I Spent the Last Two Nights Glazing

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I have over two terms worth of work that I glazed on Tuesday and Wednesday evening. Looking at it on the shelves I have forgotten making some of it and would question now why I put it through the system. Still, that’s the way it has been since September.

I have used the spay gun to create mixed surfaces with the glaze blending tenmoku and celadon over each other. With luck and the alchemy of the gas kiln the two colours should interact effectively. I have used some of Jack’s ash glaze as a base on some of the larger pieces, with a dusting of tenmoku on top. The matt of the ash and the high gloss of the tenmoku should interact and create  interesting surfaces.

From now on I will try to make, consider and recycle, I have to produce lighter pots with more refined forms and experiment with surface texture and glaze decoration. I have one small piece by James Hake, a good potter to look at for all these elements

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I Could have Cried

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The gas kiln is finally working and I now have several pieces that have been in the kiln for about 5 months. The piece I was most looking forward to seeing is this charger. IT HAS A COOLING CRACK IN IT! The failure is not a construction one which is a comfort. Of all the work I’ve made over the last year this is one that I would have happily sold or lived with. I made 5 of these, four I managed to blow up one very expensive weekend trying to bisque fire in my kiln in the garage. This is the only one to survive because I took it into college to do the first firing. Such a pity. The glaze has worked really well with the form and the pattern I like a lot. You probably can’t see from the photograph but its about 50cm across, I made it as a centre piece for the dinning room table. I will however perceiver as I have learnt the technique and proved that I can do it.

Time to make Dumpy Pot or not?

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Thursday output, mmmmmmm…… I used the roller I bought in Ashburton to create the banding effects which I quite like. I have kept all the pots in plastic and will throw a foot onto them next Thursday. I have this idea to use a reactive/volcanic glaze in banded stripes on the textured surfaces it might make the shapes work a bit better.

The kiln is full of my work, but flu is malfunctioning so it only got to 700 before Dan had to turn it off. I need feedback on the things I’ve been making to refocus the direction I want to develop my work in. – Impatient potter waiting to handle high fired reduction work again.com

Back to College – Advanced Throwing a Pot

Back to college and throwing pots on Thursday evenings this term. When I sat down on a wonkying wheel and started throwing I realised how much I had learnt during the summer. The basics have improved significantly, centring and coning, I had a really good go at both making the teapot spouts. The wheel I used was very uncomfortable to sit on and rocked slightly because the floor was uneven. I will have to arrive in time to get onto my old friend from last term. The pots I sprayed with glaze are some of Jack’s out put from his week with us in the summer with one or two of my pieces. I used EC 167 matt white as a base layer and dusted EC 452 over them quite thinly. It will be very interesting to see how the iron content of the Tenmoku reacts with the white matt. Glad to be back being creative, going back to work sucks the energy out of me and make regular creativity much harder. I took in two large bowls for bisque firing, hope they come out next week as I can’t wait to try some of the glaze patterning I saw on Mark Griffiths’s work during the summer. Great fun!

Rob Whelpton – Raku Fish Pot at The Devon Guild of Craftsmen

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I saw this lovely little piece by Rob Whelpton at the Devon Guild yesterday, it just said buy me! I know how hard it is to control your colours with raku and Rob has combined the smoking black with the image on the lid beautifully. The splash of gold sets the whole thing off perfectly. I can’t find a web site for Rob but there are lots of links on the web for various sites that he appears on, try http://www.montpelliergallery.com/rw1_c_2.htm