We just got back from a trip up the Rhine from Amsterdam in the Netherlands to Basel in Switzerland. So I haven't been creating any new pots for a while. Here are two more from the last batch.
As you can see, they both have the rough vase body that you saw before. They are both about 7.5 inches tall. The one on the left is about 4 inches in diameter. The one on the right is about 3.5 inches in diameter.
The one on the left had a green engobe applied to the top. (An engobe is a clay slip - runny clay mixture.) Clear glaze was applied over the engobe. The bottom was left as bare clay.
The one on the right was dipped in 2 glazes. The top was dipped in "Sun Valley Rutile" - a glaze that shows different colors depending on the clay body. The bottom was dipped in Navy Blue.
The river boat trip was fun. I came back with some new ideas for creating pots. I'll point them out when the completed pots are ready.
Some of the newly glazed pots are now in various places around our house.
Side Table
Our dining room side table has a table runner from our friend Joan and a painting done by another friend, Linda.
The vase on the left is about 12 inches high and 5 inches in diameter at the widest point. The top is glazed with Ida's White and has brown speckles where the iron in the clay burned through. The bottom is Tenmoku, a dark red mat glaze. The band around the middle is Jet Black, a shiny glaze. I left bands above end below the black band un-glazed. I like the look of bare fired clay.
The vase on the right is about 9 inches tall and 4 inches in diameter. Most of the vase is rough, bare clay. I use a tool to make rings around the pot to make the surface rough. The top is glazed with Tortoise Shell. Some of it is dark red, some of it is blue.
Fireplace Mantle
The fireplace mantle has an abstract painting we picked up at Target and a water-color done by a neighbor.
You may recognize the pot on the right from the June 7, 2010 blog entry.
The one on the left is a new one, about 11 inches high and 7.5 inches in diameter.
The inside is glazed with clear (like almost all my vases). The bottom was dipped on an angle in Tenmoku and the top was dipped on an angle in Ida's White. A bare clay wedge was left between the glazed parts.
End Table
One of the vases from this kiln batch was glazed with Vegas Red on the top. The resulting color almost perfectly matched a lamp on one of our end tables.
This Batch
Did another glaze firing. This kiln load was mostly pots thrown using "Long Beach" clay from Aardvark. It is a light brown clay with a little bit of grog (not completely smooth). It holds its shape well. I threw a bunch of vases and bowls using that clay.
This glaze firing did not go smoothly (again). I'm still learning how to use the Fuji controller on the kiln. My problem was that I programmed the controller to ramp up the temperature too quickly. After six hours the controller figured out that it could not achieve the requested temperature in the allotted time so it shut down. I had to adjust the program and try again. Eventually I will get it right.
These Bowls
The five bowls in the picture are each between 2 and 3 inches tall and about 7.5 inches in diameter. They are suitable for nuts or candy or small serving bowls.
Ida's White
This is my favorite. The iron in the Long Beach clay (that's what gives it the light brown color) burns through the Ida's white glaze giving it brown specks.
Vegas Red
This one has Ida's white outside and Vegas Red inside. The Vegas Red glaze was not evenly applied so it "crawled" some leaving a few bare clay spots on the inside of the bowl.
Clear
This was glazed using the "Clear Base" glaze from Aardvark. The glaze actually looks light gray when fired in a reduction environment. This bowl appears to have been in a cooler part of the kiln because the glaze is not smooth (not fully melted). It actually gives the bowl an interesting look.
Double Dip
This bowl was dipped into Navy Blue glaze from one side and Vegas Red glaze from the other side. The Navy Blue in a reduction firing comes out almost black. The Vegas Red is a very temperamental glaze. If it is fired too long or too hot it turns gray. If it is not thick enough it is also gray. So only part of the outside of the bowl is red. The final result is still interesting.
Snake Skin
This bowl was dipped in clear base glaze and then the rim was dipped in Navy Blue. Like the clear bowl above this bowl appears to have been in a cooler part of the kiln. The result is a lumpy (not smooth) surface. When I showed it to my wife she thought it looked like snake skin. I like the effect.
Other Pots
Many of the other pots from this firing are also interesting. I'll share them in other blog entries.
One of the pots in the first glaze firing is a large pot (12 inches high, 9 inches wide). I dipped the top in a brown glaze ("Tortoise shell") and let it drip over the bottom part that was dipped in a clear glaze. The result was was not particularly pretty but it looks nice in the flower bed under the Jasmine vine.
The first glaze firing was completed but not without problems. I did not understand one of the Fuji controller settings so the firing stopped before it should have. I understand it now. I reset the Fuji controller and fired it again. So these pots went through 2 high firings.
Here are some of the better results.
Two Vases
The one on the left is 10 inches tall. The top is 4.25 inches in diameter and the lower part is about 4 inches in diameter at its widest part. It was thrown from T2 clay - a fine (not groggy) clay body with some iron in it. The speckles are a result of that iron. The iron burnt through the clear glaze. The top was glazed with a thin coat of Navy Blue which became almost black in the double firing.
The other one is 12 inches tall and 4.25 inches in diameter at its widest point. This was thrown from Sculpture Raku - a groggy clay body and fires white. This one has Tenmoku glaze at the top and clear on the bottom.
Two Vase/Bowls
I call the one on the left a "spitoon". The top is irregularly shaped. It is 7 inches tall ans 8 inches in diameter. The top was dipped in Tenmoku glaze. The bottom was covered with Ida's White.
The one on the right is 6.5 inches tall and 7 inches in diameter. It\'s ribbed like a wasp nest. This was thrown from T2. It was dipped entirely in Navy Blue and then the top was dipped in Sunvalley Rutile.
A Vase
You can't tell from the picture but this vase is very heavy. It is 15 inches high and 8 inches in diameter at the widest point. The walls are thick. I should have trimmed more off but I liked the shape. As a consequence of the thickness the pot actually cracked. The crack is not shown in the picture. I'm keeping it for now since the crack can face the wall in the display case.
I'll show a few other results in a different blog entry
Today I started my first glaze firing with the Geil kiln. Since it's controlled by a Fuji controller the firing is really simple (once the program has been set). It allows me to do reduction firing without having to make manual adjustments during the firing.
For those not familiar with pottery kiln firing, a "reduction" firing causes the air inside the kiln to be oxygen-deficient. That causes chemical reactions in the glaze that use oxygen from the glazes. Many glazes have a different look after a reduction firing than they would have if the air inside the kiln had the "normal" amount of oxygen.
The firing takes 13 hours - I started it at 5:45 AM so it will be complete a 7:15PM today. This is a "cone 10" firing - the temperature inside the kiln will reach 2330 degrees F. After the firing the kiln cannot be opened until it cools down. It won't be sufficiently cool until some time on Friday. I'll take more pictures and post results after that.
Glazed
Glaze can cover up problems. Here is the same pot after it was glaze fired.
This is the second bisque firing for my kiln. The firing was started on May 10 at 2PM and the fire was turned off at 5:27PM. The kiln door was opened on May 11 at 1PM.
All the pots made with the different clay bodies that I blogged about were in the kiln. The firing was successful (reached the expected temperature and nothing blew up) but there were various problems with some of the pots. I will update the previous blog entries to highlight the bisque firing results for those clay bodies.
This is the kiln after the firing. Notice the change in color of the pots.
"Soldate 60" is another clay body sold by Aardvark. Joe Soldate is a well-known ceramic artist from southern California. He developed a good clay body for clay sculptures. The original formula called for 30-mesh sand. Soldate-60 replaces that with 60-mesh (finer) sand. The clay is easy to throw. It holds its shape well.
The picture shows three tall vases with approximately the same shape. The one on the left was thrown using the clay I had brought from the Bay Area. The clay is re-worked left-overs. It is mostly "T2" with some "Sculpture Raku" and "Santa Barbara" mixed in. It's a little less than 12 inches high and about 8 inches wide at the widest part, 4.5 inches at the top.
The one in the center was thrown from "Bee Mix". This is 13 inches high, about 8 inches wide at the widest part and 4.5 inches at the top.
The one on the right is made with "Soldate 60". This is 14 inches high, 6.6 inches wide at the widest part and 4 inches at the top.
I'd be interested to know which shape you prefer. Please comment.
After Bisque Firing
The Soldate-60 tall vase did not survive the bisque firing well.
If you look closely you may be able to see the small vertical crack at the center of the top and a horizontal crack just above the fattest part of the pot on the right. Small cracks after bisque firing become large cracks after glaze firings so this pot must be thrown out
Another pot made with Soldate-60 (a bowl - not shown) survived the bisque firing. I'll show that after glazing.
"Coleman Porcelain" is another cone 10 clay body sold by Aardvark.
This clay fires to a clean white. It is very smooth - like butter.
I really like it for bowls and vases. I haven't tried to make a tall vase with it yet. I have heard that it can be difficult but I have not had any problems with it this far. Of course the pots have not yet been fired so a lot of things can go wrong before we see a finished product.
The pot shown above is a large bowl. (Note that there is a mirror behind the pot.) It hasn't been trimmed yet.
Here is a large vase still on spinning on the wheel.
Bisque Firing
Here are those pots after the bisque firing on May 10.
Glaze Firing
One of the pots was glazed using Celedon glaze - a lightly-colored transparent glaze. It was a reduction firing so the color of the fired glaze is blue. (It's green, normally.)
This entry will be updated after the other pot is glazed.
