letting the glaze speak for itself

There are so many ways to decorate pottery that sometimes I find it difficult deciding what approach to take.  This time I decided to let the glaze speak for itself.  This is actually two glazes- off-white semi glossy glaze with some speckles and a transparent glaze with a little iron oxide layered over. 

 The combination has some nice depth and subtle visual texture. 

 

It's a simple bowl. Holds at least six cups. Pass the mashed potatoes.
 



Same glaze combo with a little added extras this time on this french butter crock.

 



Now, the bad- What happened?!!! This is the lid of the french butter crock mentioned in my last post that had a few pinholes. I touched it up, refired and now it looks like the lunar landscape. Will have to do some research and testing. Oddly, the bottom of the jar was O.K., although there are some pinholes on the interior sides of the jar. Almost no pinholes on outside surfaces of jar or lid.

 

 

The list. Actually, the getting-ready-for-a-show list has grown since I took this picture. 

 



 Some weathered boards for my previously named "driftwood hangers". I'll have to call these something else since they are scavenged from loading pallets, a.k.a. skids. Lately, I haven't been lucky enough to find driftwood lumber, which is unfortunate because it's a lot easier to pick up a piece of driftwood than pry these boards off a pallet. I noticed (painfully) they have about ten nails where one screw would have done the job. Got nail gun?

 Finished products after a trip to True Value Hardware.  I just bring the boards and knobs into the store with me since both vary in height, then I try out various screws to get the right fit.  I can do that there since they have that stuff in bins.

The knobs stand out like jewels on the rustic wood.  "Rustic" might be how I'll label these hangers since my driftwood board supply is undependable.  I don't know about pulling apart more of those pallets though.
I just have a few more things to do to get ready for the Harvest Moon Festival.  I figured I'd get to some more glazing this week.  I still have enough bisque ware for another kiln load. Might have to wait until after the show.  This display stuff, pricing, packing wares, etc. has taken a lot more time than I expected.  Still have some display tweaking to do.
 

 

glaze avoidance behavior

• continue to make new work while a kiln load of fired bisqueware sits in the kiln for 3 days.
• dorm room shopping for college bound son.
• go for walks
• look online for decent priced replacement for my worn Teva sandals
• stop by friend's house for 15 minutes then stay for an hour and 15 minutes
• miscellaneous

I don't mind glazing once I get started.  Although I prefer hands on clay work, glazing adds the surface creativity which can get pretty interesting.  Sometimes I delay glazing just because once I start I'm committed to it until I have a kiln load done.  I don't have the space to separate it from the clay process if I'd like to interrupt glazing and work with clay.
Yes, I've been absent from blogging for several weeks. I've had some commissions to take care of and haven't had time to start any new stuff that I really wanted to do. I had planned, by this time, to narrow down my glazes to a black, white and gray combo and an earthy off-white with some other colors thrown in as accents. At least this was the plan for functional ware.  Non-functional is another story. However, getting away from this smorgasbord of glazes I now have is not so easy.  Customers see them and ask for this or that in a certain glaze. So, making things for paying customers- good.  Not having time to make what I want- bad.

Just a couple of shots of stuff I've been doing:

I'd just about given up on french butter crocks but thought I'd give them another shot.  The lids often crack.  It might be a tiny surface crack, but doesn't matter how small it is when it ruins the piece.  I've paid special attention to compressing the clay at the bottom (actually top when you are looking at the picture) and making sure I clean up extra water, and played around with changing up how I throw them. I'm always careful about keeping the drying as even as possible. 

I wanted to see if it was worth my time to continue making these. So, I thought I'd just make a dozen  and keep track of how many crack while drying and how many crack while firing. I started throwing some crocks with my regular clay- not pictured here.  It is tan colored and slightly course textured.  Then I decided to switch to this lighter, smoother-textured clay because a couple of glazes I wanted to use works better with it.  The score so far is tan clay: made 7, 3 cracked while drying.  Light clay:  made 5, none cracked while drying.  I didn't get all of them in the last bisque firing, but so far none cracked while firing.  I'll have to see what happens when all are bisqued and glaze fired, but I can tell you that already losing 3 out of 7 is not acceptable.  That lighter clay might be a winner, though.

This honey jar is not a new shape for me, but one I would like to go back to. It reminds be a little of some grain storage buildings I've seen. I got sidetracked a while with trying to do cute- always a mistake.  The jars I was making with the little birds on top were beginning to annoy me.

Not sure about these vases yet.  Guess you could call them baskets but I only put the handles on for interest when the vase is empty. Pumpkins in background just got their stems glazed and waxed.

  Miss Billy grabs a corner of sunshine on the work table.

fresh from the kiln

We've had a couple of gorgeous days with cool nights.  Perfect for firing the kiln, which I did yesterday.  Here's a peek of the kiln opening:              

Some nice summery colors.  There's not even any brown, unless you count one of the glaze tests- unusual for me.

A "before" of some test tiles.

And the "after" fired a hard cone 6.

This Temmoku glaze has gold flecks in it.  Doesn't show up so well in this photo.

A Chun glaze over the Temmoku. I used some different materials in a couple of glazes this time.-  I had never heard of Epsom salts or borax as glaze materials before.  I may go into more detail about these glazes at another posting. 

Yeah, berry bowls!  I still have a few left to fire, as I couldn't fit all in the kiln this time.

The fence-sitting birdbath.  I was really worried about this.  I only made one because it was so time consuming to build.  I knew it would be a bit risky with all those seams, even though I let it dry very slowly and as evenly as possible. There are a few surface cracks.  A small one inside at the far right ginko leaf, and a couple more along the bottom outside seam.  Because of these, I may offer to let the customer try it out for the summer before paying me.  I think it will hold up fine, though.

I was just having fun with my camera because it is such a beautiful day and I bought a tripod for myself this morning.  Previously, I had been borrowing the one I bought my son for Christmas.  But it often gets left at his friend's house when they video their band practices.  So, time for my own.

This green glaze is nice over the white. I don't think the rutile over the stamped design is really adds anything, though.  Will probably leave that off next time.

Just did these two mugs in this glaze combo- same base glaze with cobalt in the blue and rutile in the yellow.

Little wall piece.  Will add wire for hanging.  Click on this one to enlarge it.  Lot's of texture, plus you get to see all the little plants and mossy stones, etc.

French butter crock nestled among the catmint.  Notice the bee on the blossoms in the upper right.