One thing after another…

My husband is rarely home when I leave home. He’s an earlier riser and beats me out the door everyday. Yesterday he didn’t. I left before him. And hit his vehicle as I backed out of the garage. I didn’t even look for anything behind me, because I’m so used to not having to. Big sigh and head shake. Stupid, stupid, stupid. That will teach him for sleeping in.

Later that day, while running a glaze load, I realized my kiln was running way behind in the firing schedule. After watching it much more closely for a little bit I discovered that one of the elements wasn’t working and it didn’t appear this load would make its temperature. Now that its cool and I unloaded the very under fired glaze ware, I can see the very obvious failure of the element. See the dark spot on the element? It is broken there.

I’ve had a few other kiln maintenance items I’ve wanted to do, so this is a good time to get to them. I ordered up replacement elements, thermocouples, and element holders as well as peep hole plug since I’ve broken two of the three. Now its just time to wait until the parts arrive so I can put everything back together.

Since I have stacks of green ware, bisque ware and now under fired glaze ware sitting around everywhere (my studio space is small), I thought I’d mix some glazes I’m getting low on instead of making more ware to sit around waiting for a functional kiln. I’d purchased all the chemicals I needed months ago anticipating a time when glazes would need to be replenished. Or did I?? Both glazes I started were missing one ingredient. So… now their both sitting incomplete waiting for more chemicals to arrive. I’ll keep the UPS man busy this week.

I’m hesitant to start anything else so I thought I’d write this post and take the rest of the day off. Tomorrow is another day and maybe more things will work out then.

Thanks for visiting – Be well.

Glaze Load

I opened the kiln to empty a glaze load today. As so often happens, some pieces are just OK and others exceeded my expectations. Maybe my expectations are too low, but it saves being overly disappointed if things don’t go as expected. This load had a couple shelves of mugs which I’d been running dangerously low on. Here is a pair I really liked from this load.

This load also had several wine bottle coasters which is something fairly new in my line. They are slightly larger around than a wine bottle and keep the drips that run down the bottle from staining your table. I hate when that happens and I’m banking on other people do too. They are also good fillers between larger things in the kiln. Check this one out. It’s kinda hard to see the design on the coaster, but it is the same beige color as the mugs with iron red dots around the rim.

Well, back to glazing for me. Visit again soon.

Oblong Baker

A previous customer dropped an oblong baker I’d made for them a few years ago and asked if I’d make a new one. As happens with so many things, my style and techniques evolve over time. Here is the new baker I’ve made for them. I think the handles are much larger than the ones I made years ago and I much prefer the foot. Old pieces would have had a very squared point where the side and bottom of the pot meet. I never really liked that and have focused on making that joining much more subtle by creating a ridge feature instead. Even though it’s not the same as the one they had, I hope they’ll like the new, improved version.

Visit again and be well.

Patience Breaks

Few people would describe me as a patient person. So when I find myself in the situation where clay is still too wet to work on, rather than force it with a heat gun or work on it while it’s still too wet and risk damage, I declare it is time for a patience break. This usually means I leave the studio for a bit and distract myself by doing something totally different. Sometimes it’s a household task like laundry or dinner I use to occupy the time. But today, I’m using a patience break to write this post while waiting for just thrown items to firm up enough to move them from bats to drying boards.

As I’ve mentioned before, I love creative networking. Most recently I paid a long overdue visit to a potter responsible for some of my first experiences with wood firing.

Sarah Dudgeon operates The Potter's House near Amery Wisconsin overlooking the Apple River. Many years ago, Sarah converted a character infused old general store to her home and studio. The front of the old store, with its wood floors and tin ceiling, serves as her display/sale area and studio space, while the back of the store functions as living quarters for Sarah and her husband. Near the back of her property, behind the store, she built a shed and wood-fired kiln.

When I met Sarah besides making and selling her pottery, she was doing wood fire workshops for the Edina Art Center and I was privileged enough to fire with her several times. Some of my favorite pieces to date have come from firings done at Sarah’s.

I love the round, robust shapes Sarah makes and the glazes compliment her designs perfectly. They are colorful and earthy, bringing life to the somewhat whimsical wax resist patterns she is always refining and perfecting. Here is my favorite mug filled with cinnamon hot chocolate, ready for a quiet evening on the couch (it’s Minnesota ya’ know, snowing, blowing and cold)

Pay a visit to Sarah’s web site or look her up at one of the shows she’s doing this year. She’s a talented artist and a joy to visit with.

Thanks for reading. Be well.

Studio Happenings

I haven’t been feeling so good for the last couple weeks so today was really my first opportunity to get some work done in the studio. Over the past couple months; I’ve bisque fired hundreds of pieces. Today, I began glazing and still have a long way to go.

A customer who has several horses asked me to make a collection of horse hair raku pieces using hair from their horses. The new house they are building has a perfect niche to feature this collection. I haven’t done any raku in several years, so it’s a very exciting diversion from what I’ve been working on lately. Here is a photo of several of the pieces I threw today. I still have three more to throw tomorrow to complete the collection.

This winter has been a productive time for me getting many of the items I’ll sell this summer thrown. Soon they’ll be glazed and then I look forward to working on some larger, more creative pieces. Cleaning the studio wouldn’t hurt either, but that’s not much fun so it’s easy to put off.

Thanks for stopping by. Visit again soon.