Cold Sunday

This afternoon we gathered at Clayworks to get a closer look at the pieces that were in the barrel. It was so cold outside- 40 degrees or so, and the wind was strong that I took quick pictures and not surprisingly, they weren't that good.
Elaine is a great handbuilder and made some hearts, which I think turned out well. The big piece is hers too, I think.
Most of the pieces in the firing ended up being black... or variations of black. I really liked Becky's birds.
This was the first firing though where some pieces exploded. In this case, Becky's birds. Here's a few heads, a tail and two middle sections. Wonder why?

After the barrel firing was over, I decided to make some plates. Here are four. Everything shrinks in the kiln here so these will be smaller.

Also made a medium sized bowl and another tumbler.

Meanwhile, Minke is working on her sculptures of women in different poses. She also surprised all of us by bringing us gourmet ham and cheese sandwich making. So, it was fun to be spoiled and enjoy time together chatting. Time in the studio is always unpredictable!

Barrel Firing #?

This was the result of the barrel firing yesterday. I have much to share, so I think I'll include a few blog posts.

This one was much different in that we just put the pieces into the barrel and didn't add anything like seaweed, etc. Just sawdust, sawdust, and more sawdust. Jim Whalen has been a recent workshop leader at Clayworks, so my friends wanted to use what they've learned in this barrel firing and also do a firing in prep before the next second part of his workshop. Some had terra sigilata on the (a clay mixture) and others had been burnished. I put one piece in that had simply been bisque fired. It really didn't look like the others. In the pic above it's the whitish one under the orangish one on its side at (about 11 o'clock).

The above picture was taken at about 8 o'clock in the evening, after the flame had died down. The entire barrel firing didn't take much time. We decided to unload the pieces today to make sure everything had cooled.
These are some of the pieces before hitting the barrel.
I heard that including these would bring good color, so I put a few in mine. Sweet gumballs? I forget what they're called.
We put the pieces in two layers. Above is layer #1. My piece is the whitish one with the gumballs in it. A variety of birds and some hearts too. Beautiful colors in this pic.
We used sawdust of different consistencies.. .some really fine sawdust and others that were more coarse.
Here, Becky, Elaine, and Verna? are adding more sawdust to the barrel.

In all this, I've lost track of which numbered barrel firing this is... oh well.

Finally, once the match was lit, the flames spread quite rapidly. Will show the results in the next post. The first pic in this post was taken just before we all left the studio.

Working on Finding My Own...

These days, I'm working on finding my own style... my own look in pottery. This means finding out what kind of clay, form, and designs I like best. Most potters I know or have followed have pots with a distinctive look- you can guess who the potter is just from looking at one piece. That is my goal eventually. This is what comes easiest for me these days. Here are the pots getting ready to come out of the electric kiln. Mine are the chocolate brown ones with the spiral slip.

I really like this look: the earthen red clay with the white slip and Ron's creme glaze. The glaze produces small chocolate brown specks that show up on top of the white slip. Will put some of these soon on etsy. Many of them will end up in my cupboard... :) The yunomi teacups are excellent for coffee and have already been put to use.

Some more bowls...
How I wish I could make a living doing this... oh, and I brought some earthen red clay home as tomorrow the studio is closed during the day until 4:30 pm. Maybe I'll do some handbuilding with it while watching the KY Wildcats play the TN volunteers in basketball? :) Clay is much more fun than basketball. Oh well... Also I put some slip on the communion sets that I'm making. Three very similar looks. Here they are, before going into the bisque kiln.

I wanted a simple, natural kind of look. I used the spiral shape because communion calms and centers the self, and I didn't want attention drawn to just the chalice and paten (small plate), so I made these. The chalices are more or less identical. Hard to see, but I poured the sides of the chalice with the white slip, leaving a distinct edge. I'll take better pics next time of the sides of the chalices. I had to make pinholes in the bottom of the chalice stems, so they wouldn't blow up in the kiln, because there is air inside the stem part. Will be great to see these when they're finished!

Oh, and I finally purchased some new supplies today, (bats, bat pins, and a sgrafitto tool) thanks to a Christmas stocking stuffer gift from my parents. These will help so much. Thanks, Dad and Mom!

A Day Away

I can tell that when I have a day away from the studio these days. It's usually not good. It has been very challenging not having work. At least my home looks better today as I cleaned.

Yesterday though, a lot happened in the studio. Above is the work I glazed plus my four new yunomi teacups. :)

I also did some slipwork and added slip to several bowls and yunomi teacups. I tried a new method... taking a small sponge and dipping it into some pouring slip and making a spiral design while rotating the piece on one of those shimpo (whatever it's called thing that spins pieces in a circle). So, the four on the bottom and left in the above pic had that slipwork.
Here's a closeup of that new slipwork. I'm eager to see how it turns out with the Ron's creme glaze on it.

A side view of some of the slipped pieces.

And, four of my yunomi teacups came out of the electric kiln. They quickly made their way home, but not before a few pics. I glazed a bunch of others too.
These pics aren't the best, but the pic above and below show my latest favorite form. Earthen red clay with white slip, glazed in Ron's creme. If you look closely, you can still see some of the spiral slipwork through the red wine in this pic. :)
Now, my shelf is almost empty. Pottery is saving me these days. I'm thankful.