The Waiting Begins

Ah... I like this picture. Was in Asheville recently reading and sitting by a lake and this swan came to visit. Think some food was wanted, yet it turned into a holy moment of sorts. Can't fully explain it. Still, this picture tells me that taking a teabowl wherever one goes is a very good thing. :)

The gas kiln was loaded this pm. Here are some pictures of the front stack.... the three yunomis on the bottom of this pic, from left to right are mine.

All in all, I have 40 some pieces in this firing. Will be fun to see how these turn out! Kiln will be unloaded on Monday or so. Firing is all day Friday.

Those 'pink' bowls on the top shelf are mine. Blue/green celadon glaze as a base.

Those two yunomis on the middle shelf are mine.

My shelf is rather empty, except for five teabowls that need glaze. Will put them in the electric kiln as they're made with recycled clay. Will experiment a bit with cone 5 glazes.

More on the Way

Glazed a bunch of pieces- here are the finished results and a look back to how they got to the finished stage! Here are teabowls glazed with a blue/green celadon glaze and sprayed with accents of alfred's blue or catherine oribe.

Here is a vase for my nephew- base glaze in blue/green celadon with alfred's blue. Also put glaze at the top of the handles.

More teabowls. Some have some granulated rutile, soda ash, or wood ash on the outside.

Granulated rutile is on the middle teabowl in this pic.

3 pitchers- each with some blue or white glass on the handle.... I think these have spotted shino as a glaze base.

I used this newly purchased atomizer :) and this newspaper to help apply it. I'm excited to see the results from the kiln. These get loaded this Wednesday. Firing begins Friday and ends Sunday. Cone 10.

Teabowls BEFORE sprayed glaze is on them. Teabowls are still my default form.

Before I glazed any of the bowls, I used a small brush to apply some wax to parts I didn't want glaze to settle on. Also used this (what is that white thing on the side called?) file of some sort to help make some surfaces smooth. This all always takes longer than I think it will.

The three things I sprinkled on some pieces. The darkest is the granulated rutile-- then to the right, the wood ash from my parents' fireplace (put it through a sieve to make it fine), and then the white is the soda ash. This will be the first time I use granulated rutile on my pieces. I wonder how they'll turn out?

Some pieces on my shelf awaiting glaze. Adrienne, my instructor taught me how to stack these.... the big vase on the right has a bowl over it (she didn't teach me that; it just worked well).

The container where the wax is held- and some teabowls waiting to be glazed.

This bowl on the top has words from Vespers 86, I think... words I know from heart that are sung each week at Holden, where I go and visit at least once a year. I miss that place; hence, the words.

The bowl right under that has a new design.

Am starting on some jar forms.... lidded forms. Here's the beginning of a small jar.

Teabowls before they were trimmed- drying to the leather-hard stage.

More teabowls. A few somewhat new forms.

Here's that holdne bowl, right after I etched the words onto the outside with a sculpting pen-like tool. Time will tell how these all turn out! how I love life in the pottery world.

Shinos and Celadons

Will be glazing this weekend. Spotted shino and blue/green celadon OR blue/geen celadon and alfred's blue are the combos, I think... both with some wood ash sprinkled on them. Here are 20 some pieces. These days, time in the studio making pots is pure grace.

Tuesday Night

Tonight during class, Adrienne made lots of altered forms. She does this all so quickly, it's hard to remember what to do when. I must say that she's an incredible teacher. I continue to learn so much from her!

These yunomis are sitting on the shelf waiting patiently to be glazed. Hopefully, that will happen this week!

Trimmed these teabowls made from recycled clay. They're headed to the bisque kiln as soon as they're dry.

Here are some of the forms that Adrienne made. I think I'll focus on making some more pitchers in the next days to come.

And this too- a creamer! Gosh, how I need and want to spend many more hours at the wheel.

Recycled

Even Clayworks recycles! I made some teabowls today with some recycled clay that a friend gave me at clayworks. The consistency is different; it's a bit slimy and not my favorite, but it's good practice and they turned out well. This recycled clay can be either fired to Cone 6 (electric kiln) or Cone 10 (gas kiln). May use these as test glaze teabowls, to try out several glaze combinations. I still like phoenix clay much better.

Sundays wear me out! Didn't have alot of energy to do much more. Will trim these teabowls tomorrow evening and make some kind of form.... hmmm will have to think of what!

Saturday Glazing

All of these were ready to be glazed, so that is how I spent my afternoon. On almost all, I put the blue/green celadon glaze as a base and then some accents with alfred's blue.

This pic shows the 20 plus pieces with the blue/green celadon. A time-consuming process in all.

In the front left of the picture there' sa goblet with some wood ash in it. Wood ash from my parent's fireplace. Sifted it a bit and then I sprinkled it onto a few pieces. Not sure how the blue/green celadon reacts to it yet.

The large yunomi on the right has some wood ash on the inside of it.

Used a bulb syringe to put the alfred's blue on the pot. DIluted the alfred's blue a bit with water, so it's not too thick.

Some more bowls with the glaze combo I mentioned above.

The yunomi in the front of this picture has spotted shino as its base. Some wood ash on the outside too.

Some wood ash on the inside of it.

Finished the day by making a small bowl. I plan on trying some new things in the weeks to come- not sure what that looks like yet. New glazes? new forms? new surface design? Time will tell.

Bowls and Mason Stain

Spent some time today trimming bowls and then etching words onto some leather hard bowls.

Applied some mason stain to bisqued bowls yesterday. While I really like the results of this process, it just takes a long while.

It's worth the time though. I really like how these turn out. Next, I'll glaze these and a bunch more tomorrow. Blue/Green Celadon with some alfred's blue accents.