Raindrop and Raku

From a raindrop.... These are the start of the words in a Peter Mayer song that I etched onto a plate for me, just me. :) (Earthen Red plus white trailing slip). Everything I need in the etching is in the pic. Red pen to write down some of the lyrics of the song, the tool, and that's it!

Before the raku, mid-day, we celebrated Robin's birthday. This was not the first of her birthday celebrations... it was great to be included at the last minute and the conversation was full of laughter. Chris (second from left) brought a delicious coconut lemon pie. Yum!

Here we're all anticipating our piece of the pie.

Robin and Chris on this happy day- St. Patrick's day too! Gorgeous daffodils as well. I've loved it that it's warmer here--- real spring-like weather! All encouraging in the midst of job searching.

Made these six cups yesterday. Hope to trim them all later today. Am finishing more off with a rib and trying new things in terms of form. Put some slip on this cup earlier and then decided when it was dry to take a sponge and wipe some of it off. I like the effect....

Last night when I was at Clayworks it was also Raku night for Greg's class. Here Greg and John (L-R, respectively) are waiting for the kiln to heat up. Greg is drinking a beverage of some sort. Stories abounded. Greg has some of the best stories to tell. I stayed around a bit to watch the fun action. Check out John's blog for more pics.

Finally, the kiln was hot and pots were put in. In this pic above, some of the pots were drying as raku glaze had been put on them just prior to the class.

When it was hot enough, the pots came out one by one, and CAREFULLY! Here's John bringing his big pot to one of the small cans.

Newspaper caught on fire when the pot was placed in, which was a great thing.

Here's another small pot upon its arrival in the trashcan. All made sure to 'burp' the cans too..... to take the lid off of at some point, not to long after putting the pot in, to help the can catch fire again. All this helps in the cooling and the colors, I think.

This is John's big pot when he was burping it. He added some more newspaper inside it. We could literally see the colors changing. Amazing to watch!

Finally, when it was cooled down, it was retrieved from the can. Look how dark the big one is initially....

and then how in time, more colors come out. The small one is John's too; the smaller ones in the pic above are Ed's.

Writing this post has reminded me of how much more I have to learn about raku. Above is Greg's pot.... notice the face sculpture on it. The raku world is always unpredictable in a wonderful way.

Weekend and Glazing

Did some glazing tonight, but first there was yesterday.
Busy Sunday. I'm getting back into stoneware again and made this new form. Not sure if I'll keep it; I'm in an experimental phase. This is with phoenix clay; it's been about a year and a half since I've used this kind of clay. Thankfully, I've improved a bunch since then.
First put some wax resist on the bottom of these plates. Then, I ended up glazing these six plates with a base glaze of Ron's Creme. Also added accents of glaze in the colors of Ban Gareen, Tahitian, and Ryoko Cream. Applied some of the accent glazes with the bulb in the pic, making drops and also with my index finger, creating a different look. All will be fired in the electric kiln (cone 5). Haven't used this glaze combo before; will be interesting to see how these turn out. I do think that plates are high maintenance and hard to make. The plate form doesn't come easy for me; the teacups are easier. Guess I need to make lots of plates to improve that!

It's been wet outside. I'm ready for dry weather when I can go running.

On another note, lately, I've gotten some invitations to participate in artisan shows and other small events. While it's exciting, it just takes lots of time! I don't make pots full-time and I haven't been throwing clay as long as many other potters, but I'm reminded that there is just ALOT involved in being a full-time potter, not to mention making the pots! How does one make a living doing this? Gosh...

Wet/Dry Saturday

It was a day outside best for ducks and as a result, many potters came to the inside of Clayworks to play with the earth. I arrived at around lunchtime and almost immediately turned around and went out for lunch with Becky and John. We went to Lupie's Cafe, which is a Charlotte local favorite. When we arrived, Lupie was hard at work (the woman in the green shirt behind the counter). It is one of those hole-in-the-wall great homecooked food restaurants.

We were greeted by this and we waited to be seated. :) In what seemed like no time at all, we had food at the table and in no time at all, it disappeared. I ate pinto beans without onions and quickly learned from the two Charlotteans (is that a word?) that pinto beans with onions is a southern food, but not pinto beans without onions. Oh well... We talked and talked and Becky told us a bit about her trip to Sicily. She showed us these pottery shards. One piece looked like one of John's pots. Wonder how it got all the way to Sicily?
Time went by fast and we came back to Clayworks and slopped back through the rain and got into the dry inside. I began to work on making some slip out of phoenix clay. All that was needed was adding water to make it a clay slurpee mixture. Then, time to let it sit.

Once back and dry, we went our separate directions and got back to the clay. Above L-R are John, Kit and Becky. Kit was working on these. Earthen red clay with white slip and then underglaze. These are beautiful! She has a wonderful attention to detail.

Minke worked on her latest sculpture. Some limbs are definitely in the making.

Becky worked on her cave art doing all sorts of things to the surfaces.

Then I threw these five cups. Am not pleased with all of them, so I may not keep some. For many weeks I had thrown with only earthen red clay so phoenix clay was a big change. I'm getting back into it. Will make some more tomorrow. Put slip on these two. The one on the left needs more. Hmmm Will work on that tomorrow too.
All this happened on Pi/Pie Day. (3/14) John even brought a pie. Did you know it was Pi/Pie Day?

The Newest

These came out of the electric kiln earlier today. The one in the middle had a bit of white slip brushed onto it and some blue slip poured and then some words inscribed into it. The ones on the outer edges had white and blue slip poured on them. All were glazed in Ron's creme with some swirls of Tahitian glaze on the outside. The one in the middle is for me; the outside ones I'll sell. These have such a different look with the slip poured.And here's a bowl--the tahitian glaze spiral on the inside accentuates the slip made spiral, and the tahitian glaze put on the rim ran more than I thought it would. Here's a side view. The slip was poured on the sides. While I've really loved throwing with earthen red clay, I think I'll throw some pots with zella stone stoneware clay tomorrow.