The low-fire firing I did about 4 days ago was a mixture of earthenware bisque, glaze firing, and glaze re-fires. This first pot below was a re-fire and it's done now. It's about 6" in diameter. The exterior of this was much greener the after it's first glaze firing- I did go somewhat hotter than usual and some of the color burned out. It's about 9" in diameter.

Here is a baking dish, about 11 inches across. The color is from copper, and from Mason turquoise stain, plus some Zircopax.

This glaze is the same base, but a little more copper, and no Mason stain. I do have the amounts written down, if anyone wants to know...

Ah ha, this cachepot was not especially improved by refiring. (see picture below from previous firing) I DID wax the leaves and flowers and pour some creme colored glaze over the exterior, hoping for contrast, but I guess not enough, because it barely shows. And the refired leaves faded to a weird color. Not quite how I pictured it. But someone will like it, I hope.

This is the new blue- same base glaze, but colored with cobalt. It's a nice clean blue- I like it.

The following pots were glaze-fired February 27. They are earthenware. The first one below is about 7 inches across- a small serving bowl. ...a salad set, or could be for soup too. On "Clayart" (a pottery discussion group) there has been a lot of talk about sources of inspiration. Nature is often mentioned. Actually my inspiration for the poppy design is second-hand... my customers love nature. They will buy anything with flowers on it. I never feel I can adequately represent even the simplest things, but people make allowances.

This vase is 6 inches high. You can see how it was made.

This cachepot is about 9" in diameter. I am going to refire this one, waxing the flowers and leaves, and pouring a lighter glaze over the exterior of the pot, to get some contrast. The new turquoise glaze I mixed up turned out stronger colored than I expected. All it needs is some more opacifier, which I will add to the whole batch. It is a bit more transparent than looks good on earthenware. You'll see this pot transformed after the next firing.

These vases are just under 9 inches tall. The impressions on two of them were made with the edge of a peach pit. The vase on the right is made of a clay from New Mexico given to me by a friend. It has sparkles you can see on the bare clay.

This pair of vases is made from the New Mexico clay too. I want these two to stay together- hope some buyer agrees.

These two pots are of a fine-textured earthenware from Laguna, which I've used the last few years since I haven't been able to get the local clay from the river banks near here. However, when we took off in our plane last Saturday, I looked down (the runway is next to the river) and could see the typical cracked pattern of clay where the water had receded. So I'll go down there and take a look and maybe stock up again.

I thought I'd show off the quilt which our daughter Karen made for me. She made the quilt top a few years ago, incorporating my favorite colors. She went into some marathon quilting sessions to finish it in time for this past Christmas. I was really surprised.

I'm trying a new style of handle on my cups (new for me). I noticed that sometimes my thumb started to slide of the top of a normal rounded handle so am trying a horizontal top for a change. There is also a eucalyptus seed imprint on the top. I think of these handles as "elf-ears" instead of the rounded ear shape of most handles. The negative space is what I'm talking about here-it also looks leaf-shaped. The cup on the left comes nearest to the look I want. (yes, I see the top of the right cup is skewed- a fault since it's not on a tea bowl, eh) This 10-inch heart shaped dish was pink and had some glaze faults so I refired it. Those refires can be interesting! I didn't expect to make a "broken" heart...

This bowl is about 7 high and 9 inches wide. I brushed the copper on the leaves on bisque, instead of over glaze.

...a 12" bowl

Here's the comic relief. These were my quick demos when I was entertaining a child who was visiting.

...about nine inches in diameter

ten inches across

An 8" high teapot, glazed in unaltered slip from some clay from Idaho. A wash is applied on the impressions. This is not a great color, so I may try a few alterations in my next high firing.

I call this glaze "Idaho #2"...it's also just thinned earthenware clay

. It's very dry-I may do some tests of additions to get a satin. I feel like I should make some rock shapes and use this glaze. The box is 6" in diameter.

Same glaze- the pitcher is 9" high. I'm showing both sides to show the variation in glaze color.

This pot is 7.5" in diameter, with the Idaho#2 on the exterior. The inside color is a blend of several blues I had here.

More of the same...I never liked brown so much before, but I love this glaze.

Here are some earthenware pots I fired this past week.
The piece is 10"x7"....an experiment. Not sure if I like it.


This is a double-walled vessel; 8" in diameter.

Vase is unglazed on outside (lt. blue slip) and 8" high.

This one is 7" in diameter.

This low bowl is 13"x3". Don't even try to identify the flowers.

Small poppy plates, about 3 and a half inches across. There were four, but one broke when I dropped it while unloading the kiln (there was a hole in my glove).

These ladles are kind of fun to make; the bowls are 3 in. in diameter.

I did a ^7 oxidation firing last week and here are the pots.

These 4 pieces are tests. Upper left: the inside is an earthenware slip from Idaho which turned out to be a smooth stony mat, a rusty blush where thin and dark yellow/gold where thicker...makes me want to make some fake rocks! Upper right- a different batch of slip of Idaho earthenware- it's a satin mat. I put streaks of a Gerstley Borate wash on the inside; those are the lighter areas. I see good possibilities for this stuff.

Lower left plate: I managed to collect a little of the material that was bubbling out of a "mud pot" in Lassen Park ...just had to see what would happen when it melted! Well, it didn't...just became flakes that didn't stick to the pot, not even where I brushed some GB wash. Wonder what it is composed of?...something really refractory, for sure.

Lower right plate: I brought home some material from a parking lot in Lassen Park because it looked like ash. I sifted out the larger material and sifted some of the fine stuff on this plate. It melted enough to adhere, but will need a higher temp. to melt. I might add some to a stoneware body, or test it as specks in a glaze.

I'm calling this a paperweight (it's weighty!). I was making an enclosed sphere and it got too soft and started settling down. I guided it into a fairly even shape and spent way too much time carving the double wall. But it was worth doing, and when you hold it to your ear, it sounds like wind on the prairie.I tried a slight change in the handle shape on these cups...flat on top to prevent your thumb from sliding down the curve.

Some pots our grandsons made recently...no, our daughter made the triangular pinch pot.

This is a 15" low bowl which I refired. It was pictured here before, about a year ago, but it was creme in the middle and greyish on the sides, with a fairly sharp transition. The creme was a Touchtone base (like Randy's red with only a little RIO) and the greyish part was where it had Touchtone Red (15% RIO) dipped over the creme. So for this firing I dipped the whole thing in Laguna's cone 5 Italian Straw and you can see it fluxed everything and flowed nicely. The picture below, of the underside shows it's action well too. Good thing I didn't have a thicker coating of the Italian Straw or I would have had too much running.

Another refire: it was a plain yellow tray with copper on the edges, so I used an ear syringe and gussied it up a bit.
I had an order for one of these, so I made two.
These were made by the grandson of a friend as a Scouting project: he needed to make both slab and coil items.
These are 8 and a half inches in diameter; a customer wanted individual snack dishes.