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

Cookin'

It's been scorching hot.  Temperatures have been hanging in the low 30's but the past few days have been 35 degrees C. (about 98 F) and humid from all the rain we had before.  So, yup, I'm going to fire the kiln!  The horse trough is filling and you know I'm going to be in it every couple of hours,  though we did pick Thursday to fire when the temperature will "drop" to 28 degrees and a possibility of showers.  A little crazy, yes, but other commitments will keep me from firing for the next 2 weeks so it's now or kind of too late.  The farmers' market is picking up with tourists, even from flooded Alberta, so the extra stock is really needed.  Photos of pots should be posted by the middle of next week.  This firing is especially exciting because I'm testing 3 new glazes and 4 new clay bodies.

2nd stack from the back

half full trough

Lessons from the Kiln

Every firing teaches a lesson.  This time I learned that I must always check the thickness of the glazes before putting them on my pots.  Especially after a seven month break.  And I must not soak the kiln too long at the end.  This was made very clear to me when I unloaded this last firing and found that 90% of the temmokus, including the tea dust, ran because the glaze was on too thick and the kiln stayed too hot, too long.  Now most of them are on the shard pile, though some of the runs have been ground off and these pots sit in the corner of shame, also known as the seconds shelf.  We have ordered new diamond cups for the angle grinder to deal with the many, many shelves with great big blobs of glaze on them.  Sigh.

So here are the survivors.

Hamada Rust Temmoku Nesting bowls.  

Cedar Ash Oil Bottles

Red Shino Baking Dish

Red Shino Bowl

Small Cedar Ash Dish

Tea Dust Temmoku Faceted Bowl

Carbon Trap Shino Faceted Bowl

White Shino Faceted Bowl

My Favourite Cedar Ash Mug

2 Litre Cedar Ash Jug