same combination on the teapot itself and try to do some foo-foos later.
Maybe the way they came out will grow on me.
The regular teapot came out okay:




There are some kiln furniture marks on the lid but there was no way around that, at least not once I started to glaze it. There are ways around that and I'll have to purchase the right stuff to get it done.
The Unidentified Flying Teapot(UFT) looks okay too.
The cracks seemed to have run their course and I'll try to load it up tomorrow:




Where the large crack was near the lid, I'll run a damp sponge over the area to check for imperfections. Darkening the clay will help; sort of like how you can see car dents in dark paint, but how they are hidden by lighter paint.
If it passes the quality control inspection I'll load it up in the kiln and hope that the heat doesn't make the cracks reappear.
Defects happen all the time when you work with ceramics.
There are other forces beyond your control that sometimes dictate whether or not a piece is pass or fail. When I first started to doing crazy type projects like this, I would usually work in pairs; making two of the same thing knowing one of them may not make it to completion.
This is important when you are pushing your medium to it's limits, trying things out you've never done before. You try to work within the parameters, but you never know how far you can go until you start to push.
You make two of everything hoping one them will survive the firing.
As a ceramic artist, you are at the mercy of the kiln gods and the medium itself.
Sometimes it's frustrating to have to trash something you invested so much time in but as I like to say: it's only clay, I'll make more.
On Friday, I'll start on UFT II as I have some ideas and modifications I want to do to the original design.
Something risky of course.
That's risky, not risque.