First Glaze Firing

This is the sum total of my first glaze firing.  I wanted to do a test run, rather than fill it to the brim.  The first bisque firing went fine but didn't get as hot as it should have which is much more forgiving on a bisque firing than a glaze firing.  To accommodate for that I'm using a 7 cone in the kiln sitter though my goal is to fire to cone 5 or 6.  

Kiln wash on the shelf

Bottom shelf

Second and third shelves.  You can see the witness cones sitting there in front of the peep hole.  

Loading in the last piece.

Ok, next day . . .  emptied the kiln this morning.  Again, it appears from the witness cones that it didn't get as hot as it should have but the pieces seem to have cured fine.  

first glaze run

These two tumblers were a bit disappointing.  I really dislike the colors (rose and medium blue underglazes with a clear glaze overall) - or maybe it's just my brushing technique (or lack thereof) but I also must have gotten some wax on the rim where the glazes didn't take.

These two tumblers are done in true celadon over porcelain.  I like them; the carvings show through well and the color is nice.

I used all my new underglazes on this so I could see what colors they fired.  It will come in very handy.

You can see the cones didn't bend like you would expect.  They are 5, 6, and 7 cone packs and the bent cone is a 7 which was in the kiln sitter.  I had hoped to fire to cone 5 but from the look of the witness cones, it appears I didn't get there.

Latest Pottery

An udu drum done in underglazes and stains.

A couple of tumblers, carved, stained with Spanish iron oxide and 3 coats of clear glaze. 

Mug.  I think the bottom is very thin celadon froth but not sure what's on the top.  I like the shape of this.

"Quilted" tumbler with painted underglazes, stained and then covered with clear glaze.

The kit 'n kaboodle.   The front bowl is chun over cappucino.

Working on pieces for my first glaze firing.  The white is a clear glaze and underneath are varioius underglazes and stains.  These pieces and the ones below are from my first bisque firing.

Pieces waiting for glazing.

waiting for glazing.

First Kiln Firing

Malley came up on Saturday, February 12th, to help me load the kiln for the first time.  We figured it would take about 10 or 12 hours to fire so we loaded it on Saturday and I was to start it up early Sunday morning when I'd be around all day.

The first shelf

Filling the kiln.

Second shelf

Third shelf, which is a half shelf

It's full and ready to fire

 So I went out on Sunday  morning and flipped on the first switch at 8.  I flipped on the second switch at 10 a.m. and the third switch at 12 noon.  I then just waited one hour between switch number 4 and another hour for switch number 5.  So they were all on at 2:00 and at about 3:30 the kiln sitter shut the kiln off.

This was much faster than we'd expected - just 7.5 hours.  I was a little worried when I looked at the cone set on the bottom shelf and could see that none of those cones had bent, indicating that it hadn't really gotten up to the required temperature.  However, the kiln sitter cone had bent and turned the kiln off so I was still hopeful.
 

The cones after firing

 I had to wait until Monday to let it cool off enough to empty, so Monday morning before work I opened it up and the kiln was still warm.  I pulled out the piece below and could see that it had turned fairly pink as they should when it's bisqued.

A bisqued piece - it's actually more pink than it looks in this photo.

More of the fired pieces.  The white ones are porcelain.

I think the kiln should have fired for a bit longer than it did but I think the pieces will be okay to glaze and fire again.  I'll try to do that soon, for the experience.

Rick had to pick up a faculty candidate from the airport tonight so he stopped by Portland Pottery to pick up supplies for me.  I got a bunch of glazes and underglazes, some kiln wash, some more cones, etc.

February

Inside

Outside

Latest glazes

We took notes as to what these glazes were but I don't have them so I'm going by memory.  Gotta compare my guesses to the notes.

Plum chun with Tumoko (sp?) on the top rim.

cappucino with oasis blue on the rim.

Tumoko(?) with plum chun on top?

Royal blue over wax resist on porcelain. 

Celadon froth with new green on top?

Cappucino with really red and chun on top?

Dueling Banjos

I made up some posters of Rick's instruments for his birthday and Christmas gifts last month.  I went up to the studio early one morning while there was bright light still streaming in and carefully removed all his instruments from their cases, arranged them in various positions around the room and took photos.  I tried to create shadows and interesting combinations.  

This first poster is of both his old banjo that he's used for the past 20 +/- years and the new banjo he bought just a few months ago.  I called it dueling banjos - kind of a double entendre - the song of course, as well as  an implication of the banjos dueling for his attention and use.  I had it blown up to 24 x 30 and framed it with the title across the top.  I really liked the way it came out.  Here's the photo I used and below is a picture of the framed poster.  

Dueling Banjos

This is a photo of just the banjo head of his new Nechville banjo.  I liked the shadows.  It reminds me of a suspension bridge.  I framed it in a 17 x 17 square frame.  

This one and the one below were supposed to be printed as 24 x 36 but came out more like 18 x 36.  I still put them in a 24 x 36 poster frame and they look fine.  They are just posters, not fine art.

I think this is a photo I took of Rick at Blistered Fingers Bluegrass Festival.  I framed in a square 17 x 17 inch frame.

We arranged them all on the wall in the stairwell to the studio.  You can see there's a rather large empty spot still remaining where I'm planning to make up a poster of his Martin guitar and hang it.  I just haven't been able to decide on which photo to use.  I'll post some of the candidates below.  

Maybe this one with both the Nechville banjo and the guitar . . .

Or this one with just the guitar done in a sepia tone . . .

Or this version of the same photo done in a cyan tone.  I kind of like how stark it looks.

Any thoughts from my readers . . . all two of you?  :)

I do like the way the posters really warm up the once blank wall.  My next photo project will be to do the same thing with some of my pottery photos.  Only instead of framing them I'll just use tacks to put them up cause they'll be on a slanted wall.  

Set of four porcelain tumblers, etched with my Dremmel once they were dry.  

This is the majority of what I have so far for my first kiln load.  

Malley came up last weekend to guide me through my first kiln firing.  It turned out I didn't have some things I needed, like the cone sitter prongs but she taught me what I'd need to do and I'm feeling pretty comfortable with it.  She'll come back when I have everything if I want.  We'll see.  

I've been procrastinating on getting my order together for Portland Pottery.  Mostly just can't decide on what to get for glazes.  Need to decide today so it will be ready when Malley goes down on Tuesday.  

My list so far:

Kiln wash

Cones:  07, 4,

1 extra shelves – 15.5 inches hexagonal (square side to square side)

Wax resist

Cone sitter support prongs

Underglaze:  Black, brown, yellow, blue

Cone 6 clear glaze

Coyote Cone 6 Glaze Mottled Blue 016

Coyote Cone 6 Glaze Hazelnut Satin 081

Coyote Cone 6 Glaze Celadon Root Beer 105

Clay Bag Clips - Set of 6

Laguna gallons:  royal blue, red chun, cappocino,