Blog Giveaway Winners

Congratulations to blog readers/followers

Sara
Sharon
Yvette
Sarah of Fabric Creations
Wendy

If you haven't received an e-mail or Etsy convo from me, please contact me at suepariseaupottery(at)charter(dot)net so I can get an address to send your pendant.

Thanks to all the new and existing followers of my blog and Facebook for helping me celebrate this 5 year blogging milestone.

Be well.

Lessons Learned

So... last week I showed you some of my favorite results from the last kiln firing.  Today, I want so show some of the things I wasn't so fond of.  

In this firing I had a number of larger bowls with slip chatter design in the bottom.  Most of them turned out great, but a few had some significant bloating.  It's hard to see in this photo, but this is probably the largest bloat at approximately the size of a quarter.  The bowl was at the front of the kiln near the bagwall.  

Speaking of bloating... check this one out.  The side photographed was facing the fire and just above the bagwall.

 The entire top part of the kiln fired a little hotter than usual this time.  On top, cone 10 was touching the shelf while on the bottom it was just getting soft.  Contributing factor to the bloating issue?  Not really sure, but I'm going with that thought for now and hope to really keep an eye on the next firing to keep the top and bottom closer as well as making sure nothing in the front hangs over the edge of the shelf.  We'll see if that helps.

My last disappointment was with the Woodfire Porcelain I was testing.  Its a great clay body to work with, but my disappointment came with the lack of color in the firing.  The bare clay stayed pretty white through the firing and I guess I was just hoping it would take on a more toasty color.  I don't necessarily dislike the color of white clay, but I can get that effect in my electric kiln.

If made from B clay, the mug in the photo below would have been a golden brown with black dots rather than just white with black dots.  Lesson learned... I like my B-clay and Buff Stoneware.

Now to apply these lessons for my next firing.  That's always the hardest part.  If anyone has any suggestions on the bloating, I'd love to hear them.  Be well.

February 2013 Wood fire

Last weekend Becky Brandow from Willow Avenue Pottery joined me for a wintery wood fire.  Yesterday, I unloaded the kiln and spent a little time taking photos. 

Every firing has it's good and bad outcomes - here are some of my favorites pieces. 

A couple slip decorated bowls glazed with amber celadon.

 

Snowflake impressed tile with turquoise glass

 

Random other things

 

 

And my favorite Becky item... you'll have to watch her blog 

for more of her work from this firing.

As I mentioned, not everything turns out as you'd hoped and I'll discuss those in my next post after I've had a little time to explore the hows and whys of my disappointment in them as well as what can be learned and improved.  

Have a great week.

Wintery Firing & Giveaway Reminder

I just finished up a winter woodfiring with my friend Rebecca Brandow of Willow Avenue Pottery.  Becky pushed the kiln through a stall at around 2000 degrees to get this firing done.  Way to go Becky!!.

Here is a the last picture we took while holding the kiln at temp so the bottom part of the kiln could catch up to the temp on the top of the kiln.  Cone 10 is on the left, cone 11 center and cone 12 to the right.

And just a reminder... my Blog Anniversary Giveaway ends on the 15th.  To find out how you can win one of these pendants, click here.