Making a casserole dish for a wedding shower gift.

I hadn't thrown for a while but decided I wanted to make a casserole dish for Adri and Jason as a wedding shower gift.  I was really "on" that day and threw three pretty nice pieces.  I figured I'd ought to have a back up in case one of them didn't make it for some reason.  I'm glad I did.  

Here's the one I made for them: their names and the date of their wedding carved in the bottom; hearts stamped onto the lid.  And the lid fit perfectly onto the bowl - a nice little lip that came out just right.  I was very pleased with it.

You can see the heart stamps on the lid.

Perfect little lip to catch the lid.  

Here's Plan B - no names or hearts carved on but the lid fit very nicely with the bowl.  

And here's Plan C.  I decided to shape it into more of a square, along with the lid.  It came out ok but the lid didn't fit as nicely as the first two. 

 I figured I'd have an extra casserole or two all set to go for the next fundraising raffle or something.

But when I opened up the first level of the kiln I was sorely disappointed.  The lid survived but the dish exploded in the kiln.

So I want to level two to see how Plan B looked.  Not so good.  Plan C made it for which I was very grateful but Plan B also exploded in the bisque firing for some unknown reason.  

However, here's Plan C with a Deep Firebrick red glaze.  I like it well enough but the cover doesn't fit the bowl except in one direction.  The experience was a reminder not to get too attached to any piece before it comes out of the glaze firing unharmed.  

And I'm happy to report it made it via UPS to Sierra Madre, CA without mishap.