Friday, November 27, 2009

Happy Thanksgiving!

Happy Thanksgiving! Here are some of the yunomis from the latest firing. I'm so pleased with how they turned out! Today, I'm packing up two groups of pieces to head to galleries. I'll share the details of the galleries later, but I will hand deliver both to galleries in Asheville and Mt. Holly. These three and a few others are ones I can't part with just yet. :)
How I wish there were more hours in the day to be in the studio....

Sunday, November 15, 2009

Once Again

Once again another firing. Above are some pots (none are mine) from a recent firing at Clayworks. But for this one, I glazed a bunch more teacups.
This time I decided to put on spotted shino for a base and a bit of catherine's oribe glaze and some soda ash for accent.
This continues to be my favorite form. With a gallery show coming up, I also have been making some more teacups.
Here are some of Greg's pieces for a commisson. They're gifts--- what amazing variation in glaze!
And the kiln loading began. Last firing the two back stacks were identical in height so this was tried again.
The building continued. Several were around for the community firing loading of the kiln.
On the second shelf is one of my bowls.
That cup on the bottom right shelf is mine.
Meanwhile, Susan was putting elephant feet on a bowl.
Back to the kiln area; a closer look at Greg's pieces.
There were a bunch of clayworks folks around for the kiln loading. (L-R) Greg, Becky, and John.
A closer look at the yunomi.
The front stack in the kiln before the door was shut. A full kiln!
The front stack with cone packs (at the bottom ridge of the kiln. :) I'll show the results in my next post. The firing started Wednesday evening and the pots were cool by Saturday evening. I was quite pleased!

Wednesday, November 11, 2009

This Past Weekend- Saggar and Raku

This is a raku picture... late in the evening, but first Saturday was full of saggar firings. It was a good, full day.
Yes.... birds and a sculpture are in this firing. Some raku... some saggar.
Becky's birds are absolutely gorgeous!
Here some are as they are cooling down......
Rich colors...
A variation of colors. I forget what she wrapped up the birds in for the saggar... Becky, if you read this, will you post some of the saggar ingredients in the comment section?
Here's some before they went into the kiln...
Becky and Cindy made some horsehair pieces. Here they're putting horsehair onto the very hot birds and cats. They discovered that there was a short window of time when the horsehair would burn onto the pieces.
Putting the pieces on a bit of sawdust creates black on them too...
Here Minke's woman sculpture is cooling down after a saggar firing.
Throughout all this time I glazed some yunomis. I later changed some of these glazes, but most of them ended up with a spotted shino base and catherine's oribe accents on the outside and a little wax resist too.
I ended up putting one piece into the raku kiln.... a goblet/chalice on the left.
As usual, John was great about helping to monitor how the raku kiln was doing. He knows tons more about raku firing than I do.
The pieces fired up to 1800 degrees and I waited a few seconds before I removed it. Heard that with the glazes I put on, this would be a good idea.
The glazes I put on it were white crackle and flaming moondrops on the top rim and the bottom as an accent.
After time in the kiln, I put the goblet/chalice in a bucket to sit on a brick and cool while newspaper around it lit up. I put a lid on the bucket and then burped it to let some oxygen in.
The finished goblet/chalice. The crackle was achieved by John blowing on it.... I had no idea about this! The flaming moondrop glaze gave an interesting effect.... almost as if small pebbles were glued onto it. This one might go back into the next raku kiln with a bit more glaze on it.

Monday, November 9, 2009

A Jug's Journey

I posted this picture in my last blog post. This jug is one of my favorites... but it's gone and in the hands of friends. :( Someone asked about how it was made.

Phoenix clay (highwater clays)
Etched words into the clay when it was leather hard.
Let that dry a little and the brushed white slip into the words. This is a delicate process to say the least...
Bisque fired it...
Glazing: outside dipped into Tom's Clear...
Inside dipped into Catherine's Oribe... Rim dipped into Catherine's oribe.

I was surprised at how much the Catherine's Oribe glaze on the rim ran. Great reduction in the kiln...

Because of the copper in the Catherine's Oribe glaze, it isn't used on the inside of functional pots.

That's it! Another kiln was loaded last night. Perhaps some of my pots made it inside. Will keep you posted.