I’m not sure how most potters dry pottery in the summer, but I need these bowls to be BONE DRY and so I put them outside on my deck to dry. It’s the afternoon and warm outside. The sun is in the clouds so not direct sunlight. Hopefully is a few hours they will be ready for a bisque firing on low this evening? Maybe. . .
Drying. . . . .hummmmm outside
July 22, 2008 · No Comments
→ No CommentsCategories: Bisque and Green Pieces · Functional Pottery · ceramics
Tagged: drying pots, pottery
Just a Little Farm
July 22, 2008 · No Comments
Just a Little Farm saw one of my bowls that was a gift at a horse show. They liked it and asked me if I would make them one. So here is a Large, BIG, Bowl with Just a Little Farm and a picture of a hunter jumper on the side. It just has to be bisque fired and than glazed and it’s done, hopefully by this week-end!
→ No CommentsCategories: Functional Pottery · Pottery for your kitchen · TIPS
Tagged: pottery, Big Wheel thrown bowls, stamps on clay
New set of Dinner plates
July 22, 2008 · No Comments
These are NEW Glazes for dinner set. It’s a blue green that over laps with cream and together they combine a baby blue. The Larger plate is 14 inches and the smaller plate (like a salad plate) is 12 inches.
It’s interesting the Green/blue glaze is Bright Sky Blue from MC6G and Cream. The Clay is a brown stoneware clay called Kodiak. I fired to 2175 F and held at 10 minutes with a slow cool down. So it was about a cone 5.5 not quite a cone 6.
→ No CommentsCategories: Dinner plates · Functional Pottery · Glazes
Tagged: ceramics, dinner plate sets, pottery
Bird House for Colorado Finches
July 22, 2008 · No Comments
The Finches in Colorado are amazing and seem to build nests in Pine Trees. We see if any would like a clay birdhouse instead? The Top comes off, so I can clean the inside from season to season and air holes under the roof for ventilation. I also put 4 small holes in the floor in case they need some drainage.
→ No CommentsCategories: Functional Pottery · ceramics · clay
Tagged: art, birdhouse, ceramics, pottery
Glaze Firing at Different Temps.
July 20, 2008 · No Comments
This Bowl is Raspberry with Variegated Slate Blue on top. Fired to Cone ^6 oxidation. The glaze Raspberry is Glossy at this firing but the shard next to it was fired to cone ^5 by mistake and it takes on a MATT appearance. And it is a more true Raspberry where the glossy glaze can appear a hue of Purple.
The other shard has Emerald with Raspberry under neath. The Emerald stayed glossy at Cone ^5.
The First Slide is of Waterfall Brown (MC6G) and it was fired first to Cone ^6 and than later to Cone ^04. It shows a brilliant RED. The Second Pic is of bowls with the same glaze combo. The Left one is fired to Cone ^6 and the Right one is fired to Cone ^6 and later to Cone ^04.
So I have learned that 2x firing from cone ^6 to a lower temp (cone ^04 is my bisque Temp) can produce amazing color. I also learned that Raspberry can appear glossy at Cone ^6 or Matt at Cone ^5.
→ No CommentsCategories: Glazes · Mastering cone 6 Glazes · TIPS · ceramics · clay
Tagged: 2x firing, glaze firing cone 6, glazes on pottery, pottery
Glaze Testing
July 17, 2008 · No Comments
→ No CommentsCategories: Glazes · Mastering cone 6 Glazes · TIPS · ceramics
Tagged: cone 6, pottery, testing Glazes
Lesson learned. . . OOOPS!
July 14, 2008 · No Comments
So it had to happen at some point, lesson to learn. I had a request for 10 plates and a few bowls to have done in 3 days. If everything went well, maybe possible but I should have said NOPE can’t do it.
Of Course, that wasn’t the case. I tried to push it and thought that maybe if I slowly heated the kiln the bowls and plates would dry enough to be bisque but alias that wasn’t the case. So Friday night I throw 10 plates and 3 bowls. Designed them and painted d rings on the sides of each one. Than I placed them in the kiln on Saturday to bisque fire. Out of all the pieces I put in the kiln, 2 bowls and 2 plates didn’t make it and blew up in the kiln. Too wet for the slow fire and Blew up! Yikes.
On Sunday morning ,when I opened the kiln, I saw the damage to the pottery. Sad really but lesson learned. I had to call and leasve a message that NOPE, the order couldn’t be done in time for Monday night. It takes 24 hrs for each firing (bisque and than Glaze). With such a tight schedule it would not happen. Now I know that if ever someone asks, can you do it in 3 days…….well NOPE will be my answer. Need at least 5 days and that’s if everything goes well.
Still, I did learn some things, don’t be in a hurray,let things dry first and what shape I will do differently on the bowls.
→ No CommentsCategories: Bisque and Green Pieces · Functional Pottery · TIPS
Tagged: greenware, kiln bowls blew up, pottery
Large Bowls
July 11, 2008 · No Comments
Throwing large bowls …. Fun Fun Fun. I enjoy throwing LARGE, REALLY BIG, Bowls. I like to throw them tall or wide, with rims or not. FUN FUN FUN! Now glazing them well that’s another story and one I am working on. These bowls do not fit in a large 5 gallon bucket of glaze for dipping. SO I have to find another way to glaze them.
So Far I have found that an empty kitty litter pan with 2 sticks across the top seems to work. I glaze the inside of the bowls first and than set them on the sticks with the pan below. Than I pour the glaze over the bowl and the glaze gets caught by the pan. I am able to than take the glaze in the pan and pour it back into the bucket.
However, I don;t always get a nice even coating of glaze on the bowl so I will have to ponder this for awhile to see how I can get a smooth glaze covering on my large bowls without dipping them.
Hummmmm. . . . .
→ No CommentsCategories: Bisque and Green Pieces · Functional Pottery · clay
Tagged: ceramics, large bowls, pottery
Dinner Set Olive/Brown with hints of blue,cream and purple
July 8, 2008 · No Comments
→ No CommentsCategories: Dinner plates · Functional Pottery · Glazes · ceramics
Tagged: pottery, Dinner plates, salad plates, mugs
Rectangular Vases
July 8, 2008 · No Comments
→ No CommentsCategories: Functional Pottery · Vases · ceramics
Tagged: ceramics, pottery vase, rectangular shape







































