Plotting & Planning...

So one of the things one has to keep in mind with ceramics is timing. Really timing is almost always about drying time, occasionally cooling times.

So you have to plan ahead to ensure things are dry in time to get fired and cooled, and glazed, and fired, and cooled for... the ultimate deadline.

So, I am planning on Mother's Day.  I have three pieces for a dinner set for four.  I have two done today. The deal with trying to make "matching" pieces is making them the same.  Ya, no duh. but that can be difficult. It helps to make more pieces than needed and pick the one that look the most similar.

With this in mind I made more pieces than I need, and will sell the others as "one offs".  I will also make a very different type of glaze. I need red for this, but it needs to be durable. So the easiest move is to do a Mason Stain.  Really not how I tend to glaze, I like being able to make it all from scratch. But for this, well I need it to be red and that is a hard color to achieve to get a true red and for it to be a durable glaze.

Here are some pieces I threw this past week. Two large bowls, 7# each. I also explored a new shape to be a pasta bowl.

So today I worked on the dinner set. I decided the pasta bowl was a good shape and it will be a part of the dinner set. I will also have some flat but rounded plates, they are flat so you can cut meat on them. But rounded to hold in sauce.  It has more of a bowl feel to it at this point.  I liked eating out of these before.

So I needed to make clay. I think I made about 70# and threw 44# today.

Three Very Different Firings.

So there are bits and pieces from Three very different Firings.

So I have been working at the local museum for their after school program "Hands on History".  Here are the kids looking at the tiles they created. Below that you can see the Raku firing we did.  The base was build by me out of Adobe. It allowed for an easier set up, less to pack in and out.  It also worked just fine.

I also was able to participate in a Wood Firing. Now this is not my kiln, and is my first time helping with this.  I was able to stoke the kiln (add wood) from midnight to six am along with some friends. It was a great experience. It actually is a part of the University, and since I have zero ties to the university I was very excited to be allowed to participate.

So here are my pots I was able to put in.  A teapot, a bourbon cup, and three mugs.  The outside is left unglazed and you can see where and now the flame and ash affected the pot.

So, here is a new glaze.  I am very happy with this tea dust. You may need to look closely to see the effect as I am not so great with the photos. But here you go. Now this was fired in ^6 oxidation.

So from the same firing, here is a pot I have been waiting for as it didn't fit in the last few firings.

Two things with this. The form, it is a Coffee Pourer, for the cone filter. Have not tried it yet but here we go. Also, this is my Nuke glaze but here it is on a very dark red clay and it is fired in Oxidation.  I really like the look.

Here is one of many Noodle Bowls with the Tea Dust glaze.

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Fermentation Crocks

So at last my Fermentation Crocks are fired.  Now one has an issue on the bottom (and became a second).  But my prototype actually works better than expected so I will sell that one.

Fermentation?
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=i77hU3zR-fQ

On these you can see the "water lock" as a part of the rim. Basically this split rim will hold the lid and then you pour water as much as will fit.  This creates a seal where the water prevents the air from going in... it is air tight.  I cannot figure out where this originally came from. The traditional fermentation crocks from Europe and the from Korea and Japan have no such set up.  It may be a more modern idea.

These next two are also fermentation crocks. The first was damaged as greenware and had to be altered into a crock without a water lock.

This one is more traditional (but smaller than usual) for Kimchi.  The lid goes out a bit, this was because such crocks were often buried so this lid would prevent dirt from falling in when you removed the lid but allowed the crock to remain buried.

Also here is a random cup I made.  Thrown and then carved to give it some texture.  

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Follow me on Instagram for ongoing pictures of my work
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Sunday's Throwing

Large Flower Pot

These will be Tea Lamps or Tea Lights, Jessi will be doing some designing.

This are coffee pourers. They are pushed in as the cone filter is not really a total cone but flattened. So it should fit better this way.  Will need to trim the bottom to fit on top of a mug and of course add the holes.

Also:

Follow the FB page for announcements of Shows

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Follow me on Instagram for ongoing pictures of my work

IG:  mejia81004

Check Out My ETSY Shop

https://www.etsy.com/your/shops/KickWheelPottery

And Follow the Blog

https://www.parttimepottery.blogspot.com