Happy Halloween!!!!!!

Here is another jug that I finished up today also. This is another form that I have been seeking for quite a while. This one turned out really good. It has a nice long form, so I am planning to use my tenmoku glaze and do a long finger swipe down its body. Also I gave the spout a different finish than my usual spout, I pushed it back just a bit more and low and behold I think it looked more natural than squeezing the sides of the spout to raise it up.

Here is one of the fluted storage jars that I made and finished today. There were quite a few more that I will finish up tommorrow. These guys went much better that I expect that they would. I really like the way that the lids turned out. The flutes should take the glazes well.

Here are some yunomi that I finished up this morning. I gave them a repeat pattern on either side of the central ridge and then covered them in my ocher slip. I love giving them the ocher slip and they usually thank me for it in the firing. If I place my Iron ash glaze on these, which I plan to do, the glaze will turn to a very smooth satin like surface with a very soft orange to yellow color. I will try to add pictures of these guys post firing so you can see what the slip can do.

Here is a Juicer from the last firing. This one turned out particularly nice with that slight bluish chun around the top ridge. I glazed it with my pinon pine ash glaze and then glave it a bit of nuka just on the rim. That bluish chun effect usually happens when the nuka glaze is able to pull just a little iron out of the clay or the glaze under it. The chun is about the only type of somewhat blue I can handle on my pots, mainly because it is irregular, elusive and never the same twice.
Happy Halloween.

Kent

Some favorites and some comments...........

This jug was a form that I have been working on for some time. It is one of those pots that has subtlties that you can only see once you have attempted a few dozen. The time I was at Clive Bowen's place he was so frustrated with these huge slab trays, warping, drying weird.....as we were talking about was to solve his dillema, he made the comment that "it always takes about a month of work to figure out a new form." That is the truth. The volume of this jug is in a higher place than it appears, and the form tightens ever so slightly near the base. Tricky... Now the incising is something that I have been working on a bit lately, the ash glazes are so kind to the marks. I have been doing alot of drawing of prarie grasses and native plants latley to tune myself into what is really there. Then when I get to the pot it is quick, unlabored and intuitive.

This is one of my favorite effects from my shino glaze, the thick fat white to orange with a geneous amount of pinholes over the trimming surface. I also wiped the strong central line of the yunomi to get the ridge to go reddish-orange. And the fact that it obscured my mark, who needs that anyways? And did I mention the pinholing. I love pinholing from shino, such a great texture.

Now this Yunomi had a result that I had never been able to achieve in my kiln to date. That is the opal like Nuka glaze on the interior and top. Man.....if that would only happen again. 2 cups that's all I got it to work on. And my theory is that this yunomi reached a little over cone 11. That glaze is basically Ash and silica so you have to get it screaming hot to melt it, and I think that the long soak at the end of the firing drove it home. I love the way that the Nuka streaked and ran into my iron ash glaze.....and stayed opal white.

This guinomi was a good one right off the wheel. I think sometimes that you just know when a certain pot has hit a mark for you. I gave this one a bit of tooling while it was very wet on the wheel. That made it much softer and I knew it would also pool the ash glaze much better. Also the way that the ash not only pooled up on the ridge, but crystalized on the left side. That is the type of variation that I am always seeking from my pots. You may be able to see that the footring is darker. I sprinkled about an 1/8th teaspoon of salt under the wads to redden the clay up a little. It is a nice little cup.

Some new cups and dinnerware out of the last firing

Just a quick one tonight. I took some images of Yunomi and Guinomi this afternoon.......Here are my favorite...................K

Some pots from last weeks firing!

Here are some images of pots out of last weeks firing. It may have been the best ever! I had 97% of my pots make it out alive and looking really good. I changed up my firing scheduled to include about a four hour really, really slow rise between 9-10. With all ash glazes sometimes thing get a bit runny or blister......but not this time!!!! whehwewww. 288 new pots! Sorry about the fairweather blogging, I have just been a bit busy. Our annual Holiday Sale is going to be on November 22nd. This year we will be joined by Scott and Kay Roberts from Durango, CO. I will post more info over the next couple weeks. Kent

The shelves are filling up!

Lots of work going on around the studio lately. Sorry it has been a bit since my last entry, but pottery happened. Everything has been going well. I have enough clay now to get through the winter, I had been a little stressed about that.... Just received the rest of the glaze materials that I have been short on, so hopefully a firing next week. I am really excited about this load, I have been concentrating on some new forms, a juicer, salt shaker, square dishes, sushi tray.....and doing a lot of incising. I think the ash glazes will definately love the incising! Here are some pics from the last few days......