While The Kiln Cools...

We loaded up Orv's kiln and fired it a week ago now. Tomorrow we'll unload. I've uploaded a couple photo's from the decorating, loading and firing. I'm looking forward to opening the chambers tomorrow, but am keeping my expectations in check. I've found that I can't open a kiln hoping for what I think is the best. When I do that I find that I feel somewhat disappointed, but after "hanging out" with the pots days and weeks after the firing, there are things about the pots that I had dismissed at the opening that later become beauty.

These porcelain vases received some stencil-wax-stain decoration that's new. I'm really into this form and love the proportions on some of them. In the past when I've made these there was no foot at all the wall of the vases went all the way to the table surface. These sort of hint at a foot and I'll probably give them a little more the next go round.

Now you don't see 'em

Now you do

I've been messing around with stencils and wax for about two years and whenever I go to decorate a bunch of pots at once I wish that there was a quicker way; it just feels so slow to wax around some of the animal stencils that I use. I used mostly just these circle stencils to make this go a little quicker this time. I found that I could get a nice grassy look at the bottom of this vase sans stencil, which I believe means I ventured into brushwork that I'm usually very hesitate to commit to a piece.

Here's Orv loading the second chamber.

Here's the third chamber almost completely loaded. The majority of my pots went into this part of the kiln.

Some serious spider webs over the ware racks in the kiln shed.

Around noon on the day of the firing. Orv fires his kiln in reduction so there's a lot of black smoke that billows from the stack and from the blow holes pictured below.

Some vids:

I usually have the first shift for firing Orv's kiln which begins around 8pm and goes to about 1 am. It's a nice quiet time. A great time to simply organize your wood for the next stoke, have a seat, listen to the cracking fire and think.
When I start stoking the first chamber pyrometer reads 200 or 300 degrees, by the time 1 am rolls around it's reading somewhere around 1200 degrees. Orv will show up and take over for the deep night shift. The next day Matt Tell and Grayson take over at 6 am and start stoking the first chamber. Steve Procter and myself take over at noon and finish the first chamber and start the second. Then it's up Rosti and Michael to finish the second and start the third. With most of my pots in chamber No. 3 I helped organize wood and stoke until cone 9 was down in the cool part while cone 13 is over in the hot spot. One of my favorite parts of wood firing is just after the kiln has been clammed up and everything's set to let the glowing pots cool that we can sit down together and have a beer and visit in earnest unencoumbered by the focus devoted to the firing.

Inlaid lines

I wanted to share a bit about decorating using a inlay technique. I put lines around the rim and doodles on the feet of bowls and other porcelain pieces using this process. I start by brushing on some wax in a band around the rim maybe two inches wide. I usually do a couple boards of pieces at a time so when I'm done waxing the last piece, the first is dry and ready for the next step. Using a needle tool I scratch through the wax and into the clay. I usually have the piece set on a banding wheel for this so I can turn it at a slow pace. I go for a wavering line, I want a little "action" between the lines (insert crude joke here). Once the lines are scratched I brush off the crumbs and then brush a colored slip into the lines. I use slip left over from throwing mixed to taste with a mason stain. Because the wax has been removed in the lines, the slip wants to hang out in there as the pieces absorbs the slip's moisture. The excess slip stays on top of the wax and is therefore easy to wipe clean, like so:

just some pictures

Vases, etc.

This week I delved into some porcelain pieces. More bowls, some creamers, tumblers and the vases above, which will get trimmed up a little bit and I'll update with some photos. The vases below were part of last week's production. I'll update with a photo of them once they're trimmed as well. It's been so humid that it takes forever for the pots to dry out.
I'm beginning to find a rhythm within the three days a week I have to make pots for this firing. I try to make pieces the first day that I can leave out and trim on the third day. The humidity sometimes throws a spanner in the works, but pots are getting made and ware boards are filling up.

A Taste of North Cackalacka

I've had a pair of bags of North Carolina clay that have been in storage until today. They date back to my trip to Penland back in the Spring of ought eight. Upon leaving Penland, I packed up my poor little corolla with loads of pots and clay full of ideas and enthusiasm for making pots from the "wild" clays from the workshop. Now I'm finally getting around to doing that. I cannot wait until it's dry enough to become pottery. I remember using commercially produced clay for the first time after the Penland workshop in which we used mostly dug clay. The clay from the box seemed so sticky and tight. The slipcast clay that was being used where I worked felt closer to wax then clay. I was surprised that the difference felt so stark.
Well now that I'm again aclimated back on the clay from a box, it's time whet my appetite for that southern clay. I mixed up a small batch with some Mitchfield, Cameron, OM#4 ball clay, a little local earthenware for iron and a dash of feldspar.

The bag of Mitchfield or Aumond Pond clay I have is full of some serious quartz rocks. Here's what I screened out.
The clay mixing was my morning and in the afternoon, I made a couple of sectional vases. It took me a long time to make these. I'm finding that I'm a pretty slow thrower compared with most potters I know. Yesterday I made 43 pots, I pretty damned good day for me. In less time then that took me, Malcolm made 98. Alas, he's truly a master potter and I'm somewhere way below that but it's something I need to work on.

Turnpike Road Pottery

Today I started making pots at Malcolm Wright's Turnpike Road Pottery for a wood firing in September. Since I work four days a week for vegetable farm (Walker Farm) I only have three days a week for the August to make pots for the kiln. But Malcolm and I threw pots all day long so we're getting there. I made some 1.5 and 2 pound bowls to get used to the clay since I usually use a different body. By the end of the day I had a board of bottles that will get flattened a little tomorrow. Despite the beautiful weather outside, it was a great day to be in the studio slinging some mud.

Quechee Aftermath

So the show in Quechee was pretty much a bust. I didn't make booth despite the beautiful Saturday weather. I found that the slow sales pushed me to interact more with the browsers who did happen to stop by and look at my work. It felt as though if I just told them a little bit about myself and the work they'd be more likely to buy something. In one or two cases this worked, but mostly people were not there to buy things. It was pretty discouraging. I came really close to packing up and leaving at the end of the day on Saturday after selling one lonely bowl the entire day. Sunday picked up a little, but it was still dead. I certainly won't be back next year, but I did learn a lot in the process.
At any rate I got some photos after we had set up on Friday. Above is the whole booth complete with "shabby-chic" dirt flooring. Below are some detail shots.



Here is my beautiful wife helping me out. Quinn is the retail manager in a very hip store in Brattleboro called Altiplano. I credit her for making my booth look so good.
These are newer porcelain blue-and-white pieces you've seen in previous posts.
Now that this show is done, I'm working in Malcolm Wright's studio to help fill his wood kiln for a September firing. I'll get some photos up shortly.