son of a *@#%!!!!!

i just opened up a bisque kiln of exploded platters and bowls that were for my show next weekend. upon further investigation the kiln computer said that i set it to a fast fire to cone 06. hmmmm.....don't really know that i did that as i have a custom firing schedule programmed in that i use, but then again....i don't know. excuse me while i go shout obscenities and try to figure something out.

until then, cheers?

goody goody!

i just recieved my huge clay order today, enough for the better part of the year. i'll try and get some mixed up this week and get potting again soon. i'm transporting bunches of pots home today to get loaded in the wood kiln. i'm going to fire soon, i'll not say when because when i do it never happens. i'll try and have something a little more exciting later.

cheers.

perfect timing.

if medical issues gross you out read no further. this evening i lost a fingernail, it didn't hurt one bit though. it got smashed in a dogs mouth awhile back and i've known it was gonna happen and i've just been waiting. its all healed over but it is very sensitive. coincidentally i used the last of my clay this morning which is perfect timing as i can't have my hands in wet clay for a couple of weeks now. plenty of glazing and firing to do though. classes start tomorrow, i figure i can do some hand building demos with no problem.

sorry this was a lame post, gotta run.

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.

the uni.

here is my studio at the university.

at home i throw on a brent, at the university they have creative industries wheels, i believe CI wheels to be the kia to brent's volvo. i had a CI in my studio which blew a fuse while centering about 20 pounds. i wasn't even aware that they had fuses, in ten years i have never had to do a thing to my brent. so i switched it out with a new one they got last year and it couldn't even handle the torque of twenty soft pounds of clay. i don't care what model it is if you drop $900 on a wheel it shouldn't blow fuses or bog down from 20 pounds of clay. needless to say i hauled my trusty(and heavy) brent up to school, much better. i apologize if you're the happy owner of a CI(or a kia,)just my opinion, rant over.

i had about 500 pounds of clay mixed up using the mixer at the school, which by the way is way more work than the slip method. its aged for a couple months and is still pretty crappy, but i managed to get some platters and dinner plates done with it today. i used the same formula as my woodfire but add about 1% yellow ochre which warms up the the glazes a bit. they only had greenstripe at the school(i use hawthorn35&50) so i substituted that as my fireclay not realizing that it comes as something like 200 mesh, which means butter smooth clay. this is also the main component they've been using for the beginners clay which means they've been trying to teach students to throw with a clay that stands up like porcelain. i may have to remedy that.

here are a bunch of pots waiting for the trip back to the wood kiln.


all these pots(minus the white casserole) are over a year old. they're with my old clay body that i used pre-raw glazing. i've been saving them wondering what to do but now they'll find life in the reduction kiln.


here is the ceramics/sculpture yard. its a mess. i have a couple pallets of bricks back in the corner over there that are going to become a salt kiln.

so long for now.

1:15...and done.

for all you nay-sayers. they still have to be slipped but they need to stiffen up a bit more.

in an attempt to be un-original...

its time for another rousing game of name that potter. this ones kinda easy. in fact this might not be this little guys first appearance on the internet.

i spent all morning in the studio and had some decent output: mugs, salsa bowls, dessert plates, and teapots, the lids and spouts are already under plastic. the rest of the afternoon was spent at the university and running errands. this'll be a doozy for finishing tomorrow. until then folks...cheers.