I've been pretty busy rolling along in the studio. I finished these carved porcelain mugs. They are slightly bigger than my usual mugs and the handles I made a little bigger this time, too. More like a three finger mug, or definite two finger for those with larger fingers. I also changed the angle of the handle slightly, gave it a little tilt that may mirror the mug form better. Handles are infinitely hard. These wall pieces below are drying upside down before I can continue more finishing on them. The clay slabs are pretty soft so I have to wait a while before I can flip them over.
I've got pots in all stages all around, and I'm moving around the studio hopping from various things: throw a new board of pots, trim a board, carve some, slip some, texture, add handles. I need to load a bisque kiln because my carts are filling up and there's no room for the in between pots anymore.I'm going off to teach tonight, so today will be a lighter studio day. We built a test soda kiln converted from an old electric kiln down at Arts Centered so the students will be glazing for that and we're going to fire it off on Saturday. I'm excited to see how she fires because I'm going to build one of those this summer over here so I can have a few more firings with a quicker turnaround in between my bigger soda firings.
5 comments:
ooo, bigger handles, good job.
you are working hard you old soul you. Can't wait to hear how the converted kiln works out.
Joy-
With this idea of a smaller soda-test kiln made from an electric kiln shell... how are you protecting the soft brick? Doing that ITC thing? What size burners have you used in the past? Have you been able to get anything close to even in these firings?
Love the new mugs!
Thanks Annie!
Alex- We are just going to put kiln wash on the inside soft brick even though that doesn't do that great of a job in the long run. I've known people who put ITC in and it's not been working. I'm not that up to par on kiln building knowledge, to be honest...Will is really the one to ask, but so far he hasn't found anything that works great. This was an old electric kiln on it's way out already anyway, so we know it won't last long. This weekend will be the first firing. The burner is like a small raku burner I believe. We'll see if it's even soon!
And the pugmill? I only pugged the stoneware, not the porcelain. Linda actually has it set up not to de-air the clay, with no vacuum pressure, so the clay is extremely loose and open. Actually it's like using the pugmill more for mixing qualities really. She likes the openness of the deaired clay as opposed to the tighter clay. It's short when it comes out at first, but I wait a few days and it gets better and wedge it up and it's great!
Boy, you've got a real balancing act going on there with all the pieces in progress. I turned over a bowl too soon and flattened the feet, oooh so sad. Curious about the wall pieces, the shape looks really interesting.
Like Alex, I am curious about how the soda kiln works out. I have an old electric kiln hanging around that I have been wanting to try that with. What exactly did you do to convert it?
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