Upcoming Events

At the same time as completing the dishes project, I have also been gearing up for the usual pre-Holidays gift buying season...I will be participating in this 3 day long Junior League event. I will have pottery and pillows made from my handpainted fabric, and, by popular request, also some jewelry I make. http://www.jlsarasota.org/sarasota/index.jsp

Please spread the word, and try to stop by!


I really haven't had time to take a lot of pictures of the work you will be able to see next weekend here in Sarasota...but here is a little taste....

Much of this work will also be available at my ETSY store. There is a link to that on the left hand side of this blog. Check it out.

Later in December, I will also be at the wonderful Atomic Holiday bazaar, December 13th, Sunday, all day. But there is a special rock and roll evening Atomic After Dark event the night before, December 12th, that sounds like it will be a riot...http://www.atomicholidaybazaar.com/

Here is the facebook page for Atomic After Dark!: http://www.facebook.com/home.php?#/ical/event.php?eid=200291433335

1st Kiln Firing: 2008!!!!!

A tremendously successful firing! The kiln was chock full.... The kiln fired hot and fast last night, lending a soft, textile-like feel to much of the underglaze painting.....

Everything turned out great......

This will be the first of many similar posts, over the next few weeks, as I add to the pottery inventory, for 2008.

As soon as I inspected everything, and was thrilled, I couldn't WAIT to get back to work!!!

Pottery Painting

This is what I am sitting in front of, every day these days...welcome to my office.... Although by this time in my career, I pretty much know exactly what colour a given underglaze will yield, and I freely mix colours, it is helpful from time to time to remind myself of some of the nuances in some of the shades I use less frequently, or to remind me which colours are almost the same. For that purpose I have a few colour swatch tiles.
These are decorated and glazed plates, ready for the kiln:
And these are decorated and glazed mugs and bowls ready for the kiln:
I am planning to load and fire the kiln this afternoon, with results tomorrow or next day, here on this blog!
Stay tuned......

Kitchen Backsplash Continued

Here is an interesting interlude. This is the final section of the back splash yet to be fired!
It will go behind the stove.
This is what under glaze painted ceramic looks like while I am painting...The colours are sort of recognizable, but they are mainly shades of grey and pastel...the ceramic painter has to always keep in mind the colours as they will be when fired! Yikes! Its a knack...I have learned to just plain remember, and I also rely on fired sample tiles I have made that show actual little blobs of the colours, and I have printed stuff from the paint manufacturers- some are more accurate than others...I try to be very accurate! Sometimes its hard not to get fooled by whats in front of your eyes...its easy to forget for a moment that the work isn't going to be all soft and pastel. Some big metaphors for the enigma of human existence there.

Then of course, the firing not only brings up the real colours, it softens and blends them, and can even move them around a little. That's almost the best part: the Chaos. The kiln is a big player here.

Pottery Pottery Pottery!

For the last few weeks, I have been busy working away at building up an inventory of pottery
for a variety of
Christmas/Gift
events I will be participating in.

Notably The Atomic Holiday Bazaar, see card below.



You can find out more about AHB at the website :
http://www.atomicholidaybazaar.com/

Time For More Pottery!

Its time to resume building my pottery inventory.

I have a large tile project coming up in a couple of weeks, and to get into the mood, I will be painting and firing ceramics until then....

The Suspense Of Firing

Here is the next load of pottery ready to fire, glazed and anonymous.














Who knows what interesting patterns and colours will emerge tomorrow around noon, when its cool enough to look at...?

Time out for quick kiln repair!

Here is a picture of the heating coils being reunited!

After exactly 6 hours of firing the repaired kiln and its precious cargo, the cone drooped over, and I shut it all off, noting that the glow coming out of the peephole was just that precise F1,940 light. You can just sense it somehow.

This morning I was very happy to see an entirely successful result.

The Frustrations of Firing!

Last Sunday everything was set for a productive firing; the kiln was loaded, the pyrometric cone was in place.

When the kiln reaches the correct temperature, (approx 1.940 degrees F) after about 6 hours , the cone bends over gracefully.


Unfortunately, the kiln never reached the correct temperature.
After waiting an extra 2 hours, I shut off the kiln.

......................................................................................................................................
NEXT DAY:

Obviously something was malfunctioning inside the kiln, and the tiles were underfired.
I emptied the kiln, and although the top layer was underdone, the bottom part had fired perfectly. There were some very pretty tiles indeed!













.
I was also able to see the problem with the kiln.
The top two elements were severed. Oops.
Time to make some repairs!