How To

 This started blooming in my yard and I had no clue what it was until I sent the picture to my mom--- it's a gladiola!  It will bloom when I'm away on vacation.  Go figure!

 Thought I'd show some of the process- the one I use to write on the bowls.

 The hardest part is figuring out which angle to put the bowl or deep plate.  Have learned to keep the graffito tool at about the same angle to get the depth I want in the clay.

 It's really easier than it may look; just time-consuming.

 This one has the words of the prayer attributed to St. Francis all around.  Lord, make me an instrument of  your peace--- almost any quote will do; I figured, well- almost everyone needs peace, right?

 It's also a challenge to space the words at least somewhat evenly.  I never want it to be exact and 'perfect'-- after all, it's art!

Now the three bowls/deep plates will dry completely when I'm on vacation.  :)

A Good Monday

 Finally planted the caladium bulbs my parents gave me today.  Added some osmocote and I forget what it's called--- the small silver rocks that deter the moles.

 Had a few elephant ears left to plant.  All in all, planted about 10 caladium bulbs and 2 more elephant ears.

 Spent some time earlier reclaiming the clay that I saved from trimming bowls.  These are 2 lb. pieces of clay.  Probably will turn these into bowls tomorrow- or soon!

 Visited Starworks Ceramics this past Saturday afternoon.  Went to an electric kiln workshop there which was a bit helpful, yet I thought it would be more about working with any electric kiln, not just a certain brand.  Even more interesting was visiting the room in Starworks where they make the clay that is dug locally.  Here are four locally dug ones.

 Wow, that's a big pug mill!  :)

Am counting down the days until vacation.  Until then, it's great to read pottery blogs as I have the time.  Dinner tonight--  a bowl of homemade granola cereal and wine in one of my favorite teabowls.

Counting Down

Worked a lot this weekend, so sadly that left little time for pottery.  Did manage to trim this large bowl (it still needs some work) and a few others tonight.  Tomorrow, I'll etch some words on the four remaining pieces.  

Am counting down the days until vacation----  :) 

Meanwhile, my plants are growing!  The hyacinth bean vines are using the trellis.  Not the best picture, but these are thriving. 

 And while this is a blurry picture, the petunias are not and they are happy too. These are the ones that just appeared in this planter.  Come, vacation come!
May do a bisque firing this week.  The hard part will be picking a time that I'm here for 7 or so hours.
Thanks for reading and your comments, etc.

First and Workshop

My first kiln firing- a test one went well.  One slight mishap----  I inadvertently programmed the kiln to preheat for 0.04 instead of 0.00.  Somehow, I had put the cone 04 part a bit early in the programming.  I learned of my error when I called Skutt technical support.  They were incredibly helpful- evidently, this has happened before.  I knew something was wrong because I noticed the kiln took an extra hour to fire---- and thus, an hour less of sleep for me!  Now, I know.  Problem solved.  whew!

Tomorrow I am going to the electric kiln workshop at Starrworks Ceramics in the afternoon.  It's FREE too!  Can hardly wait to learn more.

Bisque firing is next.  what temp do you bisque fire to?  More soon...