More Pots

Can't seem to get out of the garden.  So much weeding and transplanting that I'm totally neglecting the pottery.  Haven't made anything this week at all.   But here are a few more photos taken yesterday of pots from the last firing.  Now back to the wheel!

Tea dust Temmoku bottles with salt flashes

Small Shino Teapot & cups 

Red Shino Baker with excellent ash deposits

Red Shino nesting bowls

Ash glazed teapot with too large handle but that's all I  had

Ash glazed nesting bowls with texture.

A Few More Pots From The Last Firing

Here are a few more pieces from the April 26th firing.  I've been working on some new ash glazes -  a transparent one and a semi-matte - lots of tests.  Liking some of the results.  There will be more photos in a few days.

Ash glazed bowl with excellent runs.

Shino casserole.

Ash glazed casserole.

Ash glazed oil bottles.

Tea Dust Temmoku nesting bowls.

Shino jug.

The Unloading

This unloading was a first for me.  I usually unload quietly, on my own, but this time I had company all the way from the west coast of Washington!  They came to see if this was the kiln they might want to build so wanted to see the results first hand.  Having help carrying pots into the studio was great and having the time for "potter talk" was a real treat.  Had to moderate the language a bit when the disasters appeared.  The big cookie jar with the dunted lid for instance.  Overall it was a pretty successful firing for me, but in the end the visitors decided against wood firing and all the heavy work involved.  I sometimes wonder, myself!

2nd stack from the back.  

Back stack with really good temmokus.

Beautiful end of the day.

The Firing

This is from the April 26th firing.  Note the toque and heavy coat!

Early in the firing.

The wood and extra grates (thank you, Bernd!)

Beautiful wood.

At the end of the firing

Some Pots

Just a few photos from the last firing, quick, before I have the next firing on the 19th.  It's all been a bit frantic.  I started throwing again before I'd even cleaned up all the pots from this last firing!  Trying to get 3 done before the beginning of June.  Haven't taken the time to really look so it's hard to know what to photograph.  The work changes very slowly and it feels like I'm just repeating myself but here are a few anyway.   

I seem to have done it again with the glaze.  Mixed a new batch of the brilliant MacKenzie ash glaze but hadn't written down exactly how thick so.....  Turns out it was quite a bit too thin but not a terrible loss.  Got some animal print jugs (not showing them) and some OK oil bottles (see below) and quite a nice brown teapot that has a bit of an anagama fired look.  Sometimes mistakes are good.

Large colander with red shino glaze

Medium teapot with red shino glaze

Small teapot with red shino glaze

Ash glazed casserole with lots of extra natural ash

Casserole - no glaze except natural ash

Ash glazed oil bottles

Medium/small teapot with thin ash glaze

Bowl with iron wash on the outside,  glaze only on the inside

Diamonds Are a Girls Best Friend

I've been woodfiring for ten years now.  The first kiln was a Bourry box kiln - almost no ash on the pots and an easy clean up of the shelves, even with salt glazing.  Just used a scraper and a silicone carbide grinding block.  The new kiln, on the other hand, gets fiercely hot (cone 12 flat at the front) and  deposits a fair amount of ash, especially on the first 2 stacks, so clean up has been the absolute worst part of my job (which is the best job in the world) until last year.  I'd been using masonry discs on my angle grinder and was going through at least 10 per firing and taking hours and hours and hours.  Last year my clever husband found these amazing diamond cups for the angle grinder and now all 20 shelves are cleaned and have new kiln wash in under 2 hours!!  Wish I'd known 5 years ago.  New wood firers take note.

Signs of Spring

So a couple of weeks ago we had minus 15 degrees celsius, then about a foot of snow, then unseasonably warm temperatures and rain.  A lot of rain.  The studio is at the bottom of a slope with a lovely flat, flagstone area in front that turned out to be a perfect catch basin for all the rain and rapidly melting snow.   Which of course, found its way into the studio.  Only a couple of inches of water and only in about a quarter of the space.  For the first time I was grateful that the concrete floor is so uneven that the little lake remained near the door.  Only loss was a roll of newsprint that was standing on the floor.

The field in front of the studio yesterday.

Daffodils and tulips poking through in front of the studio.  

 And in the middle of all that I've been making and making!   Teapots,  casseroles, and all the usual mugs and bowls and jugs and bottles.  Spending more time exploring and trying different things that I'm usually in too much of a hurry to do.  It's been wonderful.  The first firing this year will be on March 22nd.  Today is shelf grinding, tomorrow is kiln cleaning and post grinding.

Little pourers for soya sauce or maple syrup or salad dressing.

Some bisque ware.