June Pots

This was the last firing until September/October.  It'll be good to take a break, enjoy some summer and maybe get my enthusiasm back.  I'm feeling a little downhearted about pottery's place in this world of cheapmart culture.  I know that unless you've mixed clay, made pots, put their handles, feet etc on, gone through all the steps of bisqueing, glazing, wadding, loading and then firing a wood kiln you really don't understand how very much work it is.  Satisfying, at times exhilarating, but always hard work.  Then when someone asks you how much your hard won wood fired mug costs and you say $25 (which you think is pretty cheap for a wood fired mug) and they say "Each?" your heart aches.  When several more people say the same thing over the course a few weeks heartache turns to bitterness and you just want to grab them by the shirt and say "No! For the whole works!!!  Go ahead, take them all!  What are you thinking, you #%$##@!"

This is not a third world country.  I still have to pay for groceries here and for gas and for clay and electricity.  We've all got so used to paying next to nothing for things made by poor people in poor countries that we've lost sight of what beautiful work made by highly trained, skilled, artists is worth in our country.  Most potters I know are not rich but we're doing what we love.  But just because we love our jobs does that mean that our work has no value?  I ask you.

So here are a few photos taken before the battery died.  More to follow.

temmoku condiment dish

shino oil bottles

Ash glazed faceted bowl

temmoku butter dish

shino butter dish

Ash glazed butter dish with slip & texture

Red shino butter dish

Ash glaze over thick slip honey pot

Firing Today

Firing today, unloading Wednesday, photos later in the week.

Fairly early in the firing.

Expected high is 28 C so the tub is ready with icy well water.

Beautiful verbascum growing in the shard pile.

Pots With Lids

Had a very productive day yesterday making pots with lids.  Many lids.  The clay I'm using has a nasty habit of cracking inside the lids (also inside foot rings but that's another story) so I'm making extra.  They don't always crack in drying but sometimes after the bisque and worst of all, after the glaze firing. I'm doing all the things I should be: compressing when throwing, making sure they're an even thickness, drying carefully etc, but they still sometimes crack.  So, lots of extra lids.

That meant the entire day today was spent trimming lids, putting on handles, poking holes and assembling all the bits.  It's actually kind of fun - seeing all the components come together.  Sometimes they're successful, sometimes not so much.  They're so beautiful at the shiny, leather-hard stage.   Hopefully they'll all survive.

Honey pots and garlic keepers

Butter dishes

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