Another new body

I picked up a new ^6 clay body on the weekend. It is black and it fires black, should be interresting. It was a pleasure to throw, very smooth and very plastic. I was able to achieve height and width without much difficulty too. I guess it is not recommended for heating in the microwave as it contains black iron oxide. I guess I wont be making mugs out of it, but I did get a casserole, 6 coin banks, 1 large bowl and a pitcher thrown out of just over half a box. I will trim tomorrow night, we'll see how it goes.

New porcelain and glaze

Last night I opened up the glaze kiln that I fired off on Sunday. It was pretty much full of tests, so I was nervous to say the least. There was a wack of mugs in the new re formulated polar ice body. I had also tested the new Plainsman stoneware clear base glaze. I made a 1000g batch of the clear using 4% Mason Turquoise stain and then a 1500g batch of just straight clear. After all these years of putting it off, I finally got around to mixing up some of Stephen Hill's cone 6 Strontium Crystal Magic (cool version). I sprayed it on all of the mugs and dipped it on most of the rest of everything else. It is more of an enhancer than a good glaze by itself, so I sprayed and dipped a variety of our studio glazes over top of it. I knew that it would make things runny, but wondered just how runny, as the ~5% lithium carb would act to make things a bit matte. I also sprayed the plainsman clear on about 75 or so Christmas tree decorations/gift tags that I made out of the non plastic polar ice version. I am thinking of next year, as I realize that they are a bit late for 2014. Everything came out great. I think a mug kissed the spout of a teapot, so a little grinding and re firing will be required, but other than that, it was all more than I could hope for. I had visions of lakes of glaze coating my brand new kiln shelf, but no, it was all perfect. This is a picture of one of the mugs glazed in the Plainsman clear base on the inside and the bottom 1/3rd on the outside with the Crystal Magic sprayed on the top half and then a blue hare's fur glaze applied on the top 2/3rds. The second image is just a close up of the handle showing how much it can indeed run. Although you cant tell in these images, this porcelain is still very translucent, even with the darker glaze on the outside.

Translucent cone 6 porcelain

I have been mucking about with a new porcelain body. Plainsman Clays in Medicine Hat has been working on a cone 6 translucent body that would be comparable to Laguna Frost. They tested and came up with a body that appeared to throw well, but when they scaled it up to a full batch, the throwing properties were lost in translation. So they are back to the drawing board to tweak it to make it more throwable. That being said, I got my hands on half a box and did throw it. Whipped cream or pudding comes to mind when trying to describe it's consistancy. It did not stand up well, nor did it trim easily. I did however manage to get a few pieces made, mostly mugs. Here are a couple of examples of what came out of the kiln. I love the way it feels. Silky, smooth, fat etc etc etc. I like the finished result enough that I would try to fight another box of this into submission, and will definitely give their next revised batch a shot too.

This pic is of the inside of the little cup. I carved the bottom to see how that would show, and it does, quite well.
 

The little cup with the sgrafitto deco is not very thin, in fact the carving was not easy as the body is quite hard once it becomes bone dry. I really just wanted to know how it would take the OM4 terra sig and it feels really good, no fit issues that I can see.

2 days in a row, I think that is a record

I managed to post items to Etsy 2 days in a row. I do believe that is a record for me. Mind you, I only managed to post 1 little cup last night, but it's better than nothing. It is the picture taking and photo editing that really bogs me down. I am using programs that I am not really well versed in and every time I open my lap top I scratch my head and say "now how did I do that last time?" I usually stumble upon the correct process eventually, but it always seems a trial and error kind of thing. On top of that I had to charge my camera's battery before I could download the images to the computer directly, so that delayed me by an hour or 2 as well. So here it is, the one little lonely teabowl. I really do love this one. The glaze (although a commercial concoction) really feels nice, it is a silky satin mat and just feels really good in the hand. I almost didn't post it, but what do I need with another little bowl? My cupboards are FULL of them.

Do "A", and "B" should happen...

My experience with firing kilns is limited. The first time I fired a kiln, it was the 40 cu.ft. gas kiln at our old studio. The only type of firing that I did was the glaze firing, as the bisque required a better understanding of how that monster worked. I only ever ended up firing that kiln a few times before we moved, and then all that learning was for naught, as we moved to firing to ^6 electric. Now, I have fired the electric kilns many times, and I have done bisque, glaze and on glaze (ie: lustre) loads. However, because they are computer controlled, I usually just load ‘em up, turn ‘em on, and go home for the night. They usually take 15-19 hours to fire a glaze, depending on how densely packed. On Monday, I fired both kilns at the same time, and they were both glaze loads. I went to the studio on Tuesday at lunch time to check on them, and they were both still firing away, but that is not unnatural. I returned at about 5pm that evening and to my surprise, one kiln had turned off properly, but the other one was still chugging away, and had not reached temperature yet. I freaked out. That kiln had been on for 19.5 hours and was still not to temp. I turned it off, then I said to myself, hold on....turn it back on, see how far it needs to go, call my potter friend Susan and see what she has to say about this. Susan has been potting/sculpting for many more years than I and she worked at Ceramics Canada for 20+ years and has a brain full of knowledge. She talked me down from the ledge, advised me to let it go for a bit longer, watch the colour in the peep hole etc.  I ended up letting it go until it was as close to temp as I could let it go before I had to go home for the night. It was only about 5 or 6 degrees away from ^6 at that point (It ended up firing for approximately 24 hours (crazy, I know). I went back to the studio today at noon to check that the inside of the kiln was not a hardened lump of melted glaze. Everything was fine, at least as far as I could tell by only seeing the top shelf results. I have a feeling that this kiln did not fire as quickly due to the fact that I had loaded it quite full, and I know that the elements are getting old, and need replacing, and the thermocouple might need swapping out too.

So, when you do “A”, and the “B” that is supposed to happen, doesn’t, don’t freak out. It’s all just one big learn’in experience.

UNEMPLOYED, BUT STILL POTTING!

These are some of the things I have been working on recently. The Pictures were taken by by friend Barb Clarke. She is studying photography, and these were her first "commissioned" photos.
On another note, I have been spending a lot of time in the studio lately. I was restructured out of my job. Oh well, I am not angry, just ticked off. I am looking for work now that will take advantage of my creativity, and allow me to grow and develop my skills.
I have a couple of pottery sales coming up. The first is the Mad Potters Sale on April 17th, and the 2nd is the Fairview Studios Pottery Sale on May 1st.
I am also currently participating in a glaze development class for cone 6 offered through Fairview Studios, and hopefully this will result in some interesting new surface treatments for my work.
The painting that I have included in the photos above is one the paintings I have been working on. I have been part of a painting group that meets once a month. We are not all professional painters, but some of the members do make a living at it and are quite good.