Still Here

Well it has been a while since my last post, almost a month in fact. I have considered writing something to say that there was nothing to say, however I have never been one that understood the point of telling everyone that nothing is going on so... Anyway, obviously it has been a fairly slow month for me as far as pottery goes. We were "blessed" with a couple of good winter storms that dropped almost 3 feet of snow on us. Since currently my workspace is across town I was fairly reluctant to go out and deal with the city traffic, especially considering that the city refused to deal with side streets at all.

I am just now starting to get back into the studio to get some work done. I did manage however to get a glaze kiln fired off the other day. It was kinda a strange feeling, the firing itself went very well, the kiln climbed at a perfect rate, there was just enough reduction at the right time and I was fairly hopeful that everything would come out exactly as I had pictured it in my mind. The next morning when I first opened the kiln I had that same sort of feeling the few pieces that were right at the very top were great, not exactly like I envisioned but close enough that I wanted to get a look at the rest of the load. Unfortunately the rest of the load was mildly disappointing, not like I had planned at all. There were some pleasant pieces but on the whole I was a little let down.

 Lidded jar with iron red glaze, this was one of the nice surprises, especially since this glaze combination were a test for a larger moon jar.

 Lidded jar, this should have been an opalescent blue glaze, not sure what happened, but I do like the effect. Of course that means that I will never be able to repeat it.

 The 2013 jug. This was one of the ones that I was a little disappointed with, it was never meant to be a sales piece but I was hoping for something a little more traditional.

 Slipware Jug with raised decoration.

 Incense burners, I was unhappy with all of these, however I have already sold 3 of them so obviously they can't be as bad as I think they are.

 One piece goblets with green slip

 One piece goblets with white slip, I am still not sure whether or not I like these.

 Chalices with white slip, I know I am unhappy with these.

The stem on this one actually twisted almost 30 degrees in the firing and leaned over and kissed another piece that was about half an inch away, I have never had that happen before. I accept that there is a certain amount of warping that happens with chalices but not to that extreme.

In addition to these pieces there were a couple more chalices that I will try to remember to get pictures of tonight, they are hopefully going to my first wholesale client. There were also 3 other jugs in the kiln that had handle issues, one of them might be okay and will most likely end up on a shelf in the kitchen, one of them was just ugly as well as having possible handle issues and the last one the handle cracked apart in the middle and twisted separate directions so there is no hope of doing anything with it other than possible using it as a vase.

All in all it the firing was unsatisfying, and I truly hope that it is the exception and not the rule for the year. Well I am off to get back to work, I may try to get another post in later today or tomorrow.