The following fifteen pictures are of a stoneware glaze firing last week. These cups are small, espresso size. They measure 2 and 3/4 inches each way. I'm not too knowledgeable about sizes; I like plain coffee in a normal size mug, but one day I felt like throwing small cups. I made this set and the 4 cups directly below them. They are slightly taller.These three mugs are 5 inches high. The bluish areas are Death Valley slip applied when leatherhard, and the creme glaze turned the reddish slip this nice color, with good variation. Odds 'n ends: I made a salt pig, after reading about them on the Clayart discussion group. Will buy a small wooden spoon for it. The small teapots hold one cup.
This bowl is nearly ten inches in diameter. The glaze is Laguna's "Italian Straw" . The dish below is 8 inches in diameter. The glaze is one I've been tweaking to get the blue I want, which was inspired by a picture in Smithsonian magazine of Blue-footed booby...it's legs are this amazing blue! So this glaze is called BFBFB (blue-footed booby foot blue)

About 10" diam....a different blue, shinier too
My creme glaze with volcanic ash bits.

Touchtone Red, (belabored in earlier posts). Not as red as should be; I think I went too hot.
A blue I got from a friend- pretty vivid!
Touchtone red (not)...refires; the first time they had misc. blemishes.

More touchtone red. Turns navy where thin.

About ten inches across.

12 inches diameter. I put yellow flowers on this plate; they faded.

And now for something completely different: this is a picture of the Tamale Pie we had for dinner tonight. No, I didn't take the picture; Bill is the one who loves Tamale Pie and thought this one looked especially good, so he took the photo. Yes, it's rewarding to cook for someone who is appreciative!

Here are two pieces from last week's firing. They were "refires"...they came out of their first glaze firing with blemishes, so got another coating of glaze on the interiors and came out OK this time. They are earthenware. I like doing a "meander" design with a slip trailer.

Here is a stoneware platter, 12" diameter, which is finally presentable after multiple firings: First-bisque, of course, then a glaze firing (no leaves) after which it was fine except for an obvious small flaw, a tiny hole where something organic must have burned out of the clay, but your eye went right to it. I refired it with more glaze over the interior but the flaw was still apparent. So in my latest firing which was a mixture of stoneware bisque and glazed earthenware, I added some leaves using lowfire glaze with copper carb. and RIO brushwork. Also made some repetitive marks on the border to add interest. I think there is a "before" picture in a post from Dec. 06.

This is a small pot, about 6" diameter, of earthenware, with impressions made by the edge of one of my favorite tools, a peach pit. The small round impressions are from a eucalyptus seed pod. This bowl is 14 inches across. It matches a set of small bowls shown in an earlier post.

A few years ago I was in that "almost awake" zone one morning, still dreaming I guess, when I seemed to be standing at the door of a large art gallery, and on a wall ahead of me I saw an enormous string of ceramic beads, hanging on the wall. I could see they were mostly white, with some pastel colors with gold accents....They were way outsized, like 4-5 feet in height, on the wall. I knew I had made them (in my dream)

I felt the dream was a gift, and I made the beads. All ovoid wheel thrown shapes, with spacer beads between the larger ones, also thrown. ..strung on a nylon cord, with a brass clasp from the hardware store . The larger beads are about 5" in length. They are high-fired stoneware. The gold is applied post-firing.

These are four images of an item I bought at a surplus store yesterday. The wooden cylinder is one and a half inches in height, and 5/8" in diameter. There are four "monk" or "Buddha-figures"...two under a tree, and two with a pot shape. And there is a small figure that slides out of the bottom.
I would like to know more about this item.

Ah, the day after Christmas!...hope everyone will have a relaxing day after the high-intensity day yesterday.

Here are pictures of two things I made for Christmas gifts...the first, below, is for a friend in Texas who has a place on the coast, where fishing is one of his main activities. This is supposed to be an American shad. It's about 20 inches long. I used a net onion bag for the scale texture. This is what I made for our son for their place near Paso Robles CA. It is made of seven bottomless cylinders, each 7" high. I suggested he put a bead of silicon seal between each one. The post is PVC pipe. I set it up in our back yard to take the picture.

MERRY CHRISTMAS TO YOU
& HAPPY NEW YEAR !!

Another bowl set similiar to the earlier one, with volcanic ash specks in the glaze. Fired to cone 7. A long-time customer ordered this bowl set as a gift to her niece.

These 6-inch bowls are part of a set, but the large bowl needs to be refired...it didn't get quite enough heat in the firing.

Earthenware bowl- about 11" diameter

More Oct. 31st pots...for some reason Blogger WOULD NOT accept these last two pictures. So I opened a second post and it's working.This piece is 9" high. I'm calling it a reliquary...a customer wanted to give a rattle to a friend who will be having a baby. She is going to put a few small special items in it, which will rattle. ( I included 3 miniscule porcelain hearts, in case she wants them-the sound is good). She said it didn't have to be standard baby rattle shape, "Use your imagination-surprise me."she said. She also asked me to choose the glaze- just not pastel pink or blue. I told her I would make some holes to let the sound out. So this is what I came up with. It has a rubber stopper inside the foot. BTW, this piece will never be handled by babies (if you are thinking of safety issues( - it's a commemorative piece for the parents.This little pot is 6" high. The picture is crooked-I can replace it later- but look, you can see me crouching with my camera! Yes, my pottery is better than my photography...

OCTOBER 31ST STONEWARE FIRING These tops were thrown off the hump. The low wide ones work the best.
The specks are volcanic material from Alturas CA
Experimenting with handles: when I start making a mug, I first throw a loop which will be the handle. It was used whole on the yellow mug, and cut first on the center one. For the cup on the right, I threw a small column, and cut it off leaving a pad of clay to attach to a quite wet cup. I impressed a pattern to attach the pad.
More thrown loop handles. The glaze is Laguna's "Italian Straw". ..one of the few purchased glazes I have here.
This piece is about 8" wide, by 6" high.
13" wide...the blue glaze is a mixture of misc blues I had here.
Odds 'n ends...I mixed 2 iron reds together, and it's not very red. I should have cooled down a little slower for this one.
about 13"

9" wide-

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