To Do Today

Today is the last day of August, and the start of Labor Day weekend - the cultural if not the astronomical end of summer. It's been a busy summer, not always in the ways I would have chosen, but I am trying to get my time back until control. With that in mind, I'm utilizing that old favorite tool of mine: the to-do list.

I unloaded a kiln on Wednesday, which never stops being fun and exciting. Thursday was sorting, pricing, packing, and delivering pots to Monkitree, Portland Pottery, and Kennebec River Artisans.

This was a ^10 firing; I've been alternating between ^6 and ^10 all summer, as it turns out that no, I can not go the whole summer without making new inventory in order to focus on the glaze conversion project. My bad! Nevertheless I am pretty much on schedule - still owe a few pottery Rewards, as well as the glaze books (of course!) but the upcoming ^6 firing will hopefully be the last of the 'test" firings, and contain more than half "real" work.

So! to the boats:

To do today:

• Scrape and grind kiln shelves. Six of my shelves are Advancers, which are crazy-expensive but necessary, as lifting the heavy regular shelves above my shoulders at arms length just had to stop. The Advancers need minimal grinding - an obvious perk - but not none. 
• It's a throwing day: cake stands are on tap (watch for a video!) and as well as pitchers and butterdishes.
• I still have pots that need homes from the last firing, so I will be preparing pots for delivery to The Artisan's Barn, Summer Island Studios, and the Bay View Company.

Soda Firing Workshop!

In conjunction with Portland Pottery and the Watershed Center for Ceramic Arts, I will be offering a Soda Firing Workshop this fall! It's happening Saturday & Sunday, September 14th & 15th at the Watershed Center. I will bring glazes,flashing slips, brushes, and trailing bottles; you bring two clay boxes of bisqued, ^10 stoneware. (I can't guarantee it will all get in the kiln but I will do my best!) We'll spend Saturday morning glazing, then break for lunch, and load the kiln in the afternoon. Portland Pottery will provide lunch on Saturday.
On Sunday we will fire the kiln. Students will learn about glaze application, loading, firing, and and have an opportunity to spray the soda mix into the kiln! I'll also provide wadding, kiln wash, and glaze recipes to interested students.
The firing will be unloaded the following Wednesday. Students are welcome but not required to attend the unloading. If you can't be there, please make arrangements to pick up your work at Portland pottery. The cost for this two-day workshop is $125.Call Portland Pottery to register, or for more details. (207)772-4334

Thursday Inspiration: Karen Hamilton

See lots more of Karen's intriguing work here and here.

What Do You Do When Inspiration Flees?

As regular readers know, my family obligations have expanded this summer. It's not that it's so much more work - though there is some - but it takes up a great deal more of my mind. In the interest of privacy, I won't share much of what's happening on that front, except to say some parts are going well - arguably the most important parts - and in other ways it's much harder than I expected.
One thing I find difficult is really feeling it in the studio. I can make stuff, but I can't get that so-excited-to-make-stuff feeling that is the reason I love clay; that feeling that results in the best pots. I page through the Thursday Inspiration posts, which used to send me spinning onto the studio post haste, but that hasn't been working; so I'm trying a different tack.
I purchased Kristen Keiffer's Surface Decoration video!
(I tried to post an image here relating to the video, but Blogger is giving me a raft of shit. Of course it is.)
I can't yet say whether this will awaken my snoozing inspiration, but I can say this: this video is wonderful. Though the general techniques are things I am familiar with, Kristen has different approaches to all of them. I've only watched the first two chapters and I've already learned so much! Just wanted to share this with my readers: if you've been considering this DVD, it's well worth the $50 purchase price.
I'm off to watch the rest of it. Hope you are having a good summer.

Test Tiles!

They're less blurry in real life.

Though I am sort of on a blog break for the summer, I couldn't wait to share my recent ^6 test results! This was a mixed firing - lots of tests, as well as several "real" pieces glazed in Julia Galloway's Water Blue, a glaze I can rely on not to suck.

It didn't suck, but it was a little too sweet and...bland?...for my taste. I may not have reduced heavily enough, or early enough, to get the deep, varied, mysterious blue-to-purple I had in mind.

The look I had in mind.

Nevertheless I think the recipients of these mugs and teabowls - my Kickstarter supporters - will enjoy them. It's definitely a pretty glaze.

I got lots of good information from the tests, and at least three keepers. See if you can pick the winners from these images:

^6 Amber Celadon test

^6 Brown's Blue tests

^6 Magic White tests

^6 Oribe tests

^6 Old yellow tests

The Amber Celadon test ran like a mad bastard - and let me tell you, mad bastards can run, even at ^6. None of the Magic White tests made me happy, but I got keepers of Brown's Blue - the tile on the left; Oribe - the bowl on the left; and Old Yellow - the tile on the far right.

This was the first test firing in my own kiln; the others occurred in Watershed's soda kiln. I was concerned about uneven temp, but that concern proved unfounded - there was probably a full cone difference between the hot and cold areas, but it was not enough that the glazes reacted badly, or not as far as I could tell.

Some Helpful Numbers

A stick of butter is 5" long x 1.25 inches square
To throw a butter dish:
Tray, 1.25 # of clay
Lid, 1# of clay, plus the "roof"

2-Quart casserole:
Pot, 4.25# of clay
Lid, 3.75# of clay

1-quart casserole
Pot, 3# of clay
Lid, 2.5# of clay

9" dinner plate, with wide(ish) rim: 4.5# of clay

12 oz mug: 1 1/8 pound of clay
16 oz mug: 1.25 pounds of clay

Soda Cobalt ^6 Tests

These are the test recipes generated from Glazemaster. Firing this week!

Soda Cobalt ^6

Test 1

Cone: 6 Color: Blue/Purple

Firing: Surface: Matt

32.4 Feldspar--Kona F4

14.3 Whiting

25.8 Silica

8.3 Kaolin--EPK

3.3 Talc

1.6 Gerstley Borate--1999

14.3 Frit--Ferro 3124

100 Total

Add: Cobalt Carbonate 1

Recipe Name: Soda Cobalt Test 2

Cone: 6 Color: Blue/Purple

Firing: Salt/Soda Surface: Matte

34.1 Feldspar--Kona F4

15 Whiting

27.1 Silica

8.7 Kaolin--EPK

3.5 Talc

1.7 gerstley Borate--1999

9.9 Frit--Ferro 3134

100 Total

Additives

1 Cobalt Carbonate

Recipe Name: Soda Cobalt Test 3

Cone: 6 Color: Blue/Purple

Firing: Salt/Soda Surface: Matte

35.8 Feldspar--Kona F4

15.6 Whiting

24.3 Silica

10 Kaolin--EPK

3.7 talc

10.6 Frit--Ferro 3185

100 Total

Additives

1 Cobalt Carbonate

Recipe Name: Soda Cobalt Test 4

Cone: 6 Color: Blue/Purple

Firing: Salt/Soda Surface: Matte

32.9 Feldspar--Kona F4

14.3 Whiting

26.2 silica

8.4 Kaolin--EPK

3.4 Talc

14.8 Frit--Ferro 3124

100 Total

Additives

1 Cobalt Carbonate

Recipe Name: Soda Cobalt Test 5

Cone: 10 Color: Blue/Purple

Firing: Salt/Soda Surface: Matte

32.9 Feldspar--Kona F4

14.4 Whiting

23.6 Silica

8.4 Kaolin--EPK

3.4 Talc

17.3 Gerstley Borate--1999

100 Total

Additives

1 Cobalt Carbonate

Recipe Name: Soda Cobalt Test 6

Cone: 6 Color: Blue/Purple

Firing: Salt/Soda Surface: Matte

28.4 Feldspar--Kona F4

12.4 Whiting

22.6 Silica

15 Kaolin--EPK

2.9 Talc

18.7 Frit--Ferro 3134

100 Total

Additives

1 Cobalt Carbonate

Life Intervenes

I have not been blogging as much as I would like lately. I am still working on my ^6 conversion - the next test is to happen in about a week - and making pots to fill my summer orders. We've had a little life change, however, which has taken some of my time and attention.

My teenage nephew has come to live with us. He is battling a heroin addiction and needed to be out of the environment in his hometown where it was easy for him to get his drug, because the temptation was too great. Heroin is an evil thing which clouds and torments the mind even long after the physical withdrawal is done. The battle is far from over, but he is a valiant warrior. We can't fight the battle for him - we can't even help much. The best we can do is give him a safe place to fight it, and try to put obstacles between him and the drug when his considerable will flags. 

Though its unlikely that anyone he knows reads this blog, it feels like an invasion of his privacy - already necessarily limited - to say much more than that. I still have lots to say about ceramics- I have a favorite frit now, that I can't wait to tell you about, for example - and will blog as time allows. In the meantime, send good thoughts our way, prayers if you've got 'em, and maybe things be alright. 

Thursday Inspiration: A. Blair Clemo

See lots more of Blair's work here.

Look for Thursday...

...on Friday this week. I have a few ideas for Thursday Inspiration but just won't have time to put the post together today. Gah. I need a catch-up week.

Like A Good Neighbor

I saw this and thought immediately of my neighbor, the one who called the fire department on my firing; who now thinks I am cool and comes over to drunkenly blather at me whenever she sees me working out in the kiln yard. That's better than her hating me I guess. I learned that calling 911 seems to be a hobby of hers; she recently called to report cats fighting in the parking lot of her building, and again about another neighbor walking his dog too close to her windows and upsetting her cat.

I am trying to be compassionate, as she clearly has a problem with alcohol. It would be easier, however, if she'd stay over there.

Blue Flame

A week or so ago, I had the service guy from Suburban Propane come and clean my burners. I feel like this is something I should be able to do myself, but I'm still sort of intimidated by burners, and I wanted to watch somebody else do it first - and anyway he had to come out and check for a leak I thought I smelled while trying to fire a bisque.

I am astonished at the difference in the flame! I guess I thought it would be subtle: it's not. The flame is now almost totally blue, much quieter - I never thought of that aspect at all - and giving off far less heat outside the kiln. I never knew how much heat I was losing until I wasn't anymore. Seriously I feel like the whole Global Warming thing might be my fault! But all that energy that was going to make a bunch of noise and radiate heat into the air is now going to heat the kiln, so I am in hopes my firings will be faster and more efficient.

Here's the load before I bricked up the door. These pots are headed for Monkitree in Gardiner, the Portland Pottery Cafe, the Center for Maine Craft, and On the Main, and maybe a couple of new listings on my website.