Halloween Party Preview

The somewhat impromptu Scary Home Companion Arkestra will be performing Halloween-related songs at Mike and Emma's. Here is a sneak peak(look for me on bass):

Crack!

As addictive as the making of pottery can be, sometimes it can get aggravating. Recently I've had some issues with cracking. It happens sometimes at the bottom of my porcelain bowls and is usually horizontal; it tends to aline with the direction of the throwing. It happens in the drying of the piece or in the bisque so it's not a glaze fit issue. I'm wondering if I throw them too thick and am not trimming of enough. I'm going to try throwing them off the hump and see if that changes anything.
And now a different kind of cracking that occurred in the wood-firing. Of the clay that I mixed up I made some bottles, vases, and low wide bowls. Six of the ten bowls did this:
This cracking I'm thinking is definitely a glaze fit issue. These bowls were glazed with a thick coat of temoku only on the inside. I probably won't be mixing this clay up again, so I know just to make vases out of the rest of it.

Snaps from the Wood Firing

Here are some of the best pots from the firing. These stoneware bottles with green runny glaze are made of the clay I mixed up from North Carolina and Vermont clay. I love the color of the clay and the stray quartz rocks that made it through the screening and show up as white chunks.
The following are some white slipped with some wax resist and stain designs.


This tall bottle is one of my favs from the the load. I didn't do it justice with this photo, but it stands tall and pround. When I'm throwing big sectional bottles I try for a higher "belly", maybe "chest" works better here. There will definitely be more of these in the future.

A canteen.

These porcelain and flashing slip tumbers are some more favorites. Quinn was helping me sort and price and chipped one of these so it's now the newest member of our cupboard.

A few faceted whiskey cups.

I made a bunch of these porcelain bowls with the inlay lines and was super excited to see that they came out nice and clean. I was a little worried that the fly ash would show in the glaze, but this clear glaze eats it right up.
My clear glaze doesn't usually craze like it did on a few bowls. They seemed to be in the hottest spots of the stack and probably recieved more ash than others.

A smaller bowl.

An out-of-focus sugar bowl and creamer set.

Underneath the lid

Under the creamer

One of my favorite line drawings to make, albeit time consuming.