The kiln is out.  Most of the mugs came out fantastic.  A couple of the green will need to be refired but the rest are fine, so I am not sure what is going on with that glaze.  The annoying issue cropped up in the glazing.  I had to open a new gallon of clear glaze about half way through and....it was like water, so thin as to be almost unusable.  I had to do 3 or 4 coats and let it dry in between when I usually just do one.  I have been buying this glaze in single gallons for several years.  It is the only clear I have found that does not cause pinholes or blistering or shadowing with my clay and slip. I don't usually use more than 1 gallon/year (until this year anyway) so I have purchased it in one gallon tubs.  But I fear I can no longer trust the quality control.  You might wonder why I don't mix my own clear glaze.  When I started out I had a great clear recipe that fit my clay body perfectly, but one of the main ingredients became unavailable shortly after when the mine closed.  I tried several different feldspars as substitutes but ended up with bistering or clouding or dryness.  My operation is very small and not set up for a lot of glaze testing even if I had the time to work out the chemistry. Hence--I tested out a number of commercially available clear glazes.

Here are the finished spoonbills.  They are actually really nice to hold.  I guess I now have an aquatic series--turtle, octopus, spoonbill...