Mary Starosta Colorado Potter

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. . .

  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!

  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.

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.

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.

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.

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. . . . .

Dinner set with dinner plates, salad plates, a few bowls and MUGS and more MUGS!

The glaze is MC6G variegated slate blue “tweaked” to get the brown Olive color and Jeannie’s purple for contrast.  Appears to be a popular combo…….

Kelly here is how your Rectangular Vases Turned out.  Fresh out of the Kiln today.  Send me a picture of how you end up using them!  Hope you enjoy them!