I feel like I am already behind in blogging! This week has been filled with grading, lesson plans, church, and the other things I have to do immediately to keep things going. So, it was another week of only a few pieces to take in on Thursday. I spent a lot of time working on a lidded casserole, which still is not finished. It is the picture of what looks like a fat flying saucer. I need to spray it down with water to keep it from drying out completely so I can attach handles and some decorative additions. It has been a real learning experience, but well worth the exercise, if only to help in visualizing how lids fit into design schemes.
Other pieces are a couple of bowls, a couple of urns/vases, and a couple of small face jugs. The reclaimed clay really is pretty moist and it has taken some time to get used to working with it. Last night, the only pieces I had to from last week that were ready to pick up were a small rice bowl and a lidded bean pot. I like how the pot turned out, but it surprised me when I saw how off center the handles are - I really had made an effort to keep everything centered and symmetric.
A friend of mine and fellow teacher is also learning pottery and we went in together and ordered about a dozen different colors of mason stains - greens, browns, blues, yellow, etc. We also got some Coleman slip, so I will be trying out these stains and slip in the near future. I brought home two pieces that were bisque-fired last week to experiment on with the stains.
I need to create at least three special pieces in the next few weeks for a summer exhibition that begins in May. More on that later, hopefully with a copy of the flier with all the details. Until then, I plan to grab whatever minutes I can at my wheel and try some new things. First order of business this weekend is to clean up all those little muddy paw prints so I can start with a relatively clean studio space. I wonder how I can incorporate the additions of our cats and dogs into the pottery design!!!
Happy Valentine's Day - don't forget to give your soul-mate a card, an extra hug, and a special expression of love! My motto for my thirty-plus years of marriage has been, "A happy wife is a happy life!" Pretty close to, "If Mama ain't happy, ain't nobody happy!"
cmj
I don't have much to show for this week. The glaze kiln was not started until Thursday morning, so it will be next week before I see what I glazed on the 19th. I did produce some more bud vases to sell in Halifax on April 11th. And, I made another two-piece urn, very similar to the smaller one pictured here, only about three times larger. That, along with the bud vases will be glazed next week. I also brought home my jar on which I carved the door and brick wall peeking through the cracked "stucco" wall. It has been bisque-fired and is ready for glazing. I think I am going to use my stains to add color to the jar and then spray it with clear glaze this week to be fired.
Now that the weather is starting to warm up, I am thinking more about trying to build a wood fired kiln that will produce some finished pottery. Last year, I tried building a kiln from plans I pull off the Internet. It was basically a small train style kiln made out of regular bricks that I salvaged from old foundations of the remains of old houses in the
woods nearby. Even though I was not able to get the kiln hot enough to melt the cone 5 glaze I had used on a few pieces, it was exciting to see the flames shooting out of the chimney and to peek in and see the glowing red ware. I have since bought a copy of the Kiln Book by Frederick L. Olsen and am going to rebuild the kiln in the design of his fastfire kiln. I have already started salvaging more bricks to try out this design. More on that as it happens.
