Sunday, August 24, 2008

busy busy.

sorry i've been away for so long, i've been trying to pot and get things ready for classes on tuesday. we spent the evening yesterday with my buddy kent and his wife after dropping some pots off at his gallery. it was nice to spend some time with another potter of similar interests, that doesn't happen too often around here.

here are some pots i've been working on. all or most of those pots will go into the reduction kiln. i have a show in two weeks and i'd been hoping to get two firings out before then but we've had nothing but rain for over a week so hopefully i'll get at least one woodfiring and i'll see what magic i can work with these in the other kiln.

i made a bunch more casseroles to replace the five that cracked. i had about 5 of these fluted bowls get s-cracks and i cant figure it out as i am compressing the heck out of them and they're drying quite slowly with all the humidity. i took them all back to leatherhard and worked out the cracks and they look ok now. this works about half the time but i won't know until after the bisque.


cereal bowls, platters and a large fluted bowl.


big casserole with the old jigsaw blade texture trick.


i've been making square bottles for a long time and they always end up looking tight and formal. i saw some of warren mackenzie's bottle shapes while in minnesota and so i took a cue from his and tried something new. i like how taking the wide point down and making them visually bottom heavy gives them a much more casual appearance. the one on the left is textured with a sureform and the one on the right was just hacked away with a fettling knife after being squared. i think i'll try some more like this later.


gotta go. cheers.

4 comments:

Ron said...

Hey dude looking good. Hope those S-cracks don't come back.

Deb said...

Hey-I think it was Shoji Hamada (please don't get me on spelling) that liked to fire in the rain. Also, Gail Nichols, soda firer, learned what an influence water had on her firing and began incorporating it intentionally. Some people even push it into electric firings. Something to think of, but you might need an umbrella.

Ben Stark said...

Good luck with the S-cracks. I know a some potters that swear by drying on drywall sheets to get them to dry more evenly, but I've never tried it myself.

jbf said...

Great pots!

I feel your pain with the S cracks. I make a point of compressing the bottom, and still they appear quite regularly.