Winter Break

This year my winter break has been longer than usual.   I overdid it in November and December, doing one more firing than usual (in December which I never do) and wound up with very sore and swollen hands.  January classes were cancelled and some serious down-time followed.  The rest has been good for my joints and now I'm gearing up to start throwing again.

Quiet studio, ready to go.

Before I actually start throwing I want to set up a light box for photographing the pots from the mid-December firing.  This cluttered disaster is the corner where I'm going to set up my photography station. Should be ready in a couple of days.

 The December firing turned out to be an excellent lesson in not pushing ahead when way too tired.  The kiln acted up for the first time ever and stalled badly, adding at least an hour to the usual firing time.  For some reason the back top of the kiln didn't even get cone 9 to start bending and then the front hit cone 14 so there was a combination of underfired, pinholed pots at the back and bloated, warped pots at the front.    The hammer was my friend as I edited the results - between 22 - 25% went into this 5 gallon bucket.  But that said, I got some of the best temmokus out of this firing.  I'll post photos of the survivors next week.

Studio Open House

The studio sale was today.  Disappointing turn-out, with sales down a good 20-25% from last year.  This is a very small community and there's always the fear that market will be saturated.  Will try the winter Farmers' Market for the next  2 weekends but will postpone next week's planned firing.  My arthritic old hands need the rest and I really don't need the stock.  But shelves and posts and kiln are all cleaned and ready so the next firing will be a breeze.

Art Show

This is part of the display.  The nasty pink curtains come with the hall.  All in all the show went well and sales were as good as last year, despite the poor economy.  Thanks to everyone who came!  Now everything is unloaded and back in place, ready for the studio open house next Saturday.

Pots from the November 17th Firing

Here are a few pots from the last firing.  I apologize for the quality of the photos - the new camera is much better but I definitely need a light box to photograph these shiny glazes and eliminate the glare.  Setting up a photography corner will be a priority project for January.  So again, most of the temmokus were leaning towards purple except at the back and there were several runs.   Even though I'm beginning to appreciate the purple/green/black thing, I now understand why they're coming out like that and will fire to correct it next time.  Even though we weren't getting what looked like obvious reduction (no heavy black smoke, no back pressure) we were getting quite a bit of reduction which is what causes temmokus to run and to lean towards the purple.

Tea dust cookie jar with ash on the front.

Tea dust 3 litre jug with ash and a salt flash.

12 inch temmoku jug

Small jar (about 3 inches high)

Olive bowl in tea dust gone purple.

Tea dust again.

Teadust as it should look, with a bit of salt at the top.

Red shino bowls with some residual salt.

My favourite side plate (red shino, some salt).

Shino cookie jar.

Tea dust with ash.

This is Hamada Rust gone purple with chartreuse ash streaks.

Hamada Rust (purple version) with ash. 

Winter Firing

We fired the kiln yesterday.  It actually got above freezing for a few hours but mostly it was cold and snowing.  Kind of nice to sit around the kiln with cups of hot tea and enjoy the wintery weather.  I was sort  of missing the old kiln and longer firings and getting to watch the whole cycle of the day - hearing deer and coyotes and owls in the night.  Now we start at 6:30 or 7:00 in the morning and are done by 8:00 or 9:00 at night.  Much easier on an aging body but not as satisfying to the soul.  I'll unload Sunday afternoon unless it's windy and will post photos of pots then.

Early in the firing.

Passive dampers out with guard bricks to keep the wind out.

View through the stoke hole early in the firing. 

Late afternoon in front of the studio.

Three photos

I'm loading the kiln and planning to fire in 2 days so thought I'd better post a couple of photos from the last firing before posting from the new firing.   The winter Images Art Show is on November 25th & 26th at the Rotacrest Hall in Creston and my studio open house is on December 3rd, so a very busy time.  Then 2 more Farmers' Markets and I'm done for the season.  Looking forward to a bit of down time.  

The after photo.

Dave's bowl.  My standard temmoku with a little salt flash.

Teadust Temmoku with ash.

Before and After

We fired on October 3rd.  Everything went smoothly but again, the results were not what I was looking for with the temmokus.  I even did specific gravity tests, changed the consistencies but they were still too thin.  And why purple?  Is it from reduction?  So here's a preview.  I'll do some photos of individual pots once I figure out how to use my new camera!

Ready to load

Love that speckled suface on the shino.  Wish it fired like that.

Before

After.  All the green & purple was supposed to be black.

Second stack from the front just loaded.

The shinos are reddest at the bottom and paler at the top where the residual salt hits them.