New glaze combo

Just testing my blogger app. I did not even realize there was such a beastie.

getting stuff done

I managed to get a few things done this weekend, despite the heat. It managed to get up to at least 29 degrees with no breeze or a cloud in the sky. I started the day on Saturday at 9:30 by going to the mall (I know, I know, I hate the mall too). I needed to go see a man about a power cord for my macbook. Lately the cord has been kinda flaky and not charging properly. I took it in, saw a “genius” and got a new cord. Works like a charm. The mall is on the way to the studio, and after the apple visit, I toddled on over there, but splurged on a venti caramel latte before I left. My theory was to try to get to the studio as early as I could to beat the heat, but it was pretty toasty inside anyway, there was a kiln that had recently finished firing and was doing a good job at heating up the joint. When I pulled into the parking lot, there were hundreds of cars parked in every conceivable space in every lot, along the road (except ours thank goodness). There is a motor cross track at the end of the road and normally all you can hear is the annoying whine of dirt bikes flying around the track. Not so on Saturday. There was a Spartan race going on, and if you don't know what that is, and neither did I, it is an obstacle course that involves crawling under barbed wire in the mud, running up hill, running down hill, etc. I saw a lot of very muddy racers walking to their cars when they were done.


Anyway, I mixed 3 glaze tests, fingers crossed, glazed a billion pieces, and loaded a kiln. Ok, probably not a billion, but there was a lot of stuff to glaze, and not knowing exactly what will fit in the kiln, I try to make sure I have enough glazed to be able to pack it as efficiently as possible. I managed to get the custom “fire” bowl in, about 24 mugs, some tall stuff, a large platter and 4 smaller square plates, a couple of casseroles, and teapots, as well as all the test pieces. As I had mixed 3 tests, I had the 3 test cups in there, plus one where I poured all 3 in an overlapping manner around the outside, and then for giggles, I dumped all 3 tests together and tried that out on a couple of small cups. The base glaze was identical, but the oxides were different in all 3. One had just copper carb, another had copper carb and iron, and the 3rd had cobalt oxide and iron. I am hoping for a mottled green/brown, a pale mottled green, and a dark mottled greenish blue and all will hopefully have a lovely satin feel to them.

I am hoping to get the crystal firing loaded this coming friday night and then program it so that I can be there during the critical cooling and holding phase to ensure that the temp. drops as fast as possible by opening up all peeps and running a fan across them to draw as much heat out as fast as possible until the hold temp is reached.

When I was unloading the student glaze load yesterday, I became quite aware of how little people actually pay attention to anything. I sent out instructions about what to do when glazing with the crystal glazes and where to put them when finished to avoid confusion with regular ware etc. But in spite of that, I pulled out a spectacularly horrible pot yesterday that had a dry and ugly surface on it (glaze not thick enough), but where it was thick, little spiky, poorly formed crystals were evident. So, not only did they not read or follow the instructions, or ask for advice on how to glaze their work, they then put it with the standard cone 6 work. Thank goodness we limited it to the inside of bowls only or there could have been a huge mess.

Here's a pictoral rundown of my Saturday and sunday

This is some of the bisque I had to glaze


Here is a close up of a couple square plates


The ware cart starts to fill and then move into the kiln. This is the 1st shelf.

Then the second, third, and a half. My fingers are crossed right now. I'm hoping for some good tests.

First post of 2012

I hope everyone had a fantastic holiday. I had a week off from the job that pays the bills. This afforded me the opportunity to go to the studio every day and play in the mud, test glazes, listen to music etc. I was there on Christmas Eve, Christmas Day, Boxing Day, all the next week & New Years Day. Some might say that is lame, but as I was pretty much on my own this Christmas, I took advantage of the free time.

I tried out a new (to me) clay body over the break, Plainsman F96. This is a very warm and toasty brown colour when fired to cone 6. It has the look of a wood fired pot, but without the wood. I did discover that it does not throw certain shapes very well. It is a very moist body, so perhaps it could have used a little time on the plaster before I threw it, but patience is not one of my virtues. So, tall was out, but it did nice plates, stretched out platters/trays, teapots, cups, bowls etc. Everything required a lot more trimming that I am used to as well. I usually don’t have thickness issues, but then I usually throw nice smooth BMix that you can thin out really easily. F96 is definitely not BMix. It is pretty groggy, but not too painful to throw. As it was quite moist, I found that things wouldn’t stand up to a lot of height unless there was a lot of supporting clay at the bottom, and even still, it was hard to get that clay up. I still need to see how it works with my glazes, but from what I hear, it should be very nice. The only real downside to this clay is that even though it is not as red as M390, it stains waaaayyyy more than M390. M390 is a very dark terracotta coloured clay when wet and fires to a very dark chocolate brown. You know when someone has used M390, but it cleans up pretty easily and doesn’t stain your skin (very much). F96 on the other hand is very orangey and will stain your skin for days. After I used it the first time it looked like I had been using a really cheap fake tanning lotion, but only on my hands, and only up to my wrists.

After trying out the new clay, I got busy testing some glazes on Christmas Day. I found some glaze recipes that I wanted to try out so see if they would be good as a base, or even just a white. I am trying to find a waxy or matte white that will work within the price restrictions at the studio and that could then be used to widen our colour/texture options at the studio. I was also going to test a snowflake crackle glaze (from the article in Ceramics Monthly a little while ago). If the crackle worked, it would probably be just for my own use, as they are not really food safe, and require a bit of knowledge on how to apply them and in a recreational studio setting this would not work too well. I fired the kiln off on Boxing Day and this is what I got……Brains! As you can see, it is more like a frontal lobe than a snowflake crackle….

My other tests were OK. I did get a nice result from one of the matte glazes I tested. I was looking for a nice lavender as well, and I thought I would try that with this base. It was a bit thin when I applied it, so this looks a bit streaky, and it is tending to a pale blue when thin, but where there are drips, and also on the inside where I could get a thicker application, there is a very beautiful pale lavender.

Just a formality?

Well, I believe that the temp job I have been goin to for the past 2.5 weeks will probably turn out to be a permanent position. I was given my own computer profile and e-mail address yesterday.they wouldn't do that if they weren't going to keep me, would they?
On another note, no pottery today  but I did go down to the studio and checked what came out of the kiln. Our Heinz 57 mix from the glaze class looks very nice. Very speckly and toasty yellow brown. I will take a pic on Friday.

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.