soda kiln

I Have Fewer Pots Now

On Friday I posted the earthenware pots on FaceBook and by the end of the day quite a lot of it had sold.  Most folks had bought this work before and some had wanted a piece but had found out about it after I had stopped making it.  

 I've always felt that I should be sending my best pots out into the world.  So I don't know why I even started boxing those pots up last week to go into the attic.  I guess it was because I am not making them any more and it seemed I may want to have a record of them.  But the best thing to do was to photograph them and then send them off to be loved and enjoyed.

Some of the pots were really one offs of things that I had tried while working in low fire.  This work that was painted with underglaze never really went anywhere.  But it was fun to try.

  I did this next style for about one month.   It was what I had seen in my head from day one of starting the earthenware and was actually what I was after all along.  The drawings were of flowers and also of some animals.  It was really well accepted by some folks but I just did not feel like it was 'me'.  So I stopped doing it and went on to the sgraffito work.  

Sarah's mom has this one with the chickens in her kitchen so I get to visit it often.

Anyhow, there are still some pots left and I'll probably put them out at my next Home Sale or maybe post a few on my Etsy page.  

All the pots will ship out today.  I used to do drawings on all the boxes when I sold a pot.  I had stopped doing that but thought it would be fun to bring it back as a Thank You to the folks who had bought a pot. It was super fun to do the drawings and maybe I'll continue to do it.  I was a bit out of practice so they are a little quirky.  

Saturday I loaded the soda kiln and fired it off on Sunday.  I'll unload tomorrow and have some new pots to show.  There were quite a few clays in this load so it will be good to see if there is anything that I'm going to stick with.
 

Have a good Monday folks.  Thanks for checking in.

Prepping for Firing. Practicing Yoga.

It's been a fairly low key week here at the pottery.  I've finished up making pots for the next firing and gotten all the work done around the kiln so I can load as soon as I am ready.  I have one more load of pots to bisque fire over the weekend.

There will be 4 or 5 different clay bodies in this firing (I've lost count but I've kept good notes).  Honestly I have a feeling that most of these will not be what I'm looking for.  I made some more pots using the white stoneware (B-Mix) that I complained so much about.  I do like the fired result of that clay so maybe it's a matter of me changing some of my working habits to get it to work for me.  I wedged some grog into that body as well to see what the fired result will look like.  I'm not sure if I'll get speckling from the grog or not.  I know there are commercial versions of the B-Mix with sand and grog.  

I've started going to Bikram yoga classes.  This is a type of yoga that is done in a room that is heated to 105 deg F.  It's a 90 min class and we do the same sequence of poses in each class.  Some of you know that I was into CrossFit for a number of years.  I haven't been doing that for over a year now so the Bikram is a welcome addition to my life.  I certainly need to be exercising to stay in shape as I am getting older.  A friend of mine introduced me to yoga in my 20's but I really did not take classes or pursue it too much.  My wife Sarah has had a daily yoga practice for years and also teaches.  She practices the Iyengar style of yoga.

I am finding that being in that room for 90 minutes is a great experience.  I am able to let go, be present, work on the poses, sweat, be quiet, and go inward.  It is both physically and emotionally challenging.  Here's a picture of Sarah in pose, Peety often joins in.

Sorry no yoga pics of me! Ha.  Just envision me drenched and dripping of hot sweat.  Right, not pleasant. Aren't you glad I spared you?

New Pots!! Video! Yay!

Hi. Happy February 1st!  I'm feeling rather good today.  The sun is out.  It's relatively warm and I just had a very nice firing in my soda kiln.  I unloaded late yesterday and shot a very short video of the front of the kiln with the door down.  Then this morning I shot a bit more video and I've stitched it together here in a little YouTube video for you all.  Have a look.  I'll write a few comments down below.

Right. So as you can see a nice firing.  I am pleased with the colors of the slips and the varied application of the soda glaze throughout the kiln.  The pitchers and bottles were in the back top of the kiln and really got some good color.  I had left the top a bit more openly stacked this time which allowed me to spray soda all the way from the front top to the back top of the kiln.  I'm finding that I need to leave some open space in this kiln to get the coverage of soda glaze that I want.  In my salt kiln I could pack rather tightly.  But the soda needs some room.  

I am continuing to put more actual glaze on the pots than I ever have.  The cobalt blue and copper green glazes are what I'm most interested in.  I like them both to a certain degree but not too much of either.  I'm finding that I like the color to only go on part of the pot or as a liner.  The pots that are completely covered in blue or green do not really interest me so much.  So I'll continue to work that out.  The pots with panels of texture and panels of color are nice.  Also I inlayed some of the stamped dots with glaze this time and I liked that as well.

The Valentine's Day pots will go up in the Etsy shop as soon as I can get them photographed and listed.  If you see anything on here you are interested in you can always send me an email.

On the down side I continue to experience some cracking problems around the feet on bowls. I'm pretty irritated with this issue.  I feel like it's a problem with the clay I use.  I am using Loafer's Glory, which is a white stoneware.  It has no grog or mullite or anything like that in it.  I love the way my slips look on it.   Otherwise I am not attached to it at all.   I am pretty sure I'll be testing some new clays this year.  

Ok.  I'll try and post some more still images later in the week or direct you to the pots on the Etsy page where there will be photos.