Well, I finally got my kiln repaired. He needed to put in a whole new bottom in the kiln because the glass that had fused on it was too deep. He also needed to replace the lower heating element. So, I guess it's about as good as new as it can be.
I made my first test glazes, 500g of 7 glazes: Randy's Red, Narragon White, Opal, New Blue, Floating Blue, Nickel Matt, and Cream Breaking Rust. It was exciting to do my first kiln firing of some test tiles. Here are the glazes:
Left: Nickel Matt Center: New Blue Right: Cream Breaking Rust
Left: Randy's Red Center: Narragon White Right: Opal
Left: Opal over New Blue Center: Opal over Randy's Red Right: Narragon White over Nickel Matt
I made several other glaze combos....some were really ugly. But, I figure it's best to save all of them. Don't want to make the same mistake twice. :)
My favorites are Opal, Cream Breaking Rust and Narragon White. I made up 6000g batches of these three. My Randy's Red doesn't look exactly like Pam's. It's a bit browner. I gave her a test tile to fire in her kiln, so I will be able to tell if it is the glaze formulation or the kiln.
