THIS one is not at ALL what I was expecting from this color! On a white clay this comes out a very nice semi- transparent olive green with hints of brown where its thin. Like THIS.... for some reason on the weststone clay it went more mustardy. Just soo not pleasing.
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Got a bunch of nice stuff out of the kiln, these buttons and a few others like them, a pair of orchid pots, and 4 bonsai pots. They are all sell-able, except one of the bonsai pots came out a rather... erm, ugly color. The glaze I used comes out a great green with highlights of brown when its on white clay, but on the weststone clay I used for the bonsai pots, its rather ... unfortunate! Brown with a hint of lime green.... Might have to refire that one with something else over the bamboo ash matte. This big boy was hanging out between storms in the yard this week. He's been around off and on for years now, I recognize him because his coat is a bit redder than most of the other deer in the local town herd. His antlers have been a bit uneven in past years, this year they're more even than in the past. Four spikes and a BIG eye-guard on each side, so most people around here would count him as a 5-point. Blacktail, not a mule deer, so hes not as big as some of the inland deer. They're really neat to look at, but the wretched beasts do a heck of a number on the landscaping!. Well, windoze has been being a bit of a twit for a while now (erm, almost a year... durf) but I needed to install a word processor of some sort so I finally broke down and re-installed windoze 7. Yeck. Forgot to back up my darn bookmarks and such. Not generally the recommended way to clear out old files, but I guess it works! Now I need to reconstruct a bunch of stuff. Thank goodness I managed to remember to write down most of my log ins so I can get THAT stuff back. GAH.
I've officially declared a Pajamas day! Going to stuff my face with ham n yams, snuggle with the kitty, and play stupid computer games. And maybe look up some reference photos for a few projects. HMMMmm, might also put together pics from the raku firing (ouch, three weeks ag0? four?) a while ago.
SO! Orchid pot version 3.... this one is supposed to be about 7 inches across and 6 inches tall... The design was a bit of a challenge but I've got that whipped, I hope! I had to modify the shape some and use thicker pieces of clay so it would hold up its own weight off the form. LAST one (before I modified the form) I had to fight off the form and it just collapsed slowly as I watched it... the FIRST one didn't even make it off the form, but that was my own stupid fault. It got too dry and cracked. THIS one floop, lifted right off. FINALLY! Anyway, hopefully the customer will be happy! Its now finishing its drying down at the art center and will be ready to fire in a week or so. There IS a back up too, I built a second one out of a different clay JUST IN CASE..... :) They'll be finished with a wash of iron oxide and rubbed back, so the details will be popped by darker areas where there are shadows, and where the oxide gets wiped off it'll just look antiqued. Should be a brick red where the oxide is thin, almost black where its thicker. The other one should be a little lighter (the clay isn't quite as high in the iron) but otherwise similar. NICE, I think. The good thing is, once I figured out the form and was not fighting old clay, my time estimate was right on. PHew!... :) Another view of the same pot, other side of the table. :) You can see the form off to the right behind the papers. Also have a rebuild on the other pot (the cracked one) going, and the bisque firing that just came out has the cracked version. Looking good, so the design works just fine. And for some reason its usually its the special orders that have problems! Had two with issues this week, darn it all! One orchid pot that just flopped as it came off the form, and a flower pot that mysteriously developed a crack as I was loading it into the kiln. The orchid pot is my own problem, I'm sure its just too heavy to support its own weight the way I had it built, so I modified the form and am giving it another go. It should be ready to come off the form tomorrow. Disappointing because the last one looked really nice and I was happy with it. Oh well, that's just the way the cookie crumbles. Worst of it is that was the second one I built, first one I wasn't very happy with but blamed it on the clay. Oh well, we shall see if this one works. Crossing my fingers! The other one I figure I must have dinged it putting the sig on. Of course it didn't show up until I was done and it was heading into the kiln! The flower pot went into the kiln anyway, I'll use it in the yard. I want to finish it up so I can give Heidi an idea what the final version will look like, its hard to visualize if you're not familiar with how it works.
Probably not, because I usually DON'T... Anyhow, spent a couple hours reworking an old brick of #clay because I have a custom order for an #orchid pot in that clay... all to save myself a 4 hour round trip to Arcata. And I only did about 1/3rd of the brick! I really DO know better! Its almost always a loosing proposition. The order is for a large orchid pot, I'll probably do another one to list. But its going to be a nice pot. This red clay with iron oxide on it looks great, its just a bear to work with because it stains everything it touches. Ah well! It'll be worth it.
Got the kiln unloaded, the stuff I didn't like out of the last glaze fire re-glazed and the new orchid pots glazed, now I've just got to get the tiles glazed. I suspect the coasters will sell well on Etsy, so I'm going to give em a try. This stack plus the ones out of the last firing will give me a couple dozen to try. I've got a dozen coaster tiles and a few orchid pots (3 new and one re-bisque) along with a bunch of stuff for the rest of the mudslingers! Hopefully I'll have some bonsai pots for the next load. This load should be out for Wednesday, so we can throw a glaze load in right away, and I'll have stuff to list soon!
Got some orders, so I'm going to make a run down to Arcata and get some clay tomorrow! :) I need some red, and I'll have to look and see what else she's got. Weeeeeeeee! STRANGE thing is, even without a job, I'm BUSY running here running there, oy oy oy! |
Maryjane Carlson
Clay has always fascinated me, its many colors and textures, the shapes you can create using it, even the feel of it squishing in my hand. Even after years of playing in the mud I find myself exploring new ideas and I hope my work shows this. Archives
August 2017
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Life as a potter
OK, so maybe its life as a part time potter! BUT someday that will change!