Oct. 24, 06 earthenware firing: About 7 in. high.


This compote has a 2 inch long firing crack on the inside bottom. Must have had opposing tension where the foot attached. It's a keeper (that means I keep it instead of sell it)


The plate above had pink flowers. They burned away and only the outlining stayed.

Here is a BUG which showed up the other night on our front porch: It is about an inch and a half long. It's a Jerusalum beetle-don't know it's scientific name. Nice color, eh?

Stoneware pots from a September 06 firing:

This little vase is 8" high. It got an "Honorable Mention" in the Fall Show at the Cypress Gallery in Lompoc.
The yellow rose bowl is about 5" across. I combined a high rutile cone 10 glaze with a yellow cone 6-8 glaze and got nice vivid color. Will use this again. These are about 9 and a half inches in diameter, 5 and a half high.
The tray is 17" in length. It has thrown feet, about 1 " high.
Another in my favorite glaze, about 6" diam.
A little over 10" diameter, and about 6 inches high
About 10 diameter. ..and 6 high

Here are several recent earthenware pots:

The low bowl is 12" in diameter.

I show two views of the jar, since the appearance changes a lot as the piece is rotated. The jar was thrown upside down- the "top" shaped into a square, and a slab added. Next day I refined the top and made the lid. Approximate height is 9". (It's not here for me to measure)

These were made in June for the Arts & Crafts show the last weekend in June (Flower Festival). Was too busy to post them earlier. People especially liked the large platters.

Second attempt at getting several photos where I want them-looks like the solution is to open another post....anyway this is a tabletop I made for an old rusty base I like. There was a small wooden top on the table and this "dish" just fits over it and is glued with silicone. The spots you see are volcanic ash.These two bottles were made of rolled slabs with thrown tops. Before I added the tops I rolled the cylinders in what I am calling my "Tray of Surprises"...consisting this time of bisqued glaze bits, and dried glaze chips of varied colors. After the bottles were assembled I brushed some glaze over everything. The one on the right is definitely more successful, IMO.
Here is an 8" bowl with iron red glaze, cone 7 oxidation. Note the chatter marks.

August 7, 2006--some pots from recent glaze firing: I see I last wrote here in May! That doesn't mean I didn't make lots of pots meanwhile (and sold quite a few at the Lompoc Flower Festival the end of June)

This coffeepot and the one following will hold two quarts; the friend who ordered it said "Make it big!". This one is 8" high.

The height of this one is 9".The vase is 9" high.
These teacups were made to match a teapot someone bought last month. They have an iron red glaze-oxidation fired-cone 7.
Same glaze as the coffee pots- about 9" diam.

^06 earthenware, fired to ^01 (about 2050F)---no problem! I didn't mean to go that hot, but now I know that the clay (Laguna's EM344 w/grog) can take it without deforming, and my glazes were fine too, except on several pots that were on a different clay (Laguna's EM334-Ward's Red). I have a turquoise glaze that was fine on the first clay, but appears to have boiled, leaving craters, on the EM334. These two dishes have a thin wash of clear glaze on the outsides- see how dark the clay got at that temperature. Here are the dishes with the glaze that looks like it bubbled. I will reglaze them and re-fire them. The salsa dish has clear glaze on the exterior. The square dish has no glaze. I combine bisque and glaze-firing at earthenware temps.The same turquoise glaze bubbled on the spoons too, but the blue didn't...it's a different base.
Here is a 10" baking dish. The blue color didn't photograph accurately at all- it's really a colder blue...same with the 13" bowl below.
This 15" platter had Mason blackberry brushwork on the flowers...all gone, too hot. Good thing I outlined with cobalt.
Again, this blue photographed more "electric" than it really is. I can send a color-corrected version if anyone asks.


This platter is about 14" across. Everything got soft and subltle at this temperature.
You can see chatter marks on the interior of this bowl. I don't normally do any trimming on interiors, but did this for the textured effect.

HOT-AIR BALLOON RIDE PICTURES

Our children surprised us with a balloon ride, to celebrate our April birthdays and upcoming June 23rd 50th wedding anniversary. We went up on April 17, EARLY in the morning. We took off from a winery near Paso Robles, and landed ?miles south of there, after "floating" for about an hour. It was a wonderful experience!




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Cups and Saucers... someone on CLAYART was wondering if potters only made mugs these days...whether anyone was making cups and saucers. I made these last fall for our own use; thought saucers might be nice for a change for people to have a place to put their teabag or teaspoon. These are oxidation fired to cone 7. The spots are from some volcanic ash I mixed into the glaze. I plan to make some to sell as well.

Here is the first teapot I made, apparently 10 months after I started learning pottery. This is going WAY back- the date scratched on the bottom of this teapot is 10/28/81.

The walls are actually quite uniform, but sort of thick; even though it's a large teapot, over 4 lbs. empty is kind of hefty!

Yes, that's a brass knob on the lid, all I had to do was leave a hole.

These were school glazes, cone 10 reduction.

I still tend to make teapots bigger than people seem to want, but they ARE lighter now!

Above are photos of the two vessel sinks I unloaded from the kiln on Valentine's Day; I am SO pleased that nothing went wrong...no cracks, crawling or any of the things that CAN go wrong during the whole process. They have been fired to cone 7 with a soak of 40 minutes, oxidation. I made them thick and sturdy-they each weigh about 16 lbs. The top one is from 13 to 15" inside diameter , and the other is 13 and a half inches ID. The inside depth is 6 inches.

These are the first sinks I ever made and I was helped by several hints I picked up on CLAYART (internet discussion group). One idea was to throw sinks upside down, which I did, and in stages, adding coils as the previous section stiffened somewhat. Another suggestion I used was to fire each on it's own separate thrown base during the glaze firing. Thanks to the people who shared their knowledge.

I don't have plans to make more sinks, necessarily, but I'm going to use the upside down technique to make some BIG bowls!