One last load buttoned up

I managed to get the last few pieces loaded into the kiln last night. Turns out I really only had about 4 medium sized bowls, a large casserole, 1 mug to re fire due to a wax mishap the first go round, another single mug that did not make it in the last time and 4 small soup bowls. I filled the gaps in with student work, and one of our resident genius’s pieces. The genius I speak of is Walter. His work is usually very intricate, with a lot of carving and piercing. The piece I  loaded last night was a tall vase with all this carving and a very delicate pierced rim. It made it into the kiln by a hair, it was almost too tall.  In reality, there won’t be much from this load for me to take to the sale as one of the mugs, and 2 of the large bowls are for an order I am filling for a friend for Christmas, but I am a firm believer that the piece that someone really wants when they don’t buy something at a sale, is probably sitting on the glazing shelf back at the studio, so I try to get everything I possibly can to the table. I will have to seriously think about what to bring to the sale though, and will probably thin out my selection. I tend to try and cram as much as possible on a table, but when the table is open, people can see the work better and it is more inviting to pick up instead of reaching over and around other items. I always worry that I won’t have enough work. What if I sell out and my table is empty? Ya right, I wish.

Once this weekend is over, I am going to test some glazes. I am curious to try out the snowflake crackle glazes that John Britt wrote about in Ceramics Monthly. Here is a link to the Ceramics Arts Daily site with this article . http://ceramicartsdaily.org/ceramic-glaze-recipes/mid-range-glaze-recipes/crazy-beautiful-crazing-uncovering-the-mysteries-of-snowflake-crackle-glazes/ Although his main goal was to get a cone 10 snowflake crackle glaze, there are several cone 6 recipes that I want to try out. It is strange that I am always intrigued by these specialty glazes that are usually not functional, considering that I usually only make functional pottery. That must be my inner masochist coming out. In the article, he was using a brown clay body, but I usually only throw with white clay, so I will give it a shot. I don’t see why it won’t work, the crackles may just seem more subtle without the contrast of the dark background. If I try it with a little cobalt, it might make the crackles “pop” a bit more.