Wood Fire

So here are the pots I did from the wood fire. The clay was Soldate ^10. Fired in a wood kiln with a bit of Soda added in for effect.

The mugs here I made by throwing then and then paddling them prior to bisque

the plates are slab plates that I stacked on one another three high as a part of the firing.

These are lidded storage jars. I'm trying something different and there will be polished stones for the lids.



and then there is this...



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not everything is in the shop, if you see something of interest that is not there, let me know and I can make it available for purchase.

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still working on it.

For a variety of reasons, it has been an extremely hard week so far.  Most of which I am at a loss to do anything about.

On the side of things I can at least do something...

The electrician came out to address the problems at the community studio. he did some repairs.  The electronic kiln still threw out an err 1 message.  The manual kiln did an ^04 without issue. And I did a cone pack in the electronic kiln so while it had issues reaching temperature at the expected rate (this is the err 1 message) this time it did reach temperature.  Below you can see the cone pack from left to right as ^7-^6-^5-^4

Here is a piece Neema made, and I glazed. This is with Barium. It's not food safe, but it is a great glaze.

Took a lot longer than planned but....

The damn kilns at the community studio are fixed (we think).  It appears to have been an electric issue and the electrician finally came. Looks like it is all ago.  Jessica is firing a bisque now and I will do a glaze fire. That will test both kilns and we will see....

Here are a few plates I made.

Here are all my pieces for the wood firing.

Still fighting the damn kiln

Well I'm still fighting the damn kiln. It seems this is an electrical issue and so we got an electrician out there.  He found a set of issues that would explain all the issues we have had.  I am now waiting for the repair to happen.

So some firing done, some stuff a disaster.  I smashed about ten pots.  About six were set aside for a refire to see if this works. But some stuff did make it, though all of this mess.  And I was able to have some pieces of first friday.

And yes, the obligatory forced picture... and my attempt to smile...

Of course since it was First Friday, we did Raku.  I even threw in some pieces (a rare thing indeed) and did some masks.

  

And then, back to it. I had a bit of a break from throwing while I fought with the kilns. But now I am back into a throwing cycle.  Enough shows coming up that I really need to just keep throwing and of course hope I sell a lot of stuff!!

A large batch of clay I made.

Some small bowls.

And here are some plates. They are made as very shallow bowls. I push down the wall to almost flat. The closer to flat the better, but just a hair to hard and it all falls in...

Luckily there is a wood fire this month. I have a few pieces I need to glaze for that.  I still wait on my concrete being done.  Once that is done I can start work on the gas kiln and then negotiate to have the wood kiln built.  I admit being patient with this sort of thing is very hard.

But the start of the summer is here, and the farmers market has started and soon will several shows.  I am hoping this is a good second half of the year.

Piles of Stuff

so
supplies
Still waiting on the concrete...

But here is some pictures of the kiln I was given. I will turn it into a Raku Kiln, and the parts for it.  And you can see my helpers there taking a break.

Here is 50# of silica, and two 50# bags of powdered clay so I can make clay.  Also some supplies for Laura in there.  I bought strontium so I can make a specific ash glaze.

when it rains....

Well...
the electronic kiln is down and so is the manual kiln.  I have been working on them for days to figure what is wrong.  We are finally there and I have someone trying to repair them.  I am hoping within the weekend we will be back to normal.  People have stuff that needs firing, I need to do a refire of all the pots that were sadly in the kiln when it would not get to temp.  I am hoping they refire ok, some do and sometimes they don't so it is a roll of the dice.

Add to this, I have kiln building plans.  They all hinge at this moment on getting the concrete poured. I have a buddy that says he can do it... but the rain has made this a no go for right now.  Once this is done I can do the build on the cross draft kiln out of the shell of an old electric. And then finally, try to build the small wood firing kiln.

So lots of plans and feeling super stressed in trying to make it all come together.  I also have the first friday. While I personally don't expect many people, I want to put forth good effort.  I am making all new stuff for the show.  I really don't have a "following" and really don't have many people in my life that would buy. But all the same.

So I have pots and pots drying at this point. Need to be bisqued, and finally glaze fired.  June 7th is approaching quickly.

I still don't have anyone that signed up for classes. I think this turned into one of those things were people say "you really SHOULD" but did not mean they were going to support it in any meaningful fashion. That really happens a lot.  So if my first day there are not students, I'll end it and use my time for my day job and earn money instead.

Mom's Matte Red

So ya I forgot to post this.  Here it is, Mom's Matte Red