The glazing process can be rather tedious.  I tend to think of it as painting backward.  It may not actually be that way, but it seems to help me organize.

 Since I want to fire as few glaze firings as possible, I make a point of taking detailed notes on glaze applications.  Test everything.  In fact, you shouldn’t have a glaze firing without several tests included in the load.  In graduate school, when firing was cheap, I would fire up to four glaze firings.  Somehow once you’re paying the electric bill, you begin to search for new surface options.  Besides, the survival rate of the tiles decreases as the glaze firings increase.  Currently, I fire only one glaze.

There are two keys to success.  The first is to do as much surface work as you can at each stage in the process as possible.  By the time I get to glazing, there are several layers already on the surface.  The second key is good notes.