a couple pots from the kiln

Here is a before and after shot of the tall bottle with the tree motirf. I was playing around with different coloured terra sig slips on this one. I started with a mason black stain, graduated into a pale bluish green and finally into a golden rutile. I was not sure how it was going to look as I was just dumping a little of this, and a little of that into the sig.

Here is a really drippy jar. A really thick slip was slathered on all over and then "combed" through with a rippled vegetable cutter (gotta love the dollar stores). The glaze is one I have been testing, hoping for a satin matt surface with hints of pale grey/lavender and copper green, but alas, it just runs all over the darn place.

Digging in the Dirt

I am off to go dig clay this evening. A bunch of us from the studio have this crazy idea to go out and dig up a few buckets full of clay to see if we can get a trhrowing body, a glaze and a terra sig out of it.


Crazy

After that, I am off to Sooozin's to book our flights for our Kentucky trip. Better to do it in person than hope we are on the same page to later find out we are flying on different planes, at different times.

Then tomorrow I am off to get my passport photos taken. Friday I need to get the forms delivered to the passport office, but they close at 5:30, so i will really have to move it to get there in time. I may duck out of work a wee bit early to do that.

On top of all this, there is a plumber coming to look at my pipes on Friday, so that means I need to do a bit of a clean up tonight and tomorrow, like the dishes, sweeping, mopping, or at least stack and shuffle to make the chaos appear somewhat orderly.

The kilns are finally back up and running full tilt, so this weekend will be spent glazing all the stuff that I have been making for the past couple of months. I have a zillion little square plates with various slipped, shellacked and abraded patterns (very anxious to see how they come out), various jugs, teapots, pitchers, bowls etc. There will be at least 2 kiln loads full. May as well get it all done now, and then maybe I wont be in such a rush for the winter sales.

2 new pots up on Etsy

I have listed another shellac resisted teabowl and a coffee mug on Etsy. For some reason, when I send the pictures to my blog via my iphone, they are not showing up in my post list, so you will have to look to your right, and you will see all of my Etsy pots for sale. I will have to load the pictures when I am sitting down with my actual computer tonight.

The last few days

I have actually been a bit more productive lately. I guess with the heat starting to become more bearable and less humidity in the air I have more energy. I was able to load a bisque on Friday night, in anticipation of being able to fire a glaze load this week, but the last element in the kiln that had not been replaced yet, finally shuffled off it's mortal coil (pun intended) last week, the element is on order, but did not arrive on Friday, so hopefully tomorrow (fingers crossed). I also threw a bunch of the square plates, and trimmed them up. They have all had the slip/shellac treatment and are now drying under wraps. There were a couple squared off teapots. They are actually quite round, but the bottom comes out quite square and then I cut out feet at each corner. I should record the process and post it one of these days. I also took a few pictures, and will take more, of finished work and posted to Etsy (see last post). I updated my facebook account finally. I think I was the last person in the FB universe to update the new (to me) settings. It seems I am an antisocial networker.

I glazed the fire bowl and am again, just waiting for the element so that I can fire it. My fingers are really crossed with this one as there are a few things that could go wrong, and as it is a custom piece, it is marked for death by that fact alone. I just have to take deep breaths and pray to the kiln gods. I should have made 2 to be on the safe side, but I did not.

Here are a few pics of some of the pots that went into the bisque, including some of the square shellacked plates with various designs. I am especially fond of the leaf pattern and have begun working more along that line. It takes way less time to do than the trees, as the spirals take a really steady hand and a lot of patience. I also like the 1 big spirally thing with the stripes running behind it. It kind of reminds me of a seedling just poking it's head out of the ground. Apparently I am thinking of all things natural and organic when I am doing these. I don't really start with anything particular in mind, but I always seem to end up with these kinds of designs.

Smok'in Pots in Bragg Creek

I was up and out early this morning. I went out to Bragg Creek (about a 45 minute drive west of Calgary) to build a paper kiln at my friend Loretta's place.
It is dirty, and tiring, but what part of making pottery isn't? Anyway, we started with a bed of cumpled up news paper, then small wood pieces, covered that with a layer of wood chips, and a layer of sawdust. Straw was used to pack in around the edge to keep the sawdust from leaking out and was used in this manner after each layer of pots. On top of the sawdust we sprinkled a special mixture of copper carb. mixed with other things like "Italian Seasoning". It contains a lot of salt, and was not so good for cooking, but it is good for low fire methods like this. On top of this bed of sawdust, we began layering on the pots. Then another layer of sawdust, another sprinkle of the copper carb mixture, and then a generous helping of moose poop, and then more pots. After a few layers of pots, we wrapped a heavy duty wire mesh around the the whole structure, and continued adding more pots, sawdust, straw, copper carb, moose pellets etc. Once all the layers were in place and a final layer of sawdust was added, we began the plastering process. A wheel barrow was filled with thick slip and heavy duty glossy magazine paper was dipped in and then laid out on the wire mesh. We covered the entire structure with one coat, making sure to leave two corners free for the smoke stacks. We wired 2 coffee cans to the 2 corners that did not have a burner port. The coffee cans were then plastered into place. After we had approximately 7 or 8 layers of clay and papers, we lit it on fire with a tiger torch. This kiln will slowly smolder for about 24 hours (maybe more, maybe less). Here are some pictures to document the process.

Now we wait, hope it doesn't rain and go back when it cools down to dig out the pots. Then we clean them up and apply a layer of paste wax to give them a little protection and shine.

This is a vase that was thrown in 2 parts, it was never very tall to begin with, but was thrown to demonstrate sectional throwing in my Tuesday night class.

I am guilty of pottery plagiarism. This is my version of a bird house that I saw Hsin-Chuen Lin throw on You Tube. I have since altered this one a bit and have done some bas relief shingles on the roof using wax resist. In the background you can see some of my pots that are ready for some raku firing. I have just used Plainsman M370 porcelaineous stoneware and have covered in Terra Sigilatta.

This is just a very large bowl. I have not measured, but I think it is about 17 or 18 inches in diameter, and about 10 inches tall?

Hmmm, I can't change the orientation of my pictures when I send them from my phone...just tilt your head a little to the right....there you go, it's a casserole done in my red tree design.

I apologise for the poor picture quality, the lighting in the studio is less than stellar.