Off Season Glazing

Well, it's kinda the off-season at Clayworks. All at the studio are preparing for the upcoming Spring Sale this weekend. There's about two weeks of no classes, which is quite interesting for some of us students, who consider being at the wheel being like breathing.

I moved this past weekend, so that has helped fill the extra time. The gas kiln was loaded on Sunday evening though in anticipation of the weekend sale. I glazed 10 pots then too. 7 made the cut and got in. The others are teaching me more about patience. :)

Above are the 10. Most have spotted shino glaze as a base glaze and some have alfred's blue and red iron oxide wash. I used the spiral design on several of these and some have only glaze on the inside and just partially on the outside. Depending on how the 7 turn out, I may change the glaze of the remaining 3. Put some of the glaze on with a bulb while I turned the pot in a spiral motion.

Also just updated my profile. I've decided that my new clay goals are:

+ help in the building of a kiln.

+ make pieces and woodfire them.

+ take a class at Penland.
These are all achievable. I'm hopeful!

Finally, look closely-- here's Julie, the amazing studio manager who I sometime thinks lives at Clayworks. She does so much and works so hard. One of the things she does best is load the kiln. The kiln will be unloaded on Wednesday mid-day. Wednesday will be here before we know it!

No Festival For Me

Wish I could go to the Catawba Valley Pottery & Antiques Festival this weekend. Instead, I'm moving! Thankfully, I've almost finished packing. Adrienne and several others that I know will have their pottery there. I'll definitely miss out. (Camera shutter didn't fully open. I need a new camera!)

Above, here's part of what came out of the kiln today. Three in this pic are mine. Here they are again in this next pic, fired with spotted shino on the inside and combos of red iron oxide, catherine's oribe, wax resist, alfred's blue, tenmoku all for design on the outside. I'm mostly pleased. This is a good beginning. I'm trying one of the new pots out tonight, just to see if it works. Yes, the red wine does is great in it. :) I'm going to focus more on my surface work in the days to come. In the meantime, I like hearing the ping ping sound of the pots once they come out of the kiln. My three are still ping pinging.

Finally, here are some of Adrienne's pots getting ready for their trip to Hickory, NC for the Festival. Look closely... Beautiful.

Word Cloud and Packing

Words are powerful. I'm watching CNN as I write, waiting for President Obama to speak to the nation. He's been on my mind much recently, as he's had to make many important decisions. Words. Wolf Blitzer is introducing Word Cloud which is a bunch of word on a screenand the larger hte owrd, teh more the President will emphasize it. Click here to learn more about Word Cloud (also called Tag Cloud). It's so interesting.
Writing has not come easily for me ever. English was one of my least favorite subjects in school and somehow I compensated, getting two masters degrees. I now love to read; although having a broad vocabulary has never been one of my strengths. It would be neat to be able to make word clouds using a program; I'll need to check more into that.
Am in the midst of packing these days; boxes surround me. It always takes longer to pack than I realize. The longer I pack though, the more I get rid of which is a very good thing. It took a long while to pack my pottery. Am about halfway done. Will be happy when packing is over! Took a break today and went running. Didn't head into the studio today. Hope to do that tomorrow, as a reward for all of my packing. I'm over half done, at least. :)
Until I move on Saturday, I'm living with the boxes. At least I'm staying in the Charlotte area.

New

Am trying some new glaze ideas. Put red iron oxide on all three of these.

For added effect, put wax resist on the outside too, mostly in a spiral shape, especially with the one in the center.

Clay body: Zella Stone Stoneware

Glaze: Spotted shino on the inside and rim

Outside: some spotted shino, catherine's oribe, alfred's blue, and tenmoku in varying designs. Base of the outside has no glaze; Recently, I've liked the plain clay look.

Sprinkled a bit of soda ash on the outside too.
These were glazed just in time to be put in the gas kiln that is firing now. :) While there's now a two week break from classes at the studio, the resident artists are gearing up for a sale. Time will tell how these turn out. Can you find them in the kiln? Middle left...