Who Made This?

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I have been enjoying Patricia Griffin's 'Famous Potter Challenges' so I thought I'd put up some pots now and again to challenge my readers. Below is a luncheon plate that we have in our cabinet. We actually are lucky enough to have 4 of these. Can you guess who made this? Leave your answer in the comments.

Getting Low

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I didn't realize I was getting so low on clay. Today after making some 6lb oval bakers , a couple platters and this big dish my clay bin was relatively empty. So tomorrow will be mixing day and finishing these pots up. I got a call over the weekend from a friend asking me if I'd make something special for a wedding gift. So this platter will get a foot thrown on tomorrow and then decorated some how for that occasion. Probably birds.

I have some reclaim drying out that I will be able to make some cups with and then I guess it'll be about time to fire again. Hopefully the weather will cooperate and my clay won't take forever to dry in the racks.

Weekend's End

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Well it's Sunday evening and the weekend is over. Not too much exciting news to report though. Mainly we hung out at home, but did have some time with family and watched a couple movies and some of the Olympic games.

I also got pumped up after reading some posts on Emily Murphy's blog and also on Colorado Art Studio. It was in regard to using (or switching to) Wordpress.org as a blogging platform. It seems this has lots of advantages. I won't go into it, just read Emily's or Cynthia's posts. They cover it well. What is inviting to me is that I could have multiple pages and that I can set it up on a host (which I will have to pay for) and have my own domain name. I feel like this blog has opened lots of doors for me and I want to say up to date with it and have the features avaliable to me to allow it to grow and provide the information I want to my readers. I'm not sure when this switch will happen but I'm reading up on the whole thing and trying to make my mind up. One nice feature is that I can take all my content from the past 3 yrs or so of being on Blogger and have it transfered to the Wordpress site. So nothing will be lost in that regard.


I shot some images for Etsy today, I have to resize them and get it all ready to put up on the site. I also made up some test slips and spoke to Leon about helping me with my glaze crazing issue. I am hoping he can get me a little closer to what I need using his computer glaze software.


That's it for now. Here's a quick shot from the showroom.

Modern Technology

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Yesterday afternoon I went over to Gene Young's studio to check out his new Geil kiln. Gene and Leon where finishing up the first bisque firing in the new kiln . This gas kiln can be programmed and pretty much fire itself. The computer even controls the damper. It was pretty weird watching the damper adjust itself. You can hook up your laptop and get all sorts of information and chart the firing or cooling and atmosphere.
Pretty fancy stuff.
Maybe one day all you woodfirers will be able to sit back and hit a button "STOKE", "STOKE", "STOKE". Ha, just kidding, why on earth would you want to do that right?

On a related note the other night I told Sarah I was going out to light my kiln. That's what I've always said over the years when I was going out to get the salt kiln going. Well, I was just going out to push a button on the electric kiln that says "start". Not nearly the same as striking a match and really 'lighting the kiln'. Oh well, I'll be back lighting my kiln with a match someday soon I'm sure.

Emily Murphy

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Emily Murphy has updated her website. I hope you'll go check it out. Emily has been an inspiration to me for years here on the web. She is a top notch blogger, always sharing information and help. Reading Emily's last posts have motivated me to make some changes and work on some aspects of this blog. Guess, I'll be 'chipping away' at it a little at a time.

Unloaded & Tests

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I unloaded my glaze firing this afternoon. I had mixed up a new base glaze and ran some tests with my colorants. It 's a fine base but it did craze in a way that I don't like. So back to the drawing board. (Don't worry I'm going to tone that green down a bit, and add some iron to it)I hadn't made up any proper glaze test pieces so I had to break up an old pot, kind of sloppy but it got the job done.

I'm getting my plate inventory build back up. Some of these will show up on my Etsy site. I'll announce it here when that happens.

Busted!

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I went out this morning to scrounge up some boxes. I needed some small ones to ship some mugs and bowls away. I cruised around town behind the shops with little luck. Then I happened upon a pharmacy with a big dumpster that said 'cardboard only'. I couldn't get the side doors to open so I just threw open the lid on top and climbed in. Jackpot!
Well until some lady from the store came out and said 'Can I help you?'. She had brought a young male store clerk out with her too, they must have thought I was dangerous. So I peeped out of that little slit in front to let them know I wasn't rummaging for needles or old drugs or whatever they thought I was after. I threw out all the boxes I wanted, climbed out and left. I guess next time I should wait until after hours.

Morning Tea

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I'm having my tea this morning in this mug made by Blair Meerfeld. I got it a few years ago when Sarah and I traveled out to Colorado. Blair's salt glazed pots are like none other. I love the color and I especially like his handles. This mug performs flawlessly. Your index finger fits just inside the handle, thumb right up on top, with the ....well wait I'll take a picture....
There you see. Good leverage, just tilt and drink.

My tea of choice this morning is Singbulli Estate Darjeeling. I'm hung up on the Darjeeling's at the moment, we have about 4 different ones on hand.
In the afternoons I usually have some green, right now my favorite is Gyokuro from Asahi, Japan. It's amazing. Becky turned me on to that.

The kiln is going so I'll have some pots out in a couple days. I sure hope some of that crawling is improved by my reglazing and refiring. We'll see. I'm also testing a new base glaze that has no Gerstley.

A Little More

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I realize I am stringing you all along with these jugs. I slipped them this morning and did the finger wipes , the plan now is to draw some flying birds in those open spaces. The lesson learned with this finger wiping business is to do it and leave it alone. No fussing about or touching up. I did the middle jug first and then fiddled around with my lines, which didn't help. The next two were better, but I probably need to practice on about 50 more before I get it right.

Okay, that's that. See ya later.

A day in the City

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I literally spent all day in Charlotte yesterday. Amy and I got our Circle of Eight postcard designed and ordered and also wrote a press release to send out to some places. We are hoping for a good turnout for our Fall Sale. We feel like doing a home sale like this gives people the opportunity to come out and see a large selection of work in a relaxed, casual atmosphere. They can meet us, browse for pots, catch up with friends, learn more about what we do and why we do it. I think these kinds of sales allow us to connect with our buying public. After all we make things to be enjoyed and used and I think that experience can be enhanced by meeting the makers. Our group is really making some outstanding work so hopefully that too will be recognized and we will be able to continue to do what we love.

After meeting with Amy I dropped off some work at Clayworks where I teach and then had supper with my pal Julie Wiggins. We talked about the sale and how we want to change the way the work is displayed at the sale.

I needed some frits for my test glazes so I zoomed over to the clay store to get those and hung around for Leon's class. He bragged on my pots to his students and got me to show one of them how I make my cup handles. Finally I got home around 10:30. A full day of pottery related activities. (Didn't get any pots made though.) Better get out to the shop.

Monday. Ready, Set, Go!

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Monday. Ah a new week, fresh start, tons of stuff to do.....
So the veterinarian is coming this morning to give our 3 pets their annuals and any other thing they need. I am trying to get ready for that, later on I'll be heading to the city to meet with Amy to work on some advertising for our Circle of Eight Sale which is Sept. 20th.

My harvest jugs now have handles. I am putting off the slipping because once I do that I'm going to have to decorate them somehow. Scary.

The pots that needed refiring along with some freshly glazed ones were enough to make up another kiln load. I will fire it off tomorrow in hopes of improving some of the crawling. I'll also be testing some new glaze bases that have less Gerstley or none at all.

That's all for now...along with these two pots from the last firing.

Tom's Pots

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My good friend Tom Gray in Seagrove just fired a kiln load of pots. Check out his blog for pics. He should have a fully stocked showroom now, so get over there if you can. Tom's work is first rate. He loves to cook and garden (and eat). Tom has always been a utilitarian potter, his work has inspired me for years and he has taught me a lot since our first meeting back in the early '90's. (like how to get my teapot spouts under control).

Crawling.

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I checked in my copy of The Potter's Dictionary of Materials and Techniques by Hamer and Hamer this morning regarding the crawling problem.

This particular glaze I am using has 55% Gerstley Borate as an ingredient. Gerstley Borate is a variety of colemanite. H&H states that, "Colemanite encourages crawling by loosening the glaze layer during the firing prior to fusion. Colemanite contains water as part of its crystal structure. Decomposition between 1292 deg. F and 1472 deg. F liberates this water and the vapour loosens the glaze layer. When the glaze melts, it's surface tension pulls the glaze into separate areas leaving bare patches."

I am almost 100% sure this is the cause of my problem. So I will start running some tests with some glazes that get the boron from a frit instead of the Gerstley.

More fun.

Pots

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Well you'll just have to turn your computer monitor up on edge until I can get Blogger to load this image correctly. I'll try again later. This is the general overview of the firing. I had some plates too but forgot to shoot them. Most had crawled glaze anyhow. Bummer. I'll get some individual pics up later on.



The fish platter came out well.

Crawling

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About 1/3 of the pots in this firing had glaze crawling. So that's a bummer, but I can put some more glaze on them and fire them again. That usually works. I have to find out why this is happening. I usually damp sponge my bisque and also blow it off really well with the air hose to get any dust off. It doesn't necessarily seem to be happening only where the glaze is thick either. Those two things, dirty bisque and thick glaze are what I think normally cause crawling. If any one has suggestions leave me a comment. I'll be consulting my books in the mean time.

Harvest Jugs

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Tomorrow, if all goes well, these will get necks and handles and will become jugs. Then I have to decide how to decorate them. That's getting a bit ahead though.I should have some new pots out by mid afternoon tomorrow. Also I'll be posting some new pots on my Etsy site.

Deco.

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This is a first. Inspired by Hannah. This could develop into something interesting. Better get the sketch book out.More of the usual style.
I'm really having fun making plates and mugs. I think I could just do those two things for a long time.
Better get back to work.