Kiln Disappointments

My last firing was a low-fire glaze. I've talked about the joys of unloading a glaze kiln full of bright shiny surprises (yay!), and now I'm going to talk about the disappointment of opening a glaze fire and finding bubbles, cracks, and discoloration (boo!).
 I wanted to fire a full kiln load of glaze pieces, so I've been waiting until I had enough work to do so. That was problem number 1: Anticipation and expectations.
Problem number 2: I bought low-fire commercial glazes that I'd used a long time ago (with good results) so I didn't feel like testing was necessary.
Out of my last firing only TWO pieces were sellable. I have other monkey mugs, a wall piece, and a few other little creations that will have to go in my junk pile. So disappointing! I really should have tested the glazes...

The good news is that I am quite pleased with these two (both are for sale in my etsy shop):

Monkey Mug

Dotted Terra Cotta Mug

Thank you, Brad, for the awesome photos!