Nine, I think

Last night during class, we learned about how to load a kiln. Here's Ron showing us where to put the 'posts' (I think they're called that) in the empty kiln and then the shelves began to hold and we took turns stacking the pieces together. We found that it's necessary to not stack the shelves like the Jenga game, but instead, have the posts at the same place.

Here are the first pieces in..... Gosh, I don't think that 'posts' is the wrong name.How I love puzzles! These is the first round of pieces. It's very much like doing a puzzle as the goal is to fit as many pieces the same height together in the kiln (without touching) in the same firing.

Spanky, Becky's beloved dog has been waiting for this day. He's been sitting on the shelf and finally this is his time to get into the kiln. See him on the left? Can't wait to see what he'll look like on Friday afternoon, when the kiln is unloaded. He's being obedient and facing the other direction.

In this pic, some of my pieces made it in. One of my favorites is the tumbler on the shelf in the center, the first one on the left. It has a bit of red iron oxide in the + part on each side and then was dipped in a shino glaze.The rest of my eight pieces are tucked away somewhere. Now, the kiln's about half full.

Ron's putting finishing touches on the stacks... They're stacked so neatly! All in all, I think I have nine pieces in this firing. Used alot more shino glazes and sprinkled a bit of soda ash on two of them. Friday at 2 pm is when it'll be opened. I'll be there!

Editor's Note: the second to the last pic shows the incorrect way to stack the pieces in a kiln. The posts need to be parallel to each other the entire way up. Thanks, Ron for reminding me of that and for catching that as we were loading it. So, that is what happens when Ron leaves the kiln area during a loading! :)

New

Here are some new tumblers I made last Saturday. I'm working on using a rib more in creating texture, as Ron has taught me. I like what's happening! How I wish there was more time to BE in the studio.

Barrel Firing #4 Results

Here are my four pieces from the last barrel firing clean after they've been washed with Murphy's Oil Soap. They are gorgeous! I'm so pleased. It's hard to catch the color on the photos.

Here's another angle.Such vivid and varied colors! How I wish these were functional. My friend Minke is also a sculpture artist. These are some of her barrel fired ladies.

Can hardly wait until Halloween.... when barrel firing #5 begins!

Learning

Wow.. I'm way behind on posting. A couple of classes ago, Ron gave us lots of insight about bowls. Had to take this pic to remember how to use the rib on the rim of bowls.Ron also gave a demo on tumblers where he made this.

This is really my style, so I tried to copy something like it. Here's what I made. It still needs to be trimmed. I hope to make many of these. I'm learning so much!