Latest Firing and such

Okay so I will admit it, I am a bad blogger. I have said this before and will probably continue to say it. I try but there always seems to be a good reason not to sit down at the computer and write a blog post. Lately the problem has either been that I am working and at the point where I am done working I am all tapped out of creative energy, or I am not working and that is usually because I am not feeling creative at all. I blame the latter on the ridiculous weather that we are being afflicted with so far this "spring". The last 10 days is the perfect example... we had 4 days of storms that were constant enough that there was not possibility of getting any firing done. This past weekend was much nicer with lots of sun and temperatures in the mid 80's. I did manage to get 2 kiln loads fired, a bisque load which I was able to pack very full and I now have the remainder of the winter's work bisqued with the exception of a couple of large pieces that are to big to play well with others. I also got a glaze load for the new line fired. I am generally happy with most of it. There were a couple of pieces that I was not super excited about and 2 pieces which went straight into the break bucket. I had hoped to get another glaze load fired but it was late yesterday afternoon when I unloaded and there was no way that my body was going to allow me to fire overnight last night. Plus we are supposed to be getting some decent thunderstorms today starting around noon and there was no way that I would have been able to get the kiln unloaded before then. Tomorrow the forecast is for... wait for it.... SNOW. I mean seriously it is May, we shouldn't be getting snow. So this week is going to be kinda useless for firing.

I haven't managed to get much throwing done lately, with the exception of a couple of fermenting crocks. Hopefully at least one of them is spoken for but I am not going to count on that until they are done as I have had pretty poor luck with them and cracking in the firing.

This is one of the German style ones that has a channel to put water in so that you don't have to skim them

This one is an American style one with straight sides

Both of them are about 1 gallon, these will go into the load with big stuff that I have left.

Here are the pics for the latest firing.

Om mugs for a customer pretty happy with the way these came out

A few slipware mugs, still happy

This mug gave its life for a glaze test. I am looking for a green glaze. Not sure what happened with this, there is definitely green in the glaze where it is over white slip, over the raw clay it is much more blue, hmmmm.

This tea bowl was kinda a glaze test as well. I dumped the little bits of glaze that were left over from test tiles into one container and mixed it up really well, beats dumping them down the sink. Kinda happy with this one.

10 inch dinner plates, there are 2 that say Live Simply/Love Greatly and 2 that say Speak Kindly/Act Generously. These ended up getting a good amount of reduction and I am not sure how as the kiln itself never went into reduction. Regardless I am happy with these and they should go pretty quick.

A couple more 10 inch dinner plates. This glaze is a tad bit under matured. It should look like the plates above, I had considered refiring them but I have decided it is not worth the risk of them warping which would be a serious possibility, maybe they will grow on me.

Small bowls, generally okay about most of these. They are about the perfect size for a scoop of ice cream and a serious amount of chocolate sauce.

This bowl was another sort of glaze test. It is the exact same glaze that is on the tea bowl but in a slightly cooler part of the kiln. I like this one as well.

I am seriously edging towards feeling like I need a larger kiln. As it is I am having to make to many choices about what goes into the kiln including having to break up orders which invariably leads to different appearances. I have contemplated adding another couple of ring sections to this one if I can find them but apparently 21" kilns are becoming rarer and nobody is getting rid of the used ones. I think that I need to do some more thinking on this.

I am also giving a lot of thought to bringing the studio back to the house so that I can work outside but that is not going to be until the weather settles more than it has been lately. 

And finally I am going to try to make an effort to post more regularly than I do, I like to think that that will happen more once the studio is back here but I know better than to promise anything.