I had to begin by filling in and smoothing out the corners followed by all of the edges. I let them setup and began filling the area around the hinge. While I left everything to begin to cure I mixed up a 5 gallon bucket of slip. I made a medium slip so there was enough clay to be able fill some small holes but, thin enough to still be able use a paint brush to apply it.
If you look at the hinge in the above picture you can see where I filled it in and smoothed it out. I did have to open the door several times to make sure there was enough clearance. You’ll also notice in the picture the finish on the base. This is from painting the base with the slip. It helped to fill, smooth and blend everything together.
You can see here the corners are filled and the slip has been applied to smooth an blend the surface of the base.
The slip worked very well as you can see. This should make a nice surface for the whitewash and should leave a nice clean surface when it’s all done.
Here you can see the difference in the texture of the base compared to the dome. One other thing to note is that if you have any cracks the slip helps to fill and smooth them out. If the cracks are too big then the slip will widen the top of the crack and you definitely know where you need to fill in some more. After you fill in any cracks just paint over them with the slip again and it blends beautifully.