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Ready To Go

Almost.  

The firing finished of nicely on Saturday Morning.  I'm not sure if the all-nighter was worth it though.  But, I will be unloading in about an hour, as soon as I get Clarita down for her morning nap.  With my normal firing and cooling schedule I unload the kiln mid-afternoon....so at least I'll get the pots out earlier today.

I peeked in the kiln late last night and was able to snag a few pieces from the bottom this morning.  The celadon came out really nicely on both the stoneware and the porcelain.  It's very strange how much I'm liking the celadon glaze.  This summer was my first time firing reduction for my work in a long time.  

For the past few years it had been strictly soda, salt, and woodfiring.  Once my little soda-kiln here died I was so attached to vapor glazing my wares that I was driving across the state to "borrow" Mark's kiln.  It got to be a little too much traveling to finish my work...the fact that I have 3 kids added to the time constraints.  I look forward to getting some pots back in an atmospheric kiln at some point but right now the decorations under the celadon glaze are working really well.  I just feel like a celadon glaze is about as far away from a kaolin slip as you can get.  But...it's working....no need to question it. Of course, this show is my first big show featuring all of this new work so we'll see how it is all received.  

Today will be spent unloading the kiln, sanding, pricing and packing up pots for the show and the orders that need to go out.  The new booth walls have a couple coats of paint on them...good enough to go.

Pics to come after I unload and get some work done.  Oh...and Michael (McCarthy), finish building that kiln so I can sneak some pots into a woodfiring!

Firing Day/Night

I turned on the pilots about an hour ago after a marathon glazing session in the studio. 

My studio right now makes that electric kiln below look clean and organized.  I'll hopefully get it back to somewhat normal tomorrow but today I have no intentions of rectifying that situation.  Once again, that apprentice idea for Austin is looking like a smart move.

I plan on letting the kiln climb slowly this evening and then fire it off through the night.  If all goes according to my grand plan I'll be reducing the kiln by 6am and then just wait for some cones to drop before lunch tomorrow.  

The rest of this weekend is going to be spent getting my booth ready for CraftBoston. I have a corner booth but am bringing a new setup that my friend Ben is helping me put together.  The only thing I'm worried about is that I don't know how I'm going to do the lighting.  I usually bring a conduit pipe setup for pipe and drape.  This time I want to avoid having a corner post in the front, open corner.  That leads to the problem of hanging the tracks since I have no way of lighting the front corner now.  Words aren't working with this description.  I'll try to get some pics up this weekend to explain myself better.

Time to brainstorm....if only my brain was working.   

Deep Thought

Either learn to throw much thinner or make these forms much earlier in the cycle.

The large platter is okay...but these which I threw one day before the bisque didn't work out quite as well.  It's a shame...I kind of liked them.  Just proves not to like anything until well after it is out of the glaze kiln....and....kilns that have elements in the bottom of the kiln heat up the bottom shelf very quickly.

This bisque kiln will be closed and what is inside will be forgotten about until it's time to load another bisque.  At that time I will open the kiln, remember my stupidity and spend a few minutes trying to remember where I put my studio vacuum.  

Wow...I can see the future!

Uh Oh!

Hey Doug!  It's contagious!

I knew I was forcing the issue with this last bisque.  I was too lucky on the last one.  So far all of the small pieces seem to be alright but I have a large platter on the shelf below and I'm afraid to find out.  

Alright...

One more political post.

You must click here....now!  Please.

Latest Firing

Back to Pots...Really.

I have a table full of finished mugs.  I started out this cycle deciding to make mostly larger pieces.  Large vases, large bowls, large platters and then something happened and my scale shrunk back down.  I have a nice variety of small, medium and large pieces now.  So...I'm glad that I didn't stick to my game plan.

I'm looking for some energy to start glazing for this next kiln-load.  I have the final, very damp bisque soaking right now and will fire that off later tonight.  I haven't really started glazing yet...I've just been staring blankly at the bisqueware on tables and shelves all afternoon.

I really like how everything turned out so I basically see almost everything getting a thick coating of celadon again and hoping for the best.  So....tonight will be a prep session....waxing, clearing shelves and the like and getting ready to really glaze tomorrow....hopefully.  I do need this next round of pots for the show so I need to get that motivation back soon.  I'm going with the theory that this will be like painting...the prep work takes some time and isn't fun but the actual glazing will go quickly and then I can load up quickly.

Here are a couple pics of my table of mugs.