Deck furniture returns

I enjoyed a nice Sunday around the house, cleaned the studio and then had our first barbecue of the season.  Rick brought the table and chair set from the cottage and Jared helped him with the grill.  Justin and Keeley came over for hot dogs, hamburgers, and salad.  Keeley made a delicious chocolate and vanilla pudding pie.  

I don't think we had the deck at this time last year.  It makes spring feel like it comes earlier because it's so much warmer up there off the snowy ground.  

There's still more than 2 feet of snow off the front of the deck.  It had been in the high 60s or low 70s earlier in the day but got pretty chilly by the time we finished dinner. Came inside and lit some logs in the fireplace.  

Yesterday I did a bisque firing using a cone 04 in the kiln sitter.  It fired for about 6 hours before the kiln sitter shut it down.  The bottom witness cones were 05 06 07 and the 05 and 06 bent fairly well.  The witness cones on the top two shelves practically dissolved, leaving parts of the cones on the shelves.  Guess those two shelves are hotter than the bottom one.

Pottery Notes: Second Successful Glaze Firing

I had been having trouble with the kiln.  I tried to fire it twice last weekend and neither worked properly.  I foolishly discovered that I had mixed up which was off and which was on for the switches, so I was starting with it completely on and gradually turning it off.

I figured it out by opening the lid and and starting from scratch and watching the elements come on as I turned the switches.  We also used it to heat the garage up so that we could work out there.  

We cleaned the garage and then built shelves for the new kitchen pantry.  I love how much it holds and it really helps in decluttering the kitchen.  

So after we finished working in the garage I loaded the kiln and started it about 5 p.m. and it was done firing by about 11:30.  I think the pieces came pretty nice, mostly.

Left is brown clay with true celadon and underglazes; center is porcelain with true celadon;
and right is also true celadon on porcelain.

Tumblers with oil spot glaze.

Two tumblers on the right are seaweed glaze.  They look rather
metallic - much like a raku firing, but more controlled. The tumbler on the left is Vert Lustre outside, shino inside with shino dripped on outside.  I really like that combo and think I'll use it for the teapot I made Charlie. 

Royal blue with chun plum and true celadon. Really nice combo.

These all have true celadon.  Much darker on the dark clay.  I'm not
sure why the two porcelain pieces look so differently.

Various underglazes with blue rutile glaze inside.

Teddy bear brown underglaze with colored underglazes on top.  I ended up giving this and some other pieces to a
colleague who was collecting things for her friend who was moving into a new apartment after having been in a
homeless shelter for a  year.  

Te

Royal blue and root beer glaze. Definitely not my favorite.  This royal blue is so much lighter than the royal blue on the small mug above.  I usually do a full 3 coats but I may have dipped the mug. . . hmmm... I really liked the way that came out better.

Teapot I finished building today.  The Chinese
letters are supposed to say Life

I made it for Charlie and got the Chinese letters from his book which in full
is called Life Lines but I decided to just use Life.

These are 4, 5, and 6 cones.  There was a Cone 8 in the kiln sitter and it clearly
got up to Cone 4, and just touched on Cone 5 I'd say.  

Perigee Moon

Last weekend was a "super moon."  The moon orbits around the earth in a slightly eccentric circle, resulting in it being a little closer sometimes than at other times.  When it's closest, it's called perigee. So anyway, I heard from friends at pottery on Saturday that Reid State Park would be staying open late in order for people to have a good site from which to view it.  So Rick and I decided to take a trip down to get some photos.  We went to JT Maxwell's in Bath for dinner beforehand, and then arrived at Reid about 8:00.  I wish we'd gotten there earlier, as the moon was rising, because that's when it was at it's most impressive.  It didn't look much different than usual by the time it was high in the sky.  However, I wanted to get some photos so that's what we did.

I wanted to get some classic moon photos - where it appears someone is holding it or whatever.  Rick was very cooperative - move a little to the right, back to the left, up a little bit, hold it right there!  click.  It was much more difficult than I'd imagined to get the angle and the spacing of the fingers, etc. just right.  But I was fairly happy with the results.

Step one - lining it up.

A little closer . . .

Ooops - too far to the left . . .

A little frustration creeps in . . .

Voila!  Close as we could get.

Pottery Notes: Sunday, March 13, 2011

I've been having fun with underglazes and carvings this weekend.

Here's a piece that's ready to go into a glaze firing.  The outside is done in various color underglazes and the inside is a glaze called Blue Rutile, even though it looks red unfired.

I had planned to go to The Liberal Cup with Rick for a performance of the NitPickers but I decided at the last minute to stay home and play with clay.  Three hours of bluegrass would have been great, but the three hours it takes for set up and breakdown gets a bit tedious.  I made a cover for a bowl I'd made a few days ago.

Tuesday at home

I decided to take a personal day after all the overtime I'd been putting in getting ready for legislative hearings on the budget yesterday.  We had a good turnout - maybe 200 people at the rally and at least 8 clients testified at the hearings.

Betty w/Maine Can Do Better sign, and Tammy in red.  

So today I rearranged the studio, moving the bed over into the corner and bringing the weight bench out where it can be more easily used, swept and washed the floor, glazed three pots, and then made lasagna for dinner.

A lot more room to get around.  

I moved the bed from behind the sofa to the corner.  

I also put in an order to Big Ceramic Store online: several glazes and underglazes, kiln posts and stilts, a pair of tinted glasses to look into the kiln holes, etc.  Oh yes, and a box of Cone 8 to use in my next glaze firing. I'm hoping if I want to get to Cone 5, if I used a Cone 8 in the kiln sitter, it will get to temperature.

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.