quickie for a test

Well they say the 7th time's the charm, right? It's been crazy busy at Crazy Green, but I've tried several times (let's say six) over the past week to put up a new post, share some updates, a few images ... technology was not in the mood to play along.

First, I had images stuck in my camera. I could see them in the camera, but they wouldn't upload to the computer. I did have a few other random images of getting ready for the kiln I'm about to load tonight, but when I tried to post, no images would load and even a text-only post just didn't want to go. I took that as a sign from the universe to step away from the computer and get back to studio work.

Yesterday I closed the studio and spent the day in the glaze studio - thanks to my visiting friend Karen sitting the studio on Thursday night, I was able to move all the bisque over to the glaze studio and get set up. I had waxed most of the pots at my studio, so after set up and waxing the pots that came out of the last bisque fire, I was ready to glaze. A full day and into the wee hours was almost enough time to get it all done, and this morning saw the last of the wax resist and cover glazing. I'm back at my studio for a few hours for open studio, which is kind of a break, but for loading another bisque so I can also fire a cone 7 before the Clingman show load-in. Later this afternoon I'll head back over to the glaze studio and clean up my pots as I start the load.

So this is kind of a test - so far so good, and in other good news, I finally retrieved the stuck images from my camera. I'll close with the pictures, just so I can see if this posts.

Caroline & Matthew came to the studio for a Weekend Pass, and they made a couple of lovely bowls and some other small fun pieces. If you're reading, Matthew & Caroline, your pieces just came out of bisque, and I'll be loading them with my cone 7 glaze load on Tuesday, so they'll be ready for you this week!

This one is just because. I thought I had deleted it from the camera, as it was one of those random shots taken while I was fiddling with the settings on the camera. I've cropped it for dramatic/artistic effect.

Yes, this confirms both that I'm very tired, that perhaps I need to get out of the studio more often, and most definitely that I need to remember to put the shea butter on BEFORE I start working with the clay. This is part of my hand.

And on that note, time for some lotion and a little studio clean up here before heading over to load the reduction kiln. Since I'm firing both kilns at the same time, it's also time to make a new kiln god. My cone 7 god, Fred, is doing good duty here, so it's time to make a new one for the reduction kiln. peace.

more glazing fun

This week I'm putting some things in a kiln with a friend, and whether it's a full load or a 1/4 load, it still seems to require similar amounts of time away from the studio. It does make one yearn for the day when all aspects of the potterly life are within reach of each other without packing, piling, driving and splitting time and attentions! But this firing is yet another opportunity to get that shino glaze right, so when my larger firing comes later in April, I can fire those plates for Holly & Chad and they can finally enjoy their wedding gifts! And I'll also have several pieces for Sparrow Spa, which makes more room on the studio shelves for the rest of the order!

Another piece of fun in this kiln is a little sagger test. I've been reading and hearing about firing shinos in a sagger, and I intend to try that out, but right now the only sagger I have was used with salt inside, and since we needed a few kiln fillers, I decided to try a little fun with another salt sagger. The last time used this, it was supposed to go into a wood kiln, but got bumped for lack of space, so since the salt was tightly sealed inside the sagger, I stuck it into the next reduction kiln opportunity. Here are the bowls from that experiement:

They were unglazed stoneware, with two little thimbles of salt. It's easy to see where they got the flashing, and the thin walls warped just so to make them really interesting. I still love these, and had them on display in the cooked sagger in my studio. Now they sit on the shelf, and the sagger is at the glaze studio. I'll take some before pictures and later this week when we unload show the whole adventure. And then I'll start making some saggers for the shino tests in the April kiln - little shot cups, each with their own sagger/gift box!

Back to the Monday: update the books, finish glazing, put handles on some mugs, finish the postcard for the May show at Clingman...where did I put that list?...

teaching and testing...

One of the fun parts of having open studio access for beginner-ish potters, is the chance and challenge to have mini-classes and lessons on demand. The teaching goes both ways, as I get just as much out of watching new hands and different intuitions, not to mention the questions that come up and the pondering that follows.

And it continues even when I'm by myself, each part of making something in clay gives me the chance to find a new approach and learn more about how I've come to where I've come. This is probably most true in the glazing and firing cycles. Although I've happily entered into the phase of enjoying glazing (I used to dread it), it still feels like every load is full of tests, and maybe that's the way it should always be.

The most recent glazing and firing cycle was filled with such 'tests', and the process and the results gave me many lessons to ponder between now and the next firing. I'd be here all night if I list all of them, but to get them out of my head, I'll hit a few. Glazing lesson I already know: give myself more time so I can lay down the wax resist the night before I put on the cover glaze, and don't rush through it. Other glazing lessons were learned only when I unloaded. Less went into the kiln as a whole, and since a good bit of my work was platters or plates, the real estate was not as evenly populated as it could have been.

Basic lesson I should already know but seem only to have the lightbulb moment recently: make work to fill the kiln - so if I'm putting in a bunch of plates and platters, I should have work that will fit in the open spaces on the shelves between them. Lesson 2 on that: if I'm going to make a bunch of plates and platters, I need to invest in plate setters so the space I take goes up, not out, leaving me more options for mixing flat and tall work on the same shelf. Lesson 3 on that too: get my butt in gear and throw to fill the whole kiln, so I can determine more of what goes where. Unloading lessons highlighted by sage advice by generous mentors: some glazes benefit greatly from being sieved before application.


Unload lesson 2: if you're going to dip 24 mugs into the top of one bucket, you better stay off the phone, pay attention and stir that sucker up between every couple of mugs, or you gets what you gets. What we gets here are collector's mugs for the ChoLo - get 'em while you can, this glaze will not be repeated!

And then there are the intentional test pieces, and when something lovely happens, it takes the sting off many other 'lessons'. This platter is made of a Laguna dark brown clay, one that I had used way back when in DC, and I had fond memories of it. I put some slip on it when I threw it, then did the brush work on top of the bisqued form and added a light shino spray. It's toasty, almost wood-fire-esque.

I am so grateful to have access to a wonderful reduction kiln with full glaze studio (thank you Westfire Studio!!), and I'll be firing there as my primary kiln as long as I'm in my current studio, so I'll have some time to really take heed of these lessons. And some of them will no doubt be reviewed and tested again, like an annoying pop quiz where you KNOW the answers yet only seem to spout them out on the bus later, which is all the more annoying because you know the results you'll see when you get that paper back on Monday (hmmm...perhaps I should revisit latent bitterness at public school testing methods...).

So many lessons that unfold all through the process, and now I'm trying to hang on to the most recently learned wisdom so I might find new lessons in the next kiln - it's always an adventure. There were some really lovely results in this last kiln as well as the 'hmmmmm' pieces, and there are lessons in that as well that I hope I retain for the next go-round!