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Thursday, May 30, 2013

And!...... the kiln is loaded

So everything is bisque fired. I had one pot crack, only a small but, but it's on the bottom so it's useless as a functional piece and not a piece I can sell.

The kiln is loaded. Again, I learned a lot of things that we need to change with our experiments with soda fire at the community studio. We did glaze today, all new to all of us. They are ^6 reduction glazes. I took good notes so I will know later what I put where. All are food safe. Here, because the soda fire IS an atmospheric glaze process, I put little glaze on the pots. Most of it was as a liner but a bit of decoration on the outside as well.

Major learnings:
we need to do a Kiln Glaze/Sealant to protect the kiln bricks, not just kiln washing the shelves.  We need to spray the soda differently (I will discuss this more next posting after we are done firing). We need to have a shelf ABOVE the work and below the flue hole. This creates something closer to a downdraft in the updraft kiln.  Also with the shelves, the posts were wadded on both ends.

So here is a look at the two kilns we filled. Not huge kilns, and really because the shelving is arranged differently (needing a top shelf that is empty, a large fire box on the bottom, using broken shelves) this does not load as much work as a same sized electric kiln






A Look at Someone Else's Work

I mentioned her yesterday, here is another look at greenware. The "twins" will not be a part of the soda firing.










Tuesday, May 28, 2013

Update on the Workshop

So today we worked on the kilns, using Alumina castable. Created filler and morter with firebrick. Basically the body of the kilns are a go. Tomorrow we will deal with burners for the kilns. You can see the use of soft brink below.

So ya, we learned a lot and frankly not just about converting our electric kiln. A lot of this makes the actual kiln build from scratch look very doable.

Below you can see us forming a lid. BTW, doing is square is a better, faster and easier way.

A gave you a flash of her work from yesterday. Here are greenware pieces. 


I haven't made masks in a while. I really really like masks. I really think a more variegated, or inconsistent glaze look is better for masks. So a soda fire is a great idea.  I really need to make more for raku.  For the record, that is a coyote. A badly made one, but a coyote.




Monday, May 27, 2013

Other Work

In response to my masks, and the fabric I picked for her...
Here is a wall hanging she made for our bedroom in Santa Fe. She is doing something different for her own room.




In Taos...

So I am in Taos with Zeke.

http://www.loganwannamaker.com

This is the Code 6 Soda Firing Class.  Today we took a look at some kiln design, discussed how we will make the conversions for the kilns and the made some work. We need all work completed by Wednesday so they can be bisque in time for use to soda fire.  We will be using one kiln they have been using and then two kilns we are converting.

We will be looking at flashing slips and well as a more in depth look at the "how" of the kiln conversion.

So here are some pix, mostly of my work. I am working with SB Red, a ^6 Laguna clay body. Tomorrow I will do some work in ^6 B-mix. They react differently to the soda.  Other pix of well of the workshop.




Here is Zeke working in some ^6 B-mix


This gal... I missed her name, is from California. She does sculpture and mostly with architectural clay (very heavy grog). She did a great piece that I really need to get the "done" photo of.



Monday, May 20, 2013

Weasel Bowls

I have taken to calling this dinner set the Weasel set and the person that asked for them was unenthusiastic. So I referenced that I would give them away to homeless weasels...

Anyway, here is the set of bowls upside down and trimmed. TADA!


Assuming...

Assuming life doesn't shit on my plans...

We will be leaving this weekend. I have work on Saturday that ends at noon.  We will head to Santa Fe either on Saturday or Sunday and return the next Sunday.

This is for my very first Clay Workshop, outside of taking formal classes. the workshop is a week long workshop in Taos, New Mexico at Taos Clay.  We will be working with Cone 6 Soda Firing, including building a soda kiln out of an old electric (which is what we are going to do at my studio).

I am pretty excited for a bunch of reasons.  It's been a while since I was able to go down, time together, getting to do projects together, little work (yes little but I still have reports to deal with) and moving forward on my vision of what I want my work to look like.

Sunday, May 19, 2013

Adding to the Set

Ok, so last post you heard me bitch about the s-cracks. Then I put pix of the new plates for this dinner set. So, the dried. It worked.. no cracks.....

So the system, based on what I read. Some will only make sense if you throw but...
You do not open the clay by pulling it as you can with anything else, rather the bottom should be established prior to opening, with the opening not going past this point. This means the bottom was created through compression.  Now there is a trick to not having to do this exactly like that... you open and then compress the edge so there is more bottom to open rather than letting in open and roll out on the bat...

ok something that might make sense to everyone... cover with tea towels and then plastic. You can remove the plastic to increase air but the towels will prevent the air from blowing on the pots creating a more consistent dry.

So these trick resulted into plates that did not crack.

Ok next section...
2# bowls and then 1# bowls for the set

When the set is done I will glaze black on the rims and bluefur on the body.

I still need to make small plates. I also need to make at least one more small bowl for this set.

Wednesday, May 15, 2013

Angry Angry Angry

So the posts below, wet projects and the start of a set of dishes was a total bust. Out of the nine pieces I had only two large plates and one small plate not crack.  I was very very irritated.  I have never had such a huge issue with s cracks before.  I really loved that big bowl too... damn it.

I did further research and I think I have a set way to deal with this in a more effective manner. We will see if it works.  The question is what to do with those three pieces.  It's hard to do a set if you don't make the matching pieces together. And since I had a change in method I don't think I can make "matching" to those surviving pieces. So I think I will sell at least the pair in the gallery.

So that brings us to these projects. One big bowl (again), a bit smaller. Only 4#.  But the three plates are  a set.  These are wet pictures but as of now they are trimmed greenware.

The plan is to glaze the rim in black and the body in blue, as blue was the request. The rest of the set will similarly have a black rim.





Saturday, May 4, 2013

Warm Fuzzies, or as good as it gets around here.

So we ended up with a note made by a kid. Based on what it said we knew it was the kid that lives next door. But it said "sorry for breaking your ball?"
Yesterday I found out that it said "sorry for breaking your bowl", as he had knocked over the bowl I had given them with eggs in it from our chickens (RIP).

So, I am sending him (them) three new GP Bowls.  I tried to make my note as similar to the note he sent me as possible.

This is the sales for March and does not reflect the large $20 bowl that sold as well.  Not a lot of money by a long shot, and if we are using the "break even" measure for success I still have a long way to go.  But these are my first sales. People actually buying my work, my art... that's a big shift in my world.


Wet Projects

These are dog bowls for Maxwell. 
With Zeke and Maxwell living part time away from home, Maxwell needs bowls for food and water.  He did not like the other bowls he was using, he it too rough on them. He needed some pottery of his own, it has some weight to it. They are 3#


This is one bowl, two views. If you zoom in you can see the detail on the inside.  This is 4.5# and is the largest bowl I have thrown.  I did a 5# project once but, no were near as well defined as this one is.



Start of a set of Dishes

So the request was for a set of dishes. Blue glaze... so I am using Bmix ^6 which is white.  Not sure to what degree the iron oxide design will show up, it might be pretty damn subtle. IDK.
Here you can see them wet, and then with the iron oxide. They still need to dry to leather hard and get trimmed.

Larger Plates, 3#

Smaller "lunch" plates 2#



You may need to zoom in on the pix to see the edges of the plates. The plates have some depth to them, they are not flat.  I really like this form for plates. It is practical for food that has some level of liquid to it even up to pasta sauce. And I really like the look of a flat protruding rim. It makes it look more like a traditional plate than the form that has an edge similar to a bowl.



Missing pots from the Last Glaze Fire

Ok so I knew I was missing the small bowl. I used this and two others to test what darker clay effects you get with Fuzzy White, Egg Shell or Clear.





But this larger bowl, I totally forgot about until I found it today.  But... not sure what the hell I put inside the bowl.  I think it was Blue Fur, which is the blue glaze I use. I had it out during that glazing session and didn't really do any other colors but the Wine Red... not sure what created this effect though... it's actually kind of matte as well. I really like this one.





Wednesday, May 1, 2013

Last of the Eggshell on Black

This is a simple plate with high edges. It was a one off. I was exploring a shape in this. I do like it and think it would be a nice set of plates.

This is a decent size bowl, 3# when wet.  I really like the alterations. I wish I had taken better pictures. I think I am putting this in the gallery.



These are small nut bowls., real simple and small.


Not My Usual

Here is an odd bowl. It is off in it's shape but I liked it so I kept it. I did it in clear with some underglaze. So you can see the mix of clay very clearly and you can see some actually color and painting... not at all like my usual work in that regard.



This is a set of cups. I do not recall if the pix survived but I posted these when I first made them. Here they are glazed. This is an extruded work. They are small, it is hard to see scale in this picture but think espresso demitasse cups not coffee mugs. They are for cafe cubano.


Finally here is a bottle. Not a great pic. But it is not cut off, that is the upper edge of the bottle. Again extruded. So not my normal work.





Storage Jars




Mother's Day

So below is one of my favorite pots I have ever made. I like the form, the balance. I so wish I could recreate this on demand. You see it below as greenware, bisque ware, glazed but not fired and finally fired. This is my mother's day gift.