Small Pond Floorcloth

Its a small pond on a small floorcloth!





Nevertheless, it turned out very nicely indeed, and will make a fine addition to the kitchen whence it is destined.

Back Again!

After a lovely combination of three week vacation and major kiln repair, I am finally able to post some new work! After a major overhaul of wiring, and 2 element replacements, I made a test batch of tiles and a big bowl, to see if things were back to normal.

A happy sight indeed!

Not only that, the kiln seems to be getting it all done about a half hour early.

Great efficiency. Thank you, kiln.

Now that I can depend on proper firing, I can re fire the plates I had to re do after a horrible amount of breakage, just before I went off on holiday. (See previous post).

I cant say I minded running away from disaster.

So today, I am happy to report very spiffy looking plates, and as is often the case, the re dos are even better than the originals.

I now know to never, never fire during very damp conditions, like rain storms....that is in fact what probably broke all the plates in that fateful load. It was raining cats and dogs that night. If the temperature in the kiln was also inconsistent, before the repairs, then that surely didn't help either.

This week we had a lot of rain too, and I waited until an entirely rain free day, firing in the afternoon, just to make sure.

I waited to re fire this lovely pitcher that was under fired in one of the firings before the repair...thank goodness it didn't fit in that final load.

I have 5 more plate re dos to fire yet, and a few new pieces, including some soup bowls that will have fish and orchids on them...I feel so relieved to have the kiln working. I was all traumatised by that broken stuff, and was afraid to fire the re dos! Now I can relax , I think.

More Pottery- Florida Native Plants

I have a commission to do a set of plates depicting Florida Native Plants, and ones that are found easily in our area, SW Florida...The rims and backs will feature my typical borders and patterns: .. ..the centres will feature 1 or 2 native plants in a natural setting, sort of botanical, with a Florida landscape depicted in the background. Charming!
This is a Loblolly Bay:

The larger plates are quite big 11.25" and the smaller ones are 8'' or 10" I think, which nestles nicely inside the larger, and the 2 rims complement each other.

Bomba is SO helpful.

This is a fun project, and the plates are turning out really well.
You can click on some of these images to larger!

Wild Sunflower

Railroad Vine and Beach Morning Glory (unfired):


Horse Tail:

Lizard's Tail and East Palatka Holly.

This is Coral Honeysuckle:

The Beauty Berry plate turned out particularly well...here un fired

And here, fired.

Sadly, in the firing, there has been some breakage... I am extremely upset and don't want to talk about it.
However, that's pottery! Firing is a crazy thing, and I have always been very fortunate, and consistent with my results...

and I don't get much breakage.... maybe I will learn something from this event....in the meantime, I take a deep breath, maybe several, and prepare to re-do a few of these beautiful plates, and in the end, look forward to it, since they are most agreeable to work on. It's not really the end of the world, like I thought it was at first.