and then today...

I was sailing along on a bit of a high since determining my palette thinking that I now had a handle on the work for the July show. Then this morning as I was doing my morning stroll through the pottery blogs and Clayart listserve I saw a lot of beautiful pots that are not “just thrown and dunked into a pot of glaze”. And now I am insecure again. I guess it was Tony Clennell’s website that especially got to me. Lots of loose throwing and textural work, wood fired, beautiful “interesting” work. So down I go. But now, thinking about “work that I like,” I get in touch with how much I like the work of Gwyn Hanssen-Pigott and Edith Heath—both very simple, pure lines and color…

I trimmed the 10 bowls I made yesterday. Then, after trimming the bowls, I took a 2 1/2# lump of clay and threw a bowl that I intended to be the top of a pedestal bowl. And then I threw the pedestal. Got them together this evening. I segmented the rim and then pinched the segments together at intervals of 1/8 of the circle. I repeated that on the base. Later I decided it called for some sprigs at the pinched point. Then I attached it all together.

I like the look but the bowl may be a bit small. It would make a great punch bowl if it were larger. The cut edge and the sprigs give it a very festive look, I think. Again, I hope it does not slump in the firing. The first one did not slump in the bisque firing but I have not glaze fired it yet.

getting focused

I have been stuck trying to plan for the show/sale in July. I’ve asked several people for help—but we just got into disagreements about my motivation: art vs. sales. It was discouraging to me because I did not see it the same way others seemed to interpret my quest. Yesterday, over lunch with Chris, I tried again to get some help. Chris seemed to understand—but he comes from the selling/display angle where the others I asked came from the art perspective. He could relate to my wanting to create a cohesive body of work for the display. Which I think is compatible with my focus on functional ceramics. Setting the table or arranging food on the plate are also acts of creating a display—a creative expression in itself. Anyway, after lunch I looked through some magazines to try to get some focus. The point of focus turned out to be my color palette. That led me to “Calico Corners” where I looked at fabrics for an integrated color palette. I found 2 pieces of fabric that helped me determine what I want in my color palette and I am pretty fired up now! I have been doing lots of glaze testing but it has just scattered me all over the map. Focusing on these colors gives me some sense of continuity—and they are the colors I like and have had luck producing! I would still like to get an earthy red glaze which would be a nice complement to the greens and blues I am focusing on.

The other interesting thing I've encountered is some research about glaze making. I discovered in Val Cushing’s “Handbook” an outline of various glaze types—calcia, magnesia, zinc, etc—and the effect the glaze type has on colorants (besides determining the surface quality of the glaze). Wow—that was news—and I think it is news I can work with. Then in the new Ceramics Monthly magazine there is a VERY interesting article on the effect various cooling cycles have on the colors obtained from iron oxide. That was big news, too. And it may help explain how/why I’ve had such varying results from some of my glazes. I’ve been experimenting with different firing cycles but have not known how to evaluate the results: why or what effect the changes were having. So there is another big help in learning to understand my glazes! Very exciting.

a universal experience, it seems

I enjoy keeping up with some potters around the world through their blogs. It seems to keep me stimulated and encouraged. Yesterday an English potter, whose work I like and whose blog I enjoy, wrote about opening his kiln. His experience was familiar:

"As ever when unpacking a kiln I tend to look upon the losses rather than appreciate the successes, so it'll be the next couple of days when I get to know the pots, that I'll be able to make a valued judgement." Douglas Fitch

Douglas has been potting for many years, I believe, and he does very nice work so it was encouraging to see that even the seasoned potters have the same ups and downs I have. Though now that I think about it--perhaps it should be discouraging to see that even seasoned potters have the same ups and downs! No relief in sight!

I have been throwing a bit. Have several pieces from the end of last week and now a few more from this week. These are larger pieces so I will soon have enough for another bisque firing. I have enough pots already bisqued to fill the kiln for a glaze firing--but I guess it will wait a bit longer! It is just too close to the last glaze firing to do another round of glazing, it seems.

reviewing the results

I seem to go through the same cycle with each "kiln opening". At first I am very pleased--nothing exploded, the kiln reached just the temperature it was programed to do, and some of the pieces look nice. Then I carry them in the house and begin to look more closely at each piece. Then I see the flaws--and there are ALWAYS flaws. Probably I have not yet produced a flawless piece. So I get discouraged. Then I start making notes about the results, one piece at a time. And then, maybe, I begin to be a bit more pleased with the results. This firing was no different.

To begin, I peeked into the kiln before it was OK to unload. I saw to my horror that the kiln had not reached the desired temperature. The firings are measured by "heat work"--time and temperature figure into the final achievement--which we measure in terms of "cones". I am firing to cone 6--a mid-range temperature. But the cone pack showed that I had only reached cone 5 in this firing. Oh bother, as Pooh would say. I expected to need to refire the whole lot. But when I could open the kiln and begin unloading an hour or so later I found that ONLY the top shelf had underfired. The other 2 cone packs--one in the middle and one on the bottom--had reached a perfect cone 6! OK, so now for the results:


The piece I was most interested in (excited about) was my carved bowl. It came out fine--the glaze did not perform as I wished and there is a little problem with glaze cover on the rim, but it is satisfying. The bowl is about 10 1/2" across and about 3 1/2 high.




Another bowl that I like a lot is one onto which I applied the glaze decoration in the style of Harding Black, one of San Antonio's great potters. This bowl is about 9 1/2 " across and about 4" high.








And I like this little box--much smaller than the image would suggest--it is about 4 inches tall and 4X5 across the lid. It did not come out at all as I had imagined but it is pleasing to me anyway.



Of course, there are a lot more pieces in the kiln of varying degrees of satisfaction. But all and all it feels like a good start. How is it, after 4 1/2 years, I can still think of myself as just starting as a potter?

glazing all day

and not finished yet. I began setting up my spray tables in the car port and carrying out the pots and some glazes yesterday. I thought I'd do the spray glazing today. But I spent the whole day glazing in the studio. The small pots I can dip-glaze in the studio. It is the larger ones that have to be sprayed. The piece I am most eager to fire is the bowl with the cut-out design around the rim. But I have to fill the kiln before I can glaze it! And it is one that will be spray-glazed.

I am also still making test tiles of the glazes I have on hand. I have such a long list of glazes that I have tested--yet still have not been able to select a few to be my basic palette. I think life will be much easier for me when I do have an established palette. But I can't make it over the hurtle--deciding on those 5 or 6 glazes. Like trying to decide on the menu a week ahead of the party--just can't do it until there is no more time to consider possibilities. What will be the circumstance that pushes me into a choice?

rain, rain, go away

come again some other day. We don't expect to be thinking such thoughts here in Texas. But we have had an incredible amount of rain this spring. I think it was Monday that we got 4 inches of rain in less than an hour. And I think I had 2 inches in my studio! The pedal for my electric wheel was sitting in water before I discovered the flood out there. It is not working properly yet--but it is working and I can adjust it if it does not get well all by itself!

In the meantime, I am doing another bisque firing. Usually I do alternate firings: bisque then glaze then bisque, etc. But I wanted to glaze the carved bowl so I've done a second bisque. Now I need for it to stop raining so I can glaze these pots. I will be spraying the glaze on most of the pots--and I do that outside--which I can't do if it is going to rain. It was bright and sunny a few minutes ago but is grey and dreary looking now. It is expected to rain more today.

I got the gift of a glaze booth last week. With that I could be glazing inside as it has a fan that draws the over-spray and fumes outside. BUT it is not yet installed--and won't be until I have a more permanent studio. Jim managed to install an air conditioner in the vinyl studio walls--but he is not interested in trying to do that with the glaze booth since we are so close to leaving. The promise of a real studio connected to the home we plan to build is what sustains me through the trauma of leaving the home we built 28 years ago and love so much.

on the spot

A week or so ago a woman called and asked if I would come to her church to do a pottery demonstration. I knew that it was not uncommon for churches to ask a potter to do this--there is a reference in Jeremiah comparing the potter's work on the wheel to God's work in our lives. I also knew it is hard to get a volunteer for these events. Some how I let all that persuade me to agree to do the demonstration if she could provide a wheel--I did not want to risk damaging my wheel by moving it. She did find a portable wheel. Of course, by then I was sorry I had agreed to participate. Then I remembered that she had said that the church is in Castroville (about 35 miles from my home), that they wanted me to be there Saturday afternoon and Sunday morning, and that she had said, "we only need about a 5 minute demo". How foolish can I be? But I had committed and I would keep my promise.

My demos were yesterday and today. I was pleasantly surprised by how nice it all was. It is a young church, still growing, many attractive young people very involved in the work of the church. I was perched on the right-hand end of the wide stage facing forward, away from the congregation--they were seeing a 3/4 view of me and my work. I was left to throw my pots through all of the service (I had squawked a bit at the suggestion of a 5 minute demo). The comparison of the work of God on our lives to the work of the potter at the wheel was made a couple of times but other wise I felt quite inconspicuous. And I very much enjoyed listening to the teachings on spiritual formation while I threw my pots.

showing off

I am excited about a bowl I carved yesterday. The challenge will be getting it fired wihtout it cracking. But for now, I am excited:

the old saw

Where did that phrase come from? But anyway, it is right, the old saw that says if you are blocked just get out into the studio and do something--anything. And sure enough it turns the juices on, ultimately!

I am on a kind of roll. I have a lot of things in the works--not ready to show them off--but it has me pretty excited. I've got some pots to glaze and quite a few to bisque fire. But what has me kind of excited is that some of the pieces that are ready for the bisque fire have serious decoration work already in the works.

And I have lots of 'experimental' work going on. That is where growth comes from--playing around, experimenting, just trying something out to see what will happen if...

Not much of a post, but like just getting oneself into the studio, it is something and it may get me started!

silence

Silence can be a good thing...and it can be a real bore! I've been wondering about my own silence recently. Have I not posted anything in the last couple of weeks because I don't have anything to say or because I don't want to say publicly what I do have to say? Probably the latter though I laugh at myself for such a thought since I know very well how non-applicable the word public is to my blog! But I have not wanted to talk here about my block in the studio nor the little steps to overcome it that I have made recently. But in my pottery journal I have written rather extensively about both!

Perhaps it has to do with the experimental stage I find myself in right now. I am trying to find my path, as it were, through all the possibilities that are available to me right now. I had decided on some glazes I wanted to make in large quantities. Even made a list of ingredients I needed and went to Clayworld to collect them. Then when I went out to the studio yesterday to start mixing up the glazes I did a 180 degree turn around and decided that I was NOT going to make more glazes. I am going to empty out all the little containers I have of 'test glazes' first. I wish I could select a tidy little collection of glazes--maybe 6 or 8 glazes--and just stick with those. But I just can't be that determinate. Because I don't really know what I want to make--so I need all possibilities at my fingertips. But that does not help either! And the indecision is not limited to glazes. I tried to make a little list of 'things to make' and it is a LONG list of things to make--again I can't make up my mind what to focus on.

Recently I acquired a collection of Ceramics Monthly magazines from the 1980s ad 1990s. I was surprised to see that well known potters are making the same pots today that they were shown making 20 years ago. I just acquired a beautiful book of the work of potter Gwyn Hanssen Pigott. Her work is elegantly simple--so appealing to me--and she has been making the same pots for years.

I long to be committed to something enough to make it over and over again, striving for greater refinement of the basic concept. Someone asked me once if I made anything else besides bowls. I took that to be a criticism. Perhaps I should go back to making just bowls unabashedly!

blessings

The kiln-god was busy in my behalf over the weekend. I had nightmares of the lids being glazed to the pots and repeatedly called on the kiln-god to protect the two casseroles. You can not imagine my surprise or my delight when I reached into the warm kiln Sunday morning and hesitantly tried to lift the lid on the closest casserole--and it came right up--not even slightly stuck! Oh, my gosh, and then the same experience with the other casserole! And besides that, the glazes were nice and even--I'm so tired of getting 'curtaining' on all my glazed pieces. I had sprayed the casseroles and the covering was great.


Next firing I am going to try including the whole kiln load in my pleas for the kiln-god's intervention! Those two casseroles that I was so concerned about and which seem to have been protected by a greater power were the only unmitigated joys! One of my experimental platters cracked across the mid-section, another slumped a bit in the middle, and the third did not take the glaze as well as did the casseroles. I had 9 rice bowls in the firing that I used as glaze test pieces. I put 2 different glazes on each so I could see how the glaze did on larger pieces, how they overlapped and how the various combinations might work together. Well, I can see how they work on larger pieces but none of the combinations is very attractive. Though I gained more than lost on that experiment, they could have come out as little jewels and they did not!

finally firing

I thought I would be glazing on Wednesday. I started carrying pieces to be glazed out to the carport where I would spray glaze. But I didn't get very far. So I planned to do the glazing on Thursday. Thursday morning I took my glazes and equipment I would use to the carport--that is many trips in and out of the house. But I had a couple of commitments mid-day and by the time I got home there was no point in starting the glazing then. So today, Friday, I finally started on the glazing. I began about 9:30 am--that is about as early as I start anything--and had finished the glazing, the kiln loading, and the putting-away-everything by about 7:30 pm! A LONG day!

I am familiar with the tradition of making a 'kiln god' to guard over and bless each firing. And that appeals to me. And I always intend to make a kiln god and participate in the tradition on the next firing. But by the time I get the kiln loaded I am so exhausted and relieved I never remember to do the kiln-god thing. This week I saw a film from Japan--all in Japanese--which showed the beginning of a kiln firing in which all the participants bowed to the kiln and went through a little ritual of thanksgiving for the clay and request for blessing on the firing. I determined, again, to do something in that vein with my next firing. But I did not. I was so intent on cleaning up--a huge job--before I collapsed that I never gave it a thought until just now as I began to write about starting this firing. Is it too late to request a blessing on this firing? I do so hope to have happy results when I open the kiln on Sunday.

amazing

I just unloaded the bisque firing. Bisque firings are usually not very special. No color, nothing final, just a step along the way. But this was exciting BECAUSE I had expected several of the handbuilt pieces--and my little squash pot that I dropped and badly dented--to have cracks and worse. But, amazing, no cracks! Everything is intact!

Today I mixed up 7 glazes to try out on this bisque batch. Can't do anything tomorrow as I am working at SSAC in the morning and doing grandmother duty in the afternoon. So I can't glaze until Wednesday--when it is expected to be raining. Today was gorgeous, a great day to set up outside to spray glaze but the pieces were not ready nor the glazes. Hope the predictions for rain on Wednesday are off by a day or two. I'd love to get these glazed and into the glaze firing this week.

Speaking of rain--we have had SO much rain. Hard to get my greenware dry enough to fire. But every living thing outside is very happy about it. The whole world is a wonderful green--makes you happy just to look outside!

clay friend

I have a good friend and fellow potter, Herb, with whom I enjoy talking about Bill Van Gilder's TV shows. In a recent program, BVG demonstrates using a slump mold to make a serving dish and a baking dish. So Herb made a couple molds cut from wood in his fabulous wood shop and offered to make some for me. I made a couple patterns for some ideas I've been toying with lately and Herb made beautiful wooden slump and hump molds from my patterns. We are having a great time trying figure out exactly how to work with the molds to get what we want.

One of my patterns was for a soup and salad plate. It is pear shaped and will accommodate both the soup bowl and a large salad. That is a favorite meal for Jim and me but we are confounded by having too many plates to fit on our place mats. So this would be a solution--it could also be a soup and sandwich plate. Or even hold a bowl of dip and a pile of chips. But it may turn out to be too specialized to warrant taking up the space in the cupboard.

The other was intended to be a mold for a gratin (baking) dish. So it would be an ellipse with deep sides. Unfortunately, I cut too small a piece to get the deep sides so this first try will be more like a shallow platter. Or it could hold the soup and salad!

I am impressing stamps into the surface of the plates that I hope will be attractive when the glaze pools in the indentions made by the stamps. (You can only barely see the stamp impressions in these photos.) All this is in the experimental stage. I've done very little hand-building and have not been attracted to it. But right now, I'm a little excited about what we are doing.

working on it

Monday I realized that my class at SSAC is almost ending and I am supposed to be able to present 4 of my best pieces for a class criticism! I don't have 4 pieces to present. So I began trying to get something ready to offer to the class criticism. It has raised more questions in my mind than solutions to the challenge. But I have some green pieces ready to go into a bisque firing this week and, hopefully, into a glaze firing the next week--in time for the last class!

Since I like my green pieces better than my glazed ones I will put in some pictures of what I've produced this week.



Both of these casseroles are about the same size--about 10" wide before firing (and shrinking).




The next piece is much smaller and is my 'fun' piece. It is about 4" tall. I might call it "Cinderella's coach".




I've also made about a dozen 'rice bowls' and an experimental piece that I have my fingers crossed for. Actually, I've been pretty busy in the studio this week!

home from NCECA

It is good, being home again. I came home full of ideas and inspirations. Went out to my studio this morning and was about to get into a big throwing session--all good things begin with throwing, in my book! But got scared that it might be too soon as there is still a small scab on the hand-wound of 2 weeks ago and I am out of protective gloves. So off I went in search of gloves--and some kind of organizational set-up to hold my tools. I am so tired of having to hunt for the tool I want but which is not at hand. And, too, I have those nice tools I bought at NCECA and want to have a 'handy place' to keep them safe and at hand. So here it is mid afternoon and I have not thrown a thing! But I'm on my way.

At NCECA I fell in love with the Korean "punch'ong" (in Japanese it is mashima) a process of decoration using stamps, over painted with slip, then the slip is wiped away leaving only the stamped impressions filled with slip against another colored background. I bought a few small stamps from a Korean site promoting the biennial ceramic celebration in Korea. I am very eager to throw some bowls to practice the technique on. I have done a little of this at the Southwest School of Art and Craft and know that it will take a LOT of practice to be able to do what I dream of doing with these little stamps.

some good news

I unloaded the kiln tonight--when I should have been packing (so it will be a late night before an early take-off to Louisville)! I was happy with some of what came out of the kiln. Two of the shushi plates are nice--two were pretty ugly! But I'm very happy with one and pleased with the other.


The one I really like is the turquoise with brown rim. I am happy with the tan one because it has no glazing flaws.

But what I am really happy with is the test tile box! I think it is great--and the tiles came out great with the glazes on them.


The other 5 tiles have combinations of these glazes with a rutile glaze. Interesting stuff and promises lots of good experimenting to follow.
I had some problems with glazing technique--but no problems from the glaze/clay interaction--and that is a big relief! So I am inspired to do a lot more work with the glazes and glazing when I get back home!

hanging on

Well, I did fill the kiln and start it today. It is not really “full” but the contents are spread out through the kiln pretty equally. I don’t know why I was so eager to fire today. I have said to myself, “I don’t have great expectations, but I do have high hopes.” So that is pretty much a set-up for grief! I am most eager to see the test tiles. The rest of the pieces are all pretty much test pieces, too, because I have covered them with the new glazes to see what they will do on larger work. And I had problems with the application of the glazes to the larger pieces—clearly I need to seek help in that area.

I was a little encouraged today when I read Sand Miller's blog. She had photos of some pots she had just pulled from her kiln (beautiful pots). She said she had been working to get these pieces for 2 years! And she talked about how much she had learned from the exercie. I think she once said she has been potting for 20 years. Makes my four year practice look pretty puny! If I can get another 16 years to work on my pottery I may be in good shape. Hang in there girl!

joys and frustrations

I worked pretty hard yesterday and today trying to get a load of glazed work ready to fire before I leave for NCECA. I mixed up some glaze tests yesterday and even got the test glazes onto the new test tiles and carefully positioned into the box ready for firing. I am excited about that project!

Today I spent several hours glazing the pots just out of the bisque firing. But I am pretty discouraged about that work. Glazing is so hard for me. It is not that I have mastered the throwing part, but I love doing it and am always convinced that the next piece will be just right. But I don’t have any of those feeling about my glazing. It seems I always get it either too thin or too thick—never hit a happy medium! I would love to find some help or directive for glazing. It is not recipes that I need—got lots of those. But I do need help with application technique. And I can’t visualize what would be appealing by looking at a pot and at my glazes. Perhaps one solution is to plan to refire—do a coat of cone 6 glaze, fire it, then decorate with a low fire overglaze and refire. Maybe I could build up something I would like that way.

I don’t think I am going to get that kiln load ready for firing tomorrow. It will have to wait untill I return from NCECA.

cleaning-up, cleaning out

The new clay provokes all kinds of changes. I was cautioned that it needs to dry slowly--so right now I am waiting on the last few pieces to dry enough to go into the kiln for a bisque firing. I also must test all the glazes I've been working with again on this new clay--glazes react with the clay and react differently with different clays. Last night, in a flurry of activity I emptied out all the small batches of glaze tests I'v accumulated over the past couple of years.

Today I will wash out the containers and then I can start mixing up glaze tests using my cleaned out containers. Not only have I gotten rid of the old glazes (some so hard-panned in the bottom of the container that I thought I might not be able to dig it out) and have a whole stack of empty containers but I have also gained 2 empty shelves which I badly need! Lose some, gain some!

In the bisque firing I will have two pieces of special interest. Diana suggested that we could consider refiring pieces that aren't entirely satisfying using overglazes. Yesterday I painted a design on a piece that came out of the last glaze firing that was satisfactory but not very interesting. If the overglaze I used (bought 2 years ago) works I think I might be happy with this project:

And I have made a box and tiles for testing the new glazes.

The box and tiles will be in the bisque firing and then I will begin using them for testing the new glazes. The advantage is that the box/tile set-up will take less room in the glaze firing than individual tiles took.


I get the stitches removed from my hand tonight--so maybe soon I'll be back at the wheel.

wounded-hand hand-building

I went to class on Thursday evening-but was not much help with the kiln loading as none thought a one-handed loader was trust-worthy! But I had another plan for the evening anyway! I wanted to roll out some slabs on the school's wonderful slab-roller. I thought I could make some sushi plates if I had the slabs already prepared. Lyn Woods graciously helped me as I have not used the slab roller enough to remember exactly what to do! I came home with 2 nice size slabs to work with.

Friday morning I made two sushi plates using the wooden plate former I got from Japanese Tools on the web. I used my Japanese stamps to decorate the surfaces and matching springs for the feet. And I used the rough edge of a broken shelf to press into the edges of the plates to give them a rough hewn look. That was all I could do yesterday as I had a lunch date with Justin and an afternoon-evening date with his son Reed (aka babysitting).

Today I made two more of the sushi plates--same style using different stamps and sprigs. I painted all the bottoms with a mixture of red iron oxide, frit 3134 and epk.

I must say that having a palm wound is the least incapacitating wound I've ever had. It seems that the only thing I have to avoid is direct pressure on the palm or stretching my hand out over-extended. I have had no problem working with the slabs today. As Diana said, "maybe the stigmata is over-rated"!

a beautiful day

Such a beautiful day! I was in the studio setting-up for a big day at the wheel. My son, Justin, had called to say he and his wife and baby son were going out to the lake. Jim decided he should go and show them around a bit—really he loves any excuse to go out there. Suddenly I decided that it was such a beautiful day that I should go along to enjoy the day, get a little sun and enjoy my family! And I did enjoy it all—until I stumbled crawling through a fence, tried to catch myself by grabbing a cedar fence post which stabbed the palm of my left hand. It did not bleed much but I knew it was a deep wound. I could not clean it well, we put some ointment on it and covered with a bandage. On the way home I decided I need to go to a clinic to have it checked and cleaned. Four and half hours later I left the emergency room with several stitches and a boxing-glove looking bandage.

No clay work for a while! However, the doctor said I could be back at the wheel in 7 to 10 days. Well, it was a beautiful day to be out at the lake!

and the results are...

I emptied the kiln last night before going to class. I had thought I might want to take some of the pieces to class. But, as usual, I was disappointed with the outcome and did not take any of my work with me. Our class puts a big emphasis on the group 'critique' of the work we are producing. At class I was comforted by seeing that I am not the only one whose work looks better in the greenware stage than after being glazed. And today, after a closer and cooler review of the results of this last firing, I could see that I have overcome some of the biggest hurdles. I have no pinholes or crazing or crawling or shivering. Wow, that is a lot of improvement! I am still left with the artistic challenges--but to be on the winning side of glaze making and appling is a huge step forward! It is due, of course, to the change in clay.

I am still disappointed in my finishing of the greenware pieces. I don't see the little bumps and grinds on the clay when it is wet--and easy to correct--and only see it after the bisque--when it is very hard to correct--or after the glaze firing when there is no correction possible. That demands more attention to detail than is my nature to give. I seem to be of the school of 'good enough'! And that is really NOT good enough!

it's not all about pottery

Yesterday Jim and I celebrated our 30th anniversary. We had considered making a little trip to celebrate because we've enjoyed many wonderful trips together over the last 30 years. But as we analyzed each idea we saw that we really weren't interested in making a trip right now. Jim had just returned from 3 weeks in New York and I am looking forward to a trip to Louisville to attend NCECA next month (a national ceramics convention). In the end we decided just to splurge on dinner at a really swishy restaurant--something we don't do. We had so much trouble trying to make a reservation at our first choice that we gave up on it and booked a restaurant we'd visited before but only when hosted by someone else. In the end, we thought we had chosen the very best restaurant. We ordered the "chef's surprise, a four course meal of just whatever the chef wants to cook this evening". In reality, it was 6 courses with a nice tawny port thrown end at the end of the meal. Each course was an appropriately small serving--just enough to taste how yummy it was! I think my favorite course was the grilled quail served on gnocchi. But the pasta course was also very special. The entree was a delicious "cast iron grilled fillet of beef" and was very good--but not as special as the other favorites. In spite of the modest servings, we were both uncomfortably full as we left the restaurant. It was a real treat!

To get back on theme, I was aware that all the dishes were white with no decoration--no distraction from the artful servings. Some of the plates were squared, some were shallow bowls, most were significantly large. It reminded me of an article I had just read in "Studio Potter" in which the author was a chef's apprentice as well as a potter. The chef he worked with absolutely wanted only white dishes as he felt they best showed off the food he was serving. I'm not sure I totally agree with that. I like the look of colored dishes on a table or buffet. But they do have to be chosen to compliment the colors of the food served--and that might require more dishes on hand than most homes would have storage space for. It is something to consider as I struggle with glazes, colors and decorations on my pottery. I am always happier with the pieces I make just after they are thrown than after they have been glazed. Ben once suggested that I just glaze my pieces with a white glaze. I am beginning to consider doing exactly that.

Today I have mixed up 5 different base glazes to try out on my clay. Then I plan to add colorants to the one or two bases that best fit my clay. Maybe I will also test making white glazes--some glossy, some satin, some matt. Wonder if that would solve my dilemma?

lids and sprigs

I have been working a little since last week. Now to try to retrace my steps.

Monday I loaded the kiln for a bisque firing. The firing went very well. No ‘S’ cracks in bottoms of the tea caddies—which I had feared. I fired this to ^06—until now I have been firing to ^04. I wondered if I might have better luck if I bisqued to a lower rate. This was also a very long slow firing. Eager to see if it benefits my glazing projects.

In the meantime, I have been doing a little work at the wheel. I am trying to keep up with the class work. I made 2 pieces that I have made lids for and a self-lidded box (squared). And I’ve put sprigs on two of the pieces.


This shows the relational sizes. I think they were all made from 2# of Blackjack clay.



The project here is lids and sprigs.