online interviews

this interview with davie reneau is pretty neat, a lot of interesting things said. i think its something like an hour log.
http://www.anagama-west.com/firing_log/pics/20080124-firing_log-davie_reneau.mp3

all of the interviewees are wood firers if thats of interest to you. i listened to the simon levin interview and it was pretty good too, there are several others that sound like they have promise.

help?

it seems that i have lost my glaze recipe for randy johnston's copper green. i've searched exhaustively for it and can't find my copy or the original source. i thought i'd gotten it out of clay times but i couldn't find it there. if anyone out there has it and wants to share i'd be so grateful. i know the original has a small amount of barium and something like 10% wood ash.

thanks!

rain rain rain.

its been raining for a few days here and looks like it will continue to do so through next week. the rain is good, we need it but my clay racks are as wet as when i mixed them. my stoneware should've been out about now. i have a show coming up in just over 5 weeks and need to get work done, if i have to wait another week for clay thats cutting it pretty close. i'm thinking i may find another strapping lad or two and move the clay racks into the kiln room and fire off a bisque. maybe that'll help? any suggestions?

since i have nothing to do other than housework(i'm procrastinating) i thought about some pots that i liked and decided that if i could own any one pot it would be this pilgrim plate by bernard leach. anyone who has held his pots will tell you that he was a mediocre potter at best(technically speaking) but his pieces have so much feeling behind them. i'm not sure what it is about this piece but i never tire of it. he made multiples of this one and there is a better example at the st ives pottery but i can't find a picture of it. i thought it would be interesting to see what other people might choose as their favorite pot? consider this my retribution for not tagging anyone in the previous post.

this last weekend we met an excellent furniture maker who works mostly with colonial style pieces with traditional tools. he had this beautiful tavern style dining table that he hauls to all his shows as one of his example pieces(all items are made to order). he is no longer going to be making this table and was trying to sell it for a heck of a deal and we almost came home with it(i'm a sucker for traditional crafts). we have no dining room table and have been looking for awhile and i have also toyed with the idea of building one but i have neither the space or time. so now we have been kicking ourselves for not buying it but it turns out he'll be at our next show and said that if it doesn't sell he'll bring it along and give us first shot at it. score!

so long for now.

ps. mark peters has a few cool videos on his website.

i'm home.

we had a great show this weekend in midland, tx. i'd never been to midland(about 2 hours west of abilene) before and must say that it is sort of a lateral move from where we are. the show was slow but we had good sales, met many new people and sent many good pots to new homes. i'll be getting back to work tomorrow, i mixed up a few hundred pounds of clay on thursday and i'll be mixing up a bit of porcelain tomorrow. whats that? porcelain? yeah, i dabble in porcelain from time to time and i've had all these ideas stored up and i want to see them through, it'll be a nice change of pace.

before i forget, i was tagged by ron so here are six random things about myself.
1. if i weren't a potter i'd be a woodworker, no question. i hobby in woodworking and absolutely love it but have little time for it.
2. i own all seven seasons of the gilmore girls, love that show.
3. i love puppies. dogs flock to me like children to jesus, i don't know why but i'm ok with it.
4. i live for mountain dew.
5. i've never worn a suit in my entire life (jeans for the wedding).
6. i proposed to my wife via text message.

everyone that i would tag has already been tagged so this one will have to die here.

good night all.

lucky # 7

here you go, photos from firing # 7.




this bowl is about 15" across and is about 4 or 5 inches deep, the photo makes it look flat.



again, 4 or 5 inches deep about 19 inches across.


dinner plates, 10.5 inches. the stack in the middle were all fired upside down. i'm going to experiment with this some more because it gives awesome flashing. i was concerned about all the white area left so we kitchen tested it and it doesn't stain but silverware leaves marks on it but they wash right off.

dessert plates, 7 inches.

teapots. i mixed up a new batch of my ash glaze and ball milled the ash to go through a 100 mesh screen, i like the new surface so much better. on my old clay body the ash glaze looked like a nice jade celadon, on this new body it looks much dirtier, i like dirtier. the teapot on the right is a new slip that showed promise in tests, i like it.

mugs. this is the surface that i strive for. its hard to get and usually i'm happy to get one or two pieces that do this, this time i had half a kilnload that did it.

casseroles

cap jars, all with the same slip, different spots in the kiln.

atmosphere: neutral-ish/oxidized/reduced

this is something new, it has potential.

for the blushing i've found that it happens best around cone 9, cone 10 seems to wash it out. it also needs light salt, its that fine line of not enough/too much. one of the reasons i ball milled my ash glaze was so that it would look better at cone 9 so i can get better results throughout the kiln. i used to just run it through a 30 mesh and go with it but it would look nasty at cone 9, it really needed cone 11. but now at cone 9 i get a nice matte to glossy surface.

i had a few pots that were over-reduced and over-ashed but they look ok. i have a design flaw in my kiln that causes one area to overfire and over-reduce. we're looking at doing a rebuild here soon so i'll get that kink worked out.

i'll unload the gas kiln tomorrow and then i'm off to a show this weekend(which is why i've been busting my butt this last week.)

cheers.

reduction firing done.

just finished off the redux firing, it seemed to go smoothly.

i peeked into the wood kiln spyholes this morning at about 700 degrees and saw nothing but rough white surfaces(bad) so i cracked open the door a bit(the advantage to having a swinging door) and saw mostly unflashed surfaces(not enough salt?). i went to see my wife at work and tried to have a pity party but she wouldn't let me(she's a good lady.) we took another peek this evening before my night class and it looked sorta ok. we unloaded later in the evening and the pots were simply magical. there are bare patches here and there but oh baby the pots are sweeeeeeet. best firing yet, easy. and get this...every single pot out of this load can be sold, every single one. that hasn't happened to me in years. definitely a once in a blue moon firing. i'll post pictures in the am, for now i'm going to bed.

firing # 7 done.

i finished up the firing in the wood kiln this afternoon at about 3:30. i had a heck of a time getting temp gain in this one. it kept stalling every 100 degrees or so. about half of my firewood was still wet and wouldn't give me good temp gain so i had to break the 1st rule of woodfiring: cutting, chopping and sorting wood while firing. luckily i had a big pile of firewood that i just picked up that was dry and it got the job done, but what a workout!

i knocked the firing out in about 8 hours, all the pieces were bisqued so i was able to take it up much faster. why so fast? this may be heresy to some of you but i actually don't like much ash on my pieces. i really enjoy the woodfiring process but i fire with wood mostly for economics(its free.) but of course i get great effects that can be had no other way.

i'm loading and firing the gas kiln in the morning, maybe i'll get to rest on wednesday.

i'll unload wednesday and get some photos up.

cheers.