Winter

It's time for a rest.  No more firings until spring.  There are still pots on the shelves so if you need one just call us or email and we can be open.  

Happy New Year!!

Pots From The Last Firing

Here are a few pots from the last firing.  Blue still not resolved.  

But first I'd like to thank everyone who came to the art show on the weekend and made it such a success.  The local support makes such a difference to those of us quietly working away in our studios all year.  We make the work in solitude but the process is completed when it's seen by you.  

For those of you unable to attend the art show, I will be at the Farmers' Market for the next 4 Saturdays and will also be having a Studio Open House on December 1, 2013 from 10 - 4.

Large vase, no glaze,  from the front of the kiln

Tea Dust oil bottles with salt flash.

Ash Glazed Bean Pot - White Stoneware

Red Shino Batter Bowl - White Stoneware

Red Shino Batter Bowl - Regular Stoneware

Ash Glazed Faceted Baking Dish

Red Shino Bakers with salt & ash streaks

Red Shino Jugs

Red Shino Oil Bottles

Tea Dust Faceted Bowl

Ash Glaze with natural ash.

Temmoku Faceted Bowl

Temmoku Soya Sauce Pourer

Quick Preview

Just a quick peek before the show.  Here are 2 ash glazed bowls, one a stoneware with sand and some iron and one a white stoneware with a fair bit of silica in it.  The white stoneware always gives me a shinier surface - satiny at the back of the kiln and fairly glossy nearer the front.   The background is my greyscale!?  Need to consult with my camera expert to see how to get it to stop looking blue.  I'll post more photos on Monday or Tuesday.

Art Show

Here's the information for the Art Show.  If you are going to be in the Creston area this weekend, please join us!  We'll have coffee, tea, baked goodies and even a door prize.

Last Firing of the Year

We fired the kiln on November 14th.  Had hoped to be organized earlier but as always, down to the wire.  The local art show is this weekend!  Am busily cleaning and pricing and sorting.  Next year I'll be organized, I swear!

This firing was slower by 2 hours, always a worry in case glazes run and pots bloat.  Had cone 12 puddled at the front and 5 or 6 pots with bloats that went directly to the shard pile.  Several more will follow.  The higher temperature and longer firing released more salt from the posts and shelves than usual which, unfortunately, washes out the colour from the shinos, so unloading was not a happy event.  The grates died, too, but thankfully we have a good friend who has provided us with enough replacements for another 20 - 25 firings.  He will be rewarded!  And the porcelain sheath on the pyrometer cracked and fell off during the firing but landed neatly against a post and not on or in any of the pots.  So not a total disaster, enough pots for the show and the remaining farmers' markets.  But next year.......

Near the end of the firing

Broken grates

Their other half

A Few Pots

Here are a few pots photographed in full sunlight, which is all wrong, so too much glare but had to try the new graduated grey scale backdrop.  Elegant, no?  Much better than white newsprint.

Cedar ash jug

Cedar ash faceted bowl

Red shino bowl

Cedar ash bowl

Red shino mug with lots of ash

Just a Peek

These are the plump little vases from the flaming photos in the last post.  Firing was fairly successful aside from a few warped plates and the shocking shrinkage in the new clays I'm trying.  More photos later in the week.

Firing

Yesterday we fired.  Cloudy, rainy, just about perfect for the task.  It's quite wonderful sitting under the shelter of the kiln shed, drinking tea in the rain, the crackle of the fire rising and falling in intensity.  The  roar and hiss as the wood explodes into flame with each stoke, the quiet that signals time for the next.  No time for distractions, ears and eyes always tuned to the kiln.  Tea, cross word puzzles, bits of conversation but always listening.  

Everything went smoothly and now we wait.  Unloading on Friday.

Another round

I'm coming up to the last few days of throwing before the bisqueing and glazing starts.  Another cycle.  Shelf and kiln post grinding to follow.  We're hoping to fire in 2 - 2 1/2 weeks.   Just loved how these bottles looked last night as I closed up the studio.  Now they need their handles.

One Great Glaze

I never imagined when I first mixed this glaze that it would become the most versatile and best loved glaze in my palette.  Who would have guessed that simply mixing ash (from our cedar boughs) with clay would result in such a beautiful and varied glaze.  In the front where it sits in the blasting heat from the firebox it tends to be a rich, red-brown with the greeny-yellow rivulets - more red at the bottom of the stack and more greeny-yellow when placed at the top.  At the top of the 2nd stack this glaze becomes transparent and glossy and in this last firing, seeming to trap carbon!  The further from the firebox and at a regular cone 10 temperatures this chameleon glaze becomes a satin matte yellow - brighter yellow on whitish clay - that is just beautiful to the touch.  Did I say I loved this glaze?!

In the next firing I'll test the glaze with woodstove ash to see if the results are the same because there is only enough cedar ash left for 2 or 3 more batches.  

The glaze recipe is Warren MacKenzie's Yellowish Ash Glaze from his biography - Warren MacKenzie - An American Potter, by David Lewis.   Truly a great glaze!

From the top of the front stack

From the bottom of the front stack

From the 2nd stack from the front

From the bottom of the back stack

From the top of the back stack

From the bottom of the back stack with extra ash from the kiln

From different spots in the 3rd stack from the front

A Good One

It was a beautiful day, not too hot, and the firing just went so smoothly.  It was completely effortless - no panicking (even when it became obvious that the pyrometer was truly broken), no grouchiness, just that perfect stoking rhythm and a steady temperature rise.  The wind came up in the afternoon and pushed the smoke down to the ground but didn't seem to affect the kiln.

The test clays were mostly failures - bloating, even at the back - and the glaze tests were not stellar either but a couple of them point the way to new tests and possible winners.  And this time there was no glaze running and some gorgeous tea dust temmokus.  All in all a very good firing!

Smoke pushed down by the wind.

See, no runs, though the ash/salt? made the black line sag in the colander.

White shino honey pot

Red shino honey pot

Red shino garlic keeper

Red shino berry bowl

Orange shino honey pot

Orange shino bell vase

Smallish Tea dust Temmoku jug

Small Red Shino vase

Tea Dust Temmoku Oil bottle

Tea Dust Temmoku Mugs

Red Shino Nesting Bowls

Red Shino Jug

Red Shino Jug