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Monopoly Red

That picture was taken months ago with my cell phone and it fuzzes out if I try to make it larger. Actually it's pretty fuzzy as is. I was just deleting old pictures when I came across this one of Red taking over an abandoned monopoly game. 
Roll the dice- seems appropriate. After Christmas my sales at the market slow down dramatically until the produce starts coming in, but it was like Christmas this Saturday!
The sale that really stood out was with a couple who were on their way home from Florida to Cuyahoga Falls, Ohio.  They stopped in Marietta for the night and went online to see what was in town, found the River City Farmer's Market site, linked to my blog, saw the salt pigs, came down to the market Saturday morning, bought three salt pigs and a honey jar! Later, I wondered how they happened on the market site. I thought they might have found it through the chamber of commerce but I didn't see anything there. But I did find a link to the market here.  If you click on "shopping" the farmer's market is listed.
It was a beautiful day at the market. Some vendors were set up outside selling bedding plants- vegetables and flowers.  My booth inside the building is right across from glass doors where I could see a horse and trap racing around the track opposite the building. 
I was waiting to post this, thinking that Monday afternoon when the light is good I might take pictures of stuff I was working on Sunday.  Instead, I've got a different picture:

2.

I got the call 7:00 this morning that the market building burned down.  Cause not determined at this point.  The market will probably set up outside somewhere, but that's yet to be announced.  I started making a list of all I lost along with the dollar amount, but didn't add it up.  No point, really. I guess, to put it into perspective, when Janet called and said there was bad news, I was afraid she was going to tell me someone died or was badly hurt.  When someone calls at 7:00 AM and says there's bad news you think of people, not things.
Thanks everyone for the e-mails, texts, and phone calls and offers of wine!

   

ginkgo leaves

I'm down to the last of these planters and I just had a request to make a couple more of these with the ginkgo leaves impressed. Saturday I had another shopper looking for anything ginkgo for Mother's day at the market, too. 
Notice Billy, the cat, in the background to the right of the spray bottle.  She's keeping and eye on Red, who also wants to be on the work table. However, she considers two to be a crowd where Red is concerned.

I throw the bottoms of these planters on the wheel. When they dry to the leather-hard stage I add the slab collars. I toss these slabs at an angle onto a canvas covered board rather than roll them out, to get the organic look I want.  Normally I glaze these in gunmetal-see the planter on the left.  I'm thinking the weathered bronze green on this test tile might be good on these too.  If you're wondering why the ginkgo leaves are yellow when it is clearly spring, not fall, it's because they have been in my freezer.  Sometimes I stockpile a few leaves in the freezer to use in the winter months. I picked these up from under a neighbor's tree last fall.

 R--E--D just ate my last ginkgo leaf!  There is nothing subtle about this cat. Hope he doesn't throw up anywhere that involves upholstery.  Tomorrow I need to mail some honey pots and I know there's a ginkgo tree near the post office so I will re-supply.
 

Yesterday I bought these spoons from one of the other vendors at the farmer's market .  A couple of customers had asked if I had small wood spoons to use in my salt pigs and I noticed George Corbitt had some large mixing spoons out on his table along with the  wonderful boxes  he makes, so...

I'm very pleased with them and already sold two to customers who previously purchased my salt pigs.

getting ready to bisque.....and Red happens

It's been taking a very long time for things to dry out, but I finally have enough to bisque fire today.  I figured with the dry winter air I might have a problem with pots drying too fast, but I guess the basement always stays a little damp.

Some salt pigs and a utensil holder in the kiln today.  Pots were piling up in my basement workspace.  Usually when they are almost dry I transfer them to a shelf next to the kiln in the garage.  With some nights dipping down to the teens recently I was afraid to do that.  If there is still visible moisture and the temp goes to freezing seems like things could go wrong, as in expansion.  I've never taken a thermometer down there.  Since the garage is mostly underground maybe I'm safe.

French butter crocks, also in the kiln.  Actually one crock and 3 lids.  I have some extra crocks due to the tendency the lids have to develop hairline cracks.  Hence the extra lids. 

Not ready to fire- some nesting bowls and a set of soup bowls.  I'll be heading down to trim some of these this afternoon. 

Red happens.  Found this mess this morning.  I leave my slip bucket to set overnight on my wheel so the water will separate enough to pour out,  then I'll recycle the slip into clay. Red, the cat, loves to watch anything liquid move across the floor.  He, in fact, finds it hugely entertaining.  Used to tip his water bowl over every day until I got a tip proof bowl.  I've learned not to leave small glaze containers on my table and I had been hiding my slip bucket from him.  Lately, I thought I could get away with just covering it with a towel.  It worked...for a couple of weeks.  

The guilty party.

Here's what happens to the slip, trimmings, etc.  I'm using a rack that used to dry out bath toys.  The very wet clay is slopped onto a piece of canvass and left to dry to the consistency of usable clay.  Then, because I don't have a pug mill, I double bag it with plastic grocery bags and slam the heck out of it. The idea being to de-air it as much as possible. That doesn't get me out of wedging, but it helps make it easier. 

stripes, borax and shades of green

Got some pics of the latest firing.  Some good pots, some just O.K.  It's always a learning experience.  I've been thinking, lately, about how difficult it is for me to limit my glaze choices.  There might be a kind of consistency in shape and form, but my glazing and decoration is all over the place.  I don't think I'll ever be one of those potters who rely on 1-3 glazes, but I would like to work on narrowing down the choices so that my work has a bit more cohesive look.

  I'm using the only little sliver of direct sunlight coming into my work area in the summer afternoons.  It does show the glaze better than the overhead fluorescent.  This is one of a batch of candle holders I made.  This green glaze is popular with customers.  Its one drawback is it will crawl if applied the slightest bit too thick
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Here I am experimenting with a new glaze again- another green.  I like this glaze but it is just wrong for candle holders.  The color looks anemic to me.  But inside a bowl I think it could be striking the way the pooled glaze turns turquoise.

A salt pig.  I saw a video of John Britt making these on Clay Club http://ncclayclub.blogspot.com/2011/04/closed-cylinder-technique.html and I thought they looked fun to make.  They were.  For some reason they just seemed to call for stripes, so I used stripes on most of them.  This one has stripes of white slip, white slip tinted with gray stain, black engobe, and rutile wash.

Guess you can tell how much I'm into these stripes.  I have no idea how these will sell.  I haven't had a customer ask me about making one. It's not unusual for customers to ask me about making some kitchen specialty item I've never heard of.  Maybe I'll just be ahead of them this time. 

Salt pig with a flutter of leaves.

More stripes, with a few rutile dots.

Seemed like a good idea at the time, but, for one thing, having a stick right across the bird bath kind of gets in the way of the bathing bird.  For another, this glaze is just boring.  If I had applied an engobe into a textured design and then glazed it might have worked better. Or, hm... maybe just used a different glaze.

Testing, testing- this is the borax idea I spoke of in an earlier post.  I tried it on these two glazes. One is a rust matte and the other a glossy deep blue.  So, what I did was make a paste of borax and water and then flick it on this lid (a french butter crock reject) which I had earlier dipped in the two glazes. Used a toothbrush for flicking.  Pretty much no change to the blue glaze, except one spot on the side that got an extra heavy dose.  In that spot the glaze slumped and left a bare spot.  The matte glaze was really interesting, though.  There are little copper penny-colored spots where the borax hit.

    Billy on the table during the last glazing session.  Tolerated, if not encouraged, because she's cute.