Just a Peek

Last weekend was the May long weekend. As many silly people trekked out on the first camping weekend of the summer, I was ensconced in the studio mixing glazes and loading kilns. It turns out that I was the wisest one. It rained all weekend in town and snowed several feet in the mountains. These are just a couple quick shots of the bisque kiln all loaded up and ready to fire and the resulting glaze kiln that I loaded on Monday. It was still at 650 F so I was only able to take a quick peek in to take the photo.

Catching up in the studio

On top of what has been going on at my condo, I have been busily beavering away in the studio. Here is a quick rundown of some of what has been going on since my last glazing frenzy

here are some of the pots from that last glaze marathon

 

This is a cup and saucer for a potential project, possibly more to follow on that, we'll see.

 

Because I never make coffee pots, I thought I would change that

 

Must have teapots 

 

More scratching as always

 

White on white scratching, front and back

That's it for now.

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.

Getting stuff done

I was teaching class last night and had a couple of new students to indoctrinate. I could see the fire in their eyes. They really, really wanted to make stuff. By the end of class, I don't think the fire had been extinguished, just smoored. There was the inevitable struggle as they tried to do battle with the clay instead of working with it, but first night was fairly successfull. They both made a few pots, and that is the only goal on night one. Make at least one pot that you will be able to trim next week. That's it, the rest is all play/mud wrestle etc. Here are some pictures of a few pots from the glaze load I fired on Sunday, as well as 2 of the very wide platters I made on the weekend that I trimmed and then slathered with underglaze and then attacked with a rubber tipped clean up tool.

Pots waiting for the kiln

This week blew right on by. Last weekend was a long one so I took advantage and threw, made glaze, fired a bisque and then a glaze. As usual, I have photos of the pots I have waiting, but none of the finished work. Maybe I will take them tonight. I need to get a batch of pots down to Galleria on Saturday, so tonight is the only option for picture taking. This is an arty shot of a bowl and a casserole with various other pots in the background

These 2 pics are of a lamp base I am working on. Fish seem to be my theme lately...wonder why that is...

On a not pottery note, I met with the contractor yesterday afternoon to walk through my condo to make sure everything looks ok in terms of wall locations and to discuss the kitchen. Nothing was left of it when they got there, so I had to let them know what it should look like and then any changes that I would like to see happen. I really want a pantry, and I hated the peninsula/island so instead I am putting the pantry where the peninsula started and then I will buy a counter top height table with drop down leaves in that space. It will act as a counter as well as an eating area that actually functions. I asked the "when" question as well. He says that there is a 14 week timeline that will begin as soon as they pass the last inspection before drywall starts. So it could be 15-16 weeks. Possibly a move back date 1 week before the 1 year anniversary of the flood. And that's all I know for now.

Getting Ready for the Fairview Pottery Sale...

The craft sale season is in full swing and the Fairview Studios Pottery Sale is swiftly approaching. I will be there with all of my pots this Saturday (Nov 23^rd) from 9am to Noon. The Christmas sale is, as always, a unique event and a good study in human behavior. The lineup starts to form somewhere around 8am. The well seasoned customers who have been to our little sale before know to bring their own bags, boxes, carry alls etc. and they all rush in to the hall upon opening like demented lemmings rushing to the cliff’s edge. Nobody shoves or pushes (we are Canadian after all), but there is a determinedness in their eyes to get the biggest, the bestest, or most fantabulous pot ever. They grab the first few po

ts that catch their eye and then hem and haw over their selections as they cruise the rest of the tables, setting pots down, picking new fav’s up in their stead, or just going straight to the cash tables without second guessing themselves.

There are also 2 distinct types of people who attend these sales, at least that I have noticed anyway. There is the person who wants something very unique and one of a kind, and then there is the person who brings a ruler and lines up all the mugs in a row to pick out the mugs that are not all the same height. These same people may also bring along paint chips and fabric swatches to ensure that their new purchase matches the paint on their walls, or the fabric on their furniture etc.

But whether you are a matcher or a mixer, we have pretty much everything you could want.

Behind the scenes is just as interesting, albeit unobservable to the non potter. Starting around the 1^st of November, there is a mad rush to get as much work fired as is humanly possible (or is that humanely – Dave would think its inhumane to have him work so hard) Pretty much every day people are asking if there will be another glaze firing, or another bisque, or if we think there will be enough time to throw today and get it done for the sale. I even have this insane urge to try to produce work right up to the last second. Granted I have to bob and weave around student firings. I can’t interfere with those firings by jumping in with my work. So last night (Tuesday), I loaded a bisque. I know there is no possible way that I can get that work glazed and fired before Saturday morning, but I was mulling the possibility over in my mind last night. If I go to the studio and unload really hot bisque, I could do a marathon glaze session on Wednesday night and load a glaze to be unloaded Friday, priced and then packed. Doubtful to say the least. I have heard a story or 2 of flaming pots in the back of cars on the way to sales. Not something I want to experience first hand.The second best scenario is that I spend a bit of time on Sunday to glaze at a leisurely pace and have it ready for the Moe Shelly Craft Sale on December 1^st at the Bamboo Lounge. This is actually the best option. When I rush, I make mistakes, or break stuff. That is always bad.

Here is a non sale related tip: When someone gives you a ginormous tub of Cornish stone, don’t leave it in your car for a week. I opened my hatch the other day to discover that the bucket had tipped over and dumped about 3 pounds of pale blue grey Cornish stone powder all over. I did manage to get most of it back in the bucket, but I will need to vacuum the rest out at some point. I took the Cornish stone because it is the real deal. We can’t get this anymore. The replacement material did almost the same things, but then there was a replacement to the replacement and it does not do the same thing, at all.

There’s A Lot Going On

Well, I guess fall is over. It was a lovely 19 degrees on Saturday, the sun was out, the sky was blue and it was warm. Sunday however was a completely different story. It started out by raining over night on Saturday and by the time I left for the studio at 8:30, it was quickly becoming snow. It then proceeded to snow all day.

But with the snow comes looming sale deadlines, so I managed to finish handling all the mugs I made on Friday, I sgrafittoed 4 mugs in very unique freehand designs, made a couple of glazes, loaded and fired off a bisque and topped my day off by throwing some medium sized bowls.

The 2 glazes I made are very similar; in that they are the same base and that they both contain 4% rutile. One of them however contains 4% tin. I am working with the Plainsman Clays recipe using Alberta slip and Frit 3134. It is the simplest glaze formula, and comes out really, really nice. It feels lovely, it doesn’t craze and it applies beautifully. The only crabby thing about this glaze is that you have to calcine half of the Alberta Slip to drive off excess moisture to reduce the plasticity. Not a difficult job in and of itself, but it just adds another step to the process as well as making you think ahead when deciding to mix glazes. I pop it in the kiln in bisque bowls, fire to 022 and hold for a bit. I do this overnight so I can mix it first thing the next day. It comes out looking like chocolate milk powder. So the one with just the rutile is a lovely purplish lavender colour floating over an amber background. It breaks nicely and is reminiscent of our true Orange Blue Rutile glaze from our cone 10 reduction days. The other great thing is that it plays really, really nicely with our other glazes which can always be an issue when making a glaze that will probably end up being layered with other glazes. This one will hopefully become a studio glaze for all to use.

The second glaze is the same as the first but with the addition of 4% tin. I have not really tested this one, but according to Plainsman, it is a light gloss brown. It isn’t the brown I am after so much, but when a thin wash of Titanium Dioxide is brushed over top, it changes colour to a creamy green and blue variegated glaze that breaks nicely on texture etc. This glaze will not become a studio glaze. The tin is just too expensive for the quantities we would require.

I can foresee that my future for the next couple of weeks will entail more mug carving. I have a few flood mugs I need to finish. I have 19 or so mugs to carve and I will probably do half flood mugs and half whatever comes out of my brain. I will also be glazing and firing as much as I can. There is the Fairview Christmas sale on November 23^rd, and the Moe Shelley Craft Market the following weekend on Sunday December 1^st. I won’t have much, if any, time in between to restock, so I will need to have stock ready for both.

My nose will be on the grindstone (what a weird saying – how does grinding off your nose mean that you are working hard?) for the next while as I try to get ready with my own work in amongst the student firings that always take precedent in the weeks coming up to a studio sale.

Tonight I will be sending out the reminder email about the sale, so If you are anxiously awaiting the info, it is coming. But until then, I will post the info here.

A few pots from Medicine Hat

The firing at Medalta was far from perfect but there were some pots that came pretty darned close. I managed to shoot a few good quality pictures before I came home and here they are. Overall I would say 1/3 crap, 1/3 good and 1/3 excellent.

Glorious or Gloriously Hideous

I leave tomorrow morning at 6:30am for the Hat. I have not packed a single thing yet (not counting pots and slips of course). I also have a massage booked for this evening, so I wont be home until 7:30 or so. I know, kinda dumb to book a massage the day before I embark on a marathon glazing/firing event, but at least I will be limber. I may need to book another for when I get back. I am taking almost every pot I have thrown since January as well as a couple flashing slips, some coloured terra sig based slips (green, blue/green, rutile & black) and a shino. There will be glazes at the studio that I will be able to use, but I have these on hand and can not really use them at cone 6 in electric kilns, so I am using them where I can. I am eager to leave and get started, but I am also thinking about all the work that this is going to be. I have approximately 100 pots to decorate, wad and load. Then there are the kiln shelves that will need to be scraped and cleaned when we are done. I am bringing a jumbo bottle of ibuprofen as well as a box of muscle relaxants. Perhaps a bottle of wine would be in order too.... It feels a bit strange to me to have not fired much in the way of pots over the last 3.5 months. All of my output has been geared towards the salt and soda firing this weekend. This means that I am risking most, if not all, of my near future sales on this one weekend. If something goes awry, I could have a load of crap. If all goes well, then nothing to worry about, but I come from a long line of worriers. I have almost nothing ready for the studio sale coming up on May 4th and if this does not go to plan, then I really will not have much to offer. I will have a quick refresher on how their kilns work (ie where the air is, where the gas is, etc, but then it is up to me to remember how we fired it last time (thank goodness for kiln logs and kiln gods) and what we might want to change based on the results from last time. To be honest, there are only one or two things I would change. I think we packed the soda a bit tight and I would cut back on how much soda we sprayed and increase the burritos. The spraying tends to cause the glaze to become a bit grey if too much water is introduced. It seems to trap the carbon in a not very pretty way. If we decide to stay with the same amount of spraying, I would increase the damper wafting and keep it open a bit longer in between applications of soda to clean up the atmosphere and brighten the colours and hopefully mitigate any greying of the glaze. The salt kiln (for me) gave results that I appreciated a bit more. I love toasty orange and brown orange peel. I love flashing too, and that will be more evident in the soda I think, but there were a lot of dry pots in the soda compared to the salt (from the over packing I am sure). I hate this, I keep thinking about what could be and then in 3 days I will be confronted with what is, be it glorious or gloriously hideous. I will take lots of pictures and maybe some video as we go and I will try to blog a bit as well (back pain permitting). We also have a visit planned at Plainsman too, so perhaps we can fit that in at some point on Friday (?)
Here are some pics from that first salt firing a couple of years ago during the coldest weekend that year in Medicine Hat, so cold it froze my power steering. This weekend should be tropical in comparison.

Getting Ready for Salt

I have been throwing cone 10 clay almost exclusively since the end of December in preparation for my upcoming trip to Medalta in April to fire off their salt and soda kilns. I have made a lot of stuff in that time, but I am in that place right now where I don't know if I have made enough, or if I have made too much. Each kiln is 20cu feet and I am splitting the firing with my friend Susan (aka Sooooozin). So I have a full 20cu feet to fill, plus all the extras like on bag walls, the space under the bottom shelves etc. The end of my last bag of clay was actually where I started to make really good pots (I hope – I still need to trim them). They are gnarly and full of texture just waiting for the salt to juice them up and soften all that craggy goodness. It would be ok if the kilns were here, but alas, they are 3 hours away and I need to transport them down there, and if I have left overs, I really can't do anything with them except wait for another high fire opportunity. I think I may just go for broke and make as much as possible. If I have way too much, then so be it, at least I will have lots to choose from. I got a bit stuck on the sgrafitto, so there is a LOT of it, but everything from now on is plain old clay that will get flashing slips or shinos.

Other than that, a few students and myself are going to put together an open house sometime in early to mid June to help boost the enrolment at the studio. It is located in an industrial area in the city's south east and the feeling is that some people are put off by the location. It is not in a trendy area with lots of cafes and boutiques. It is not in a residential area either. It is in a light industrial/business park area and because of this, we think that some people are nervous about it. It is not a bad area, it just isn't very busy at night, and it can feel a little isolated. The building is a Quonset, and that may not give it a very homey feel either. But you take what you can get in this town. Rents can be a bit steep for small business owners, let a lone a pottery studio owner. If we have an open house in June on a nice sunny day, when the birds are chirping, then we can open up the very large overhead door to let as much light in and make it look inviting. We can have demonstrations going on throughout the day with perhaps a stinky raku demo to attract the pyromaniacs and give away small raku bowls to the attendees. I really hate doing raku firings, but it does have that WOW factor as well as immediate gratification. I always go home feeling like I have been camping and sitting around wet smokey fire pits, but without the added bonus of smores. I usually also look like a bit bedraggled, my face is all red, my hair usually gets a bit fried from looking into the kiln to check glaze melt, and some article of clothing always gets a burn mark or two. Ya, raku and me are not friends. So, if we blitz our FB friends, our twitter followers (of which don't have), our personal e-mail lists etc, as well as advertise in all the free weekly magazines we can, then hopefully we will have a good day. If nobody shows, then it will just be a regular day at the studio. More on this to follow.

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.

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.

How Fast Can a Pot maker Pot?

I will soon find out just how quickly I can push the making process. Can I go from wet clay today to glazed pot in 1.5 weeks? Probably not, but I’m ‘gonna give it a go. The 18 mugs I made for a custom order took me from June 6th to the 24th to throw, dry (barely), bisque, glaze and fire again. I was just able to squeak in under the 1 month minimum deadline I usually give for this type of order due to the fact that I had, coincidentally, already thrown 10 mugs on June 3rd and was able to use them for this order. So in reality, I actually started the making 3 days earlier, so that means the whole process took 3 full weeks to complete. The other and more crucial factor was that I had the minimum amount of greenware waiting for bisque to be able to fire a fairly full load of pots in the bisque. I will not fire a load less than that so as not to waste energy, or run the risk of cracked pots. In the end, the planets were all lined up just right for getting things done on time.
Now we come to why I am going to attempt the improbable (if not the impossible). The customer for the mugs picked them up yesterday evening and today she has asked if I had any extras. She needs 2 more, but this time, could the text that was impressed into the mug be raised up on an appliqué? That’s doable, but the kicker is that she wanted to pick them up next Friday (I kyboshed this Friday right away). That is 9 days away, not including today. The other kicker is that I will not be back in the studio until Friday this week, so really, I only have 1 week. I know that will not be a goal I can achieve, so I think I can get away with 2 weeks, she just does not want to wait a month. My only issue once they are complete is how to fire them. I will probably have to use the small test kiln at Ceramics Canada to get them finished on time, at least to bisque. I have more than enough to fill a glaze load, but I will NOT have enough for a reasonably full bisque load.
It's my fault for saying yes, I know, but I am always up for a challenge, just not sure how the clay feels about it. It has been extraordinarily wet here for the past few weeks. 80% humidity in Calgary is pretty rare, but that’s what it was yesterday and the day before that, and the day before that etc. Then there is the 100% humid rain, the rising rivers and ground water seepage. Work that would normally be dry in a few days is still very squishy after a week. I will have to take advantage of the natural drying powers of the sun (if it can keep shining long enough for me to finish this), as well as strategically placed fans. I just have to keep thinking of this as a “marketing opportunity” that may result in future customers. I have said that a lot about similar “marketing opportunities” but then I start to count chickens before they hatch and I usually end up with a basket full of rotten eggs. I am what you would call a pessimistic optimist. I try to always look on the bright side of things, but I know that in the deep dark recesses of my mind, in the pessimistic corner where my alter ego lives, I am thinking of all the ways this could go off the rails. Handles will crack, appliqué’s will start to peel off, glaze will crawl, or pinhole, or they will just plain warp and come out looking slightly rhomboid. But then, maybe I worry too much.

Bitter Sweet and the Signs of Summer

I fired the kiln over the weekend and the mugs I was desperately trying to finish in time are all done and all perfect, except for one with a tiny surface S crack. I made one extra anyway, so now that one is mine. The overall firing however was a mixed bag. I had a few pots to re fire from the last kiln load that did not reach temp.
There were a few tall jars, a vase, 2 large plates, a large bowl and various tea bowls that I thought could all use a few extra degrees, so I put as many as I could in this firing.. The little tea bowls all came out better than when they went in, but the large and tall refired things all bloated, ran, or both.. The weird thing is that although I know the bloating is a cone 5 Bmix issue, I don’t usually have an issue with it, but it only happened on the tall pieces, and the big bowl. Now they look revolting. The little cups are all perfect (pics to come tonight maybe). The ones I am happiest with (other than the mugs) were my shellacked bowl and the square plates with the terra sig / shellac combo. I glazed them all in the translucent amber glaze and the black slip just works so perfectly with it. So I am about 70% happy with the results, but there were definitely some issues with this one.

That’s it for the Bitter, now for the Sweet: I am free for the summer. As of this last weekend, I will not be working on Saturdays during July and August. This will leave lots of extra time to play in the clay and perhaps experiment with glazes(?). I always say that I will devote more time to glaze tinkering over the summer, but I never really do. I try 1 or 2, get fed up and quit. We will be fooling around with cone 6 crystalline glazes in July, so there will be a fair amount of “experimenting” going on regardless.

I had visual confirmation this weekend that summer is officially here. The “campground” by the Stampede grounds is full of RV’s and trailers now. They sprang up like mushrooms over night. I am assuming that it is for the people that are actually in the Rodeo. I couldn’t imagine that anyone else would want to stay there. 1) It’s way too close to the grounds (therefore very noisy) 2) No Trees or grass, just hot blacktop 3) your neighbor can tell what you are eating for breakfast just by looking out his window into yours.

I have mixed feelings about the Stampede. I know that it is one of the big tourist attractions for our city and the money it brings in each year is appreciated by many businesses. However, I live about 2 blocks away from the grounds in the neighborhood of Mission. I can hear the fireworks every night, I know who is playing on the open air stages because I can clearly hear them and the screaming from the midway rides is actually quite deafening any time of the day or night. This year is going to be even better (the sarcasm is actually dripping it is so thick). It is the Stampede’s 100th anniversary this year and I hear tell of extra special fire works displays, among other celebratory hoo ha. This means that they will probably start earlier, go on much, much longer and will be extra loud.

I was at the stampede last year for the first time in about 10 years and it pretty much reinforced my dislike for the whole event. It was work related, so that was one good thing about it. as I did not have to sit in the office and slave away. I got there a bit early and wandered around the Midway while I waited for the rodeo to start (nothing like sitting in the hot sun wearing dark denim). After the rodeo, we all went down to the infield to mingle with the clients that the office had invited. I got my free beer ticket (I would never BUY beer there). It was Bud Lite, all the time, no other options and for someone who pretty much sticks to really dark ales and stouts, this was like drinking warm sugar syrup. I choked half of it down when one of the project managers “kindly” gave me another to drink. I’m sure she thought she was being nice, but the headache that quickly ensued caused me to leave early. On my way out of the grounds, I thought I would relive my childhood and get some cotton candy and a candy apple to take home (I’m a grown up now, I can get both at the same time if I want to). While standing in line I watched a rather dysfunctional family order their “food”. The mom had about a zillion holes in her face from the multiple piercings (not that there is anything wrong with body adornment, but it just adds to the visual here), the dad was a very meek and mild kind of person, and the kids, well, I just felt sorry for them. The mom got 2 candy apples and some floss for them and put the apples on the narrow little ledge of the “food” cart in order to open up their pack and stow them away. However, one of the kids decided he wanted his apple now, reached for it, but because his little arms were too short, he could not reach it and it tumbled to the ground, shattering the candy coating. The mother let loose the bluest streak I have ever heard, called him names, and made the kid cry. The husband went all beet red from embarrassment, but did not do anything to calm the raging beast-mom, or comfort/protect his projeny from her wrath. It’s only an apple for crying out loud (albeit an $8 apple).
By the time I got home, I was pretty ill. 1.5 Bud Lite + too much sun + too much denim = raging head ache. As you can probably tell by now, I am really looking forward to this year’s Stampede. It starts in 11 days, July 6th, yee haw :(
If you have never been to the Stampede, give it a go, you might like it (just don't forget your wallet). But if you do, please remember that Calgary is not all about Rodeos and red necks. We do have some culture, you just have to dig down past the cow patties to get to it.

Glazing, Firing & Drinking Irish Whiskey

Kiln is fixed! I should be ok to fire this weekend. So glazing/loading tonight and if I can fill the kiln, then I will fire it off tonight as well. That should not be an issue as I always have stuff kicking around that has been glazed, but not fired, and then there is that whack of stuff that needs to be re fired from the last time a kiln element blew.


So, that will be my evening. I don’t want to have to unload a kiln of mugs the same day that they are picking them up. That would be too nerve wracking.

We are having our 2nd semi annual studio clean up day next Wednesday. We have been in the space for 3 years, and have had difficulties cleaning and maintaining it. Because it is a privately owned recreational studio, with all different kinds of people, cleanliness can be an issue. Some people don’t feel that they should have to clean up things like wedging tables, plaster tables, the floor around their wheel etc as they pay to come here to get away from cleaning at home. They feel it is the ownerships responsibility. Others are just plain forgetful, and others are just lazy (I probably fall in that category to some degree)

One person can not maintain the space on their own. The floors are unsealed concrete and they do not clean up well. If this was a city run operation, then there would be a budget for cleaners etc. The bonus for coming in to clean the studio is that we will all be going out to the Dog & Duck for a wind up party for the Water Valley Celtic Music Festival. There will be some of the musicians from the festival in attendance and I am sure the music will be great, as usual.

In the discussion surrounding this clean up / wind up “party”, Dave, our fearless leader, was regaling stories from our trip to Ireland to anyone that would listen. Apparently I am an alcoholic, at least in his version of events (which get distorted with every telling). Yes, I was seen taste testing various scotches, bourbons & Irish whiskeys at the Middleton Distillery near Cork (they used to make Jameson’s there) and was a bit flushed in some of the post distillery pictures. You can’t visit and not do that. I learned several things that day. I learned why I don’t like scotch, and why I actually do like Irish whiskey best. I do not like the taste of burnt dirt (aka smoky peat). I also like it because it is triple distilled, unlike bourbon (aka corn whiskey) which is traditionally only distilled once.

Yes, I was also seen lifting a pint or 2 of Murphy’s Stout and Guinness on occasion. But to hear Dave tell it, I was sloshing everywhere we went. BTW, I like Murphy’s better than Guinness, but I don’t believe you can get it here in Canada, at least not this far west, but then I have not looked that hard either. I have to say, that with the amount of food we ate, and most of it being in the form of soda bread, spotted dick, more bread, breaded fish, chips, potatoes etc… it’s a wonder anyone can get drunk in Ireland. When we were at Marcus’s for the salt firing and other pottery related demos etc, we started our day with oatmeal, at 10:00 we stopped for a tea break that usually included scones, spotted dick, other assorted bready items etc. Then there was lunch, and the 2:00 tea break and then dinner at about 6. By then, I had consumed my carbohydrate allotment for the year. I should mention that just before we went on this wee adventure, I had been on the Atkins Diet which contains absolutely no refined or processed carbs of any kind. I fell off that carb wagon very fast. It didn’t hurt much as bread is soft and apparently I was drunk anyway.

A Potters Nightmare / Girl Interrupted

Sunday/Monday

As I mentioned in one of my last posts, I am in a bit of a time crunch to get some mugs finished that I have been commissioned to create. I backfilled all the handles on Friday and left them loosely covered over night until I could get back to them on Saturday after work. I left them uncovered in the sun on Saturday afternoon for about an hour and then put them uncovered on the plaster to hopefully wick out more moisture. On Sunday, I got to the studio bright and early (9am) & put the mugs outside to dry again for several hours. If a non potter were watching me, they probably wondered what the heck I was doing. Every half hour or so I would wander outside, pick a mug up and press the base of the mug against my cheek, shake my head and put it back down. This is the only method I know of to tell if there is any moisture left in the clay. If it is cold, it is probably still wet & my cheek is the body part I rely on to gague the level of dampness. I nervously began loading the bisque kiln at bout 2:00 and set it for a 2 hour delay and a 2 hour preheat, so it wouldn’t start until 4:00. I went home and that night I sweated bullets in my sleep worrying about the mugs. Could they have been a little too damp? Will the handles and bottoms get blown out by the moisture being boiled out too vigorously? All the worrying was for naught. I checked them on Monday, and all was well, now I am a couple days ahead of schedule. I was originally going to wait until Tuesday to fire the bisque, but now I can glaze instead and take my time to get that part right instead of rushing through it and then I can load on Friday night and unload Sunday. Even thought these are very simple mugs, I am really happy with how they have turned out so far. The handles are perfect (in my opinion). They are not too big, and not too small, they are juuust right. I also had a few shellacked pots in there that have the layer of coloured terra sig slip. I am eager to see how these come out in the glaze, especially since the process is rather time consuming. I want to know that going cross eyed from all the dots and squiggles was worth it. I am not 100% sure how they will end up glazed, but probably in the translucent Amber as I love the way it reacts with the rutile in the sig).

Tuesday
I taught my Tuesday class last night and the kiln was on from a firing that one of the other instructors had loaded and fired. It should have been done a long time before that. About a half hour into the class, the computer on the kiln started beeping indicating that it was not heating fast enough, and it shut off at 2140 F when it was trying to reach 2175 F. I have a sneaking suspicion that this load only reached cone 4. So that means that my load of mugs etc will not be fired in that kiln this weekend as I had planned. Now I will be madly glazing on Friday night in order to pack it all up and take it to Ceramics Canada on Saturday to load in their kiln. I got the feet waxed on the mugs and a few other pieces, so I’m a little bit ahead.

When the Potters Take You, it is the End!

I was listening to the radio last night before I went to sleep and the station I had it set to plays old radio shows from 11pm to 1am. I happened to catch this one last night “Dimension X – Potters of Firsk” If you want to have a listen, go to archive.org and you can look it up. It is great…in that cheesy 1950’s Sci-Fi kinda way. Apparently there was a band of renegade potters living in the foothills of a volcano on a distant planet who would claim the dead of the nearby villages and use the bones for their glazes. If there were not enough dead people, then they would kidnap living people. Apparently they were easily convinced to stop this practice in return for a yellow glaze recipe and a less bloody source of tricalcium phosphate (aka bone ash). Tooo funny.


If only the potters of Earth could demand that kind of fear and respect (without the body count of course). “Come to our pottery sales, or reap the consequences” something like that.

I wonder what was going through the mind of the person or persons who wrote this story? Were they that hard up for a plot?

Dodging Murphy's curve ball

It might just work out in the end, but its gonna be tight (just like OJ's glove). The kiln is getting a new element today (fingers crossed) and then my stuff will be re-fired tonight. So Friday I will be unloading that kiln, then pricing and cataloguing everything else. it's gonna be a long Friday night.


I must say that even though everything was just a tad bit under fired, the glazes looked OK. I still want to refire though, the feet felt a little dry and the glazes were not 100%. The gloss liner glaze was satin, the translucent brown had a purple/bluish haze with little depth, the black and rutile slip on my bas relief stuff did not develop as nicely as it has in the past (begins to react with the glaze and forms a milky opalescence where the glaze pools) and again, the F96 brown clay was still quite orange. I always worry with a refire that the glazes will run off the pots and stick to the shelf. They had already started to flow the first time round, and now will be subjected to a full firing again. Luckily, most of my feet are quite substantial. I love a nice fat foot. However, I have several tall jars and vases that have flat bottoms and the glaze stops quite close to the bottom. Everything should be ok, but you never know.

So, if all goes well, I will have everything priced and packed on Friday night. If I don’t sell anything, then on Sunday I will be posting a whole bunch of stuff on Etsy, so look out...

Always open your mail…

Well, I finally got around to doing my taxes. Nothing like the night before the deadline to get it done. Reminds me of how I used to do things in University. Always put off doing it today, ‘cause you can always do it tomorrow…plus, "I work better under pressure".


While doing my taxes, I learned a “valuable” lesson. Always open your mail as soon as you get it. I had been stockpiling all of my tax info in one pile (that's pretty good for me), and it was waiting for me when I began doing my taxes last night. There were a few envelopes in the stack that had not been opened, but I knew what they were (I thought). They were T4’s (income statements), RRSP statements etc. I opened one up, and low and behold, it was a cheque for $2200 that I had been waiting for. It was the share payout from the last place I worked at. I wasn’t at the point of worrying about it yet, as I know that things can be slow when it comes to actually paying someone money. I guess I must not have seen it in the pile, but it just goes to show you, open all your mail, even if you think it is a bill, or something else equally horrible, it might just be a nice surprise. So, I have to pay the MAN $500+ more in taxes, but in the end, I am a bit further ahead than I was yesterday. I must have stockpiled some good Karma somewhere along the way.

I am off to post my pound of flesh to the tax man after work, and then to unload the kiln at Ceramics Canada. I had a peek at it yesterday when I opened it up, and everything looks just right. It was just a little warm and I didn’t have any gloves handy to unload yesterday, so today I can take some pots home to actually price before the sale on Saturday. Hopefully my stockpile of good Karma helped with this firing. I hate it when the top shelf just teases you and the further down you go the less happy you get…

I WILL take pictures tonight. I always forget to take pics of pots before a sale, but I will tonight, I promise...

Murphy Sucks!

I mentioned in my last post that I would have some pictures of my latest firing. I need to retract that statement. In fact, what I should have said was that I am firing and if the kiln manages to fire properly, I will take pictures. I guess one of the elements shuffled off it’s mortal coil during my glaze firing on Sunday night. We thought all was well when we replaced a burned out element, a week or so ago, but lurking in the back ground was another element waiting to screw up a firing. This would not normally bother me too much, but the sale is only 9 days away, and now the student work will back up again. The kiln actually got to about cone 5, maybe 5.5, so everything looks ok from a distance, but when you actually get up close, you can see that most everything is under fired. The gloss glazes are very satin, the red bodies are too orange when they should be a dark nutty brown and the porcelain just looks dry & not quite vitrified. To remedy this situation, I am going to pack the lot up on Friday and load as much as I can into the slightly smaller kiln at Ceramics Canada and fire it off over the weekend. Then I will spend all day Sunday glazing the last few things I have not had a chance to get to, just in case I am able to load a kiln on Tuesday night (you never know). If not, then this is it, that’s all I can do. I always seem to think that I don’t have enough for a sale, when in fact, I always have too much. Kinda like when you are a kid, and you are confronted with a salad bar. You always load your plate up with more than you should, or that your stomach can hold, and you haven’t even had dinner yet. I recall once when my sister and I were little, my parents took us to Disney Land and we were in a restaurant with a very large salad bar. This salad bar was different than the ones we were used to though. It was kinda like a salad / dessert bar. My sister came back to the table with (no joke) a plate full of whipped cream instead of salad.
This sale does not require much in the way of prep, but I will need to price everything, so the night before the sale, I will be madly stickering, as usual.