From Across the Pond

What is it that draws someone to blogging? The answers would differ, person to person. But for me this tells it all...



Ron gave me the postcard when we visited his home sale today. A kindly gift from across the sea that was totally unexpected.

So I want to say THANK YOU to Doug (aka Love Daddy) Fitch. I hope you will visit us soon.

Road Trip

I love road trips. Especially in the company of good friends. Especially when the destination is one that inspires everyone.
Today Elaine, John and I took a road trip to Ron's Home Sale in beautiful Shelby, NC. It's about a 50 minute drive from Charlotte.
(Makes me appreciate the fact that Ron makes that drive to & from to teach students like me at Clayworks.)

Ron was the most gracious of hosts.



We enjoyed a tour of his studio/workshop/kilns...



,,, and home. It was wonderful to finally meet Sarah. Though suffering from a summer cold (been there, still there) Sarah welcomed us into their home. I asked if she was still making jewelry. She said she was moving back into that again. Hopefully she will have some offerings soon. Sarah, too, is an amazing artist.

I wish I could have captured more photos to share here. I've experienced Ron's work...as a student. And I've see what he does at the Clayworks sales. But I don't think I've ever really understood the immense scope of what he does until today. So much incredible work!!!..

Wedding gifts

A kindly kiln god must have been watching over the gas kiln. I had 5 pieces in the most recent firing - all intended for Fred's niece, Amy. She's getting married August 31st and had asked if I'd be willing to make candlesticks for the ceremony, as well as a chalice and a small plate for communion. I'd never made candlesticks before so I spent almost all of my time in Ron's class trying to throw a decent pair.



After testing various glazes on 6 other candlesticks, I settled on a combination of sunshine yellow and spotted shino with yanagahara accents. The chalice and plate were sunshine yellow only. Boy oh boy, was I relieved that everything came out okay. No glaze spilled on to the kiln shelves...no nearby vases exploded, embedding shards in my pieces. All five came out without mishap.



Now all I have to do is hope there's a shipping god out there...so everything makes it safely to TN.

Quick pic

Here's a quick pic of the little sawdust-fired bird that came from Elaine's & my first barrel firing. A couple of coats of Briwax (thanks to Joe Fox for the suggestion) gave her a nice gleam.



Time for me to fly to the studio. Enjoy the day!

The Flock

Elaine and I are getting ready for Barrel Firing #2. This Saturday, we'll be doing another 010 bisque. Since I work in a deadline-driven business, and actually prefer it that way, I asked Elaine "How many pieces should I make this time?" (I only had 5 in the first barrel firing.) "Fifteen" she said, smiling sweetly.

Fifteen? Well I asked, didn't I. So fifteen it will be. Making that many won't be too difficult. I just have to take into account the time it takes for drying, trimming, applying terra sig, etc etc etc. Quite a little dance that. No time for two left feet.

But I'm off to a good start I think.



I discovered I can make a flock of these simple forms while watching TV. Hmmm... let's see. That's 8 birds... I'm over halfway there... and I could add the frog form into the mix... and the pot I threw last Wednesday... and I think I have four bone dry pendant pieces sitting somewhere on the kitchen counter?....

Horse Hair --- First Try

More fire for me on Wednesday night. Horse hair during the raku firing. I was happy with the results.

Fire!

There's been plenty of it for me this week. Tuesday was the big barrel firing day for Elaine and me. We only planned on firing in one barrel but ended up in three. A Papa barrel, a Mama barrel and a Baby barrel.



Papa barrel (left) was a donation to Clayworks. This was indeed the Big Daddy barrel, built for smoking pottery and featuring all the options (shelves, air vents, etc.) Elaine and I called him "Bentley". The barrel on the right was one Elaine procured through a friend. "Model T" came with quite a history, as its rusty exterior proclaimed. No telling what was burned in this baby previously, but we figured it would suit our purposes perfectly. And that little guy in the middle is one of the cans we use for raku reduction at Clayworks. I dubbed him "Go Cart" because of his size and the speed at which we figured he'd fire.

The day before, we prepared our pots. As this was our first barrel firing, we decided anything goes. Some pieces were prepped with Elaine's terra sig. A few were naked clay. Most pots were bisqued at cone 010. A couple of mine were cone 06. Banana peels, dried flowers, seaweed, copper wire and scrubbers, dried cat food, oxide-soaked twines, eggshells, and just about everything else were incorporated in the prep. We carefully gift-wrapped them all.





It was unseasonably warm when we fired. Actually, it was unseasonably, brutally hot. But Elaine & I persevered (we weren't firing a wood kiln after all. But after Tuesday I'd bet we have what it takes to do that too.) We fueled our barrels with cedar shavings, poplar & oak sawdust and Shelby Gold.



Cow pies were the coin of the realm for our day. Thanks to Ron for collecting these beauties. (The snake skin you found may show up in a future endeavor, Ron. Plans are already afoot!!!)



As predicted, Go Cart finished first. Here, one of Elaine's lyrically fluid pinch pots and one of my birdlings peek through the ashes.



I wasn't sure how a bare porcelain piece bisqued at cone 06 would fare in a barrel firing. But I was quite taken with the way she turned out.

A little wax should make her gleam. She may not have the silken luster of her sister bird (sporting terra sig and fired in "Model T") but I love her smoky mottling. The blackbird's "nest" was a gift from Elaine. Part of a piece that didn't behave as she'd hoped in a previous firing, it was a perfect fit for what came from Tuesday's efforts.



Many beautiful pieces emerged later in the day. Some of Elaine's work was breathtaking. I can safely say that this may have been our first barrel firing but it won't be our last.

Too Late to go into it....

...But Elaine and I had a successful barrel-firing at Clayworks today. Now, successful doesn't always mean we loved all of the results. Successful means we learned. And today we learned a lot. (By the way, thanks to Ron for Shelby cow pies aka barrel fire gold)

We began this firing at 8AM. It's nearly midnight now. We fired 3 barrels instead of one. It was 98 in the shade with Charlotte humidity. But the payoff was plenty o' precious. More of the story to come when I can see straight. Between the smoke of the barrel firings...and the later raku firing... Elaine & I shared a champagne toast to a day gone well.



Gotta love those plastic cups. (Isn't orange the colour of creativity?) Will share more soon. Once the smoke gets out of my eyes.

Frog Legs

I'm okay with his legs but, crikey!, those TOES!!! Nonetheless, he is what he is (frog/possom mutation?) and he's drying nicely.



I have no idea how I'll glaze him. I'd like to raku him but I'm afraid those fragile tootsies might be too delicate for that?