Hiatus

I confess. Summer is not my favourite time of the year. Hot temps and high humidity (lately I feel like I need gills just to breathe) attacks my energy reserves and just plain saps my desire to do anything about it. So I haven't been blogging. Nor have I been hanging out as much at Clayworks (where it's hot, hot and more hot.) While they invariably make things steamier, I am grateful for the almost daily thunderstorms we've been experiencing---a welcome change from last year's terrible drought. And as they stretch into the evening hours, they give my flagging energy a boost (though they mercilessly render our pit bull Spanky into a mass of quivering fur and flesh. Sorry Spanks!)

So, as lightning takes the stage and the thunder claps, I'm going to use my newfound energy to make more birds and finally post. There's nothing particularly earth-shattering to write about (remember I've been pretty much of a sloth here lately) but there are some things I'd like to share...starting with a couple of things that were shared with me. Fellow bloggers, potters and friends, John and Amy, both returned recently from climes far, far away. And both, very kindly, brought me treasures from their travels.

John picked up a bottle of olive oil for me while he was in Italy. Having visited Sicily myself just a few months ago, this was a perfect gift. The olive oil came from Mount Etna. And, having used up all of the olive oil, honey & soap I bought on Etna's slopes last March, it was pure joy to have more. Amy found the beautiful coffee mug for me in Bolivia. Of course there is a bird on it - a condor. Amy knows I love birds but what she didn't know when she selected it is that Fred's nickname in high school was Condor. So the cup has twice the significance for me. How lucky I am to have good friends!

The last firing of the gas kiln yielded some nice surprises, as well as one not so nice. I was okay with the shino I used on the large, coiled bird.

But "Eddie" (Fred's name for the beast) developed a small hairline crack before the bisque. While I tried to mend it, and thought I had after the bisque firing showed no trace of it, the flaw was merely waiting for the high fire to return. Bigger than ever. It was disappointing, but "Eddie" was an experiment & was always intended to be a Storybrook yardbird. So a little epoxy will set him right ...right enough to look handsome beneath the azaleas anyway. (Next time I won't use Loafers Glory for a piece this large)


My smaller flock fared better than the big guy, though I lost too many Oribe birds, once again, to glaze running. Fortunately I have a few nice ones to add to my Etsy shop. And I was very pleased with the results I got using Sunshine Yellow and a sprinkling of granulated rutile. I apologize for the blurry photo but it gives an idea. More of these to come, I think.

Four parietal bottles went into the kiln and each came out with an effect I like. Now the key is to incorporate all of the effects I like into one piece. I used various oxides, slips, granulated rutile and a scant amount of glaze on these. They are looking more & more like rock, which is what I'm currently striving for. The clay body is Craggy Crunch.

Here's a back view of the horse bottle. The look achieved with the red iron oxide on one horse's body and a darker mason stain on the other's shows some promise.

The gas kiln loads again tomorrow. If there's room, the "Herr Goose" piece I made some weeks ago will face the fire. He, too, will be a yardbird here, probably in the rose garden. Roses no longer grow there but birds don't seem to mind as they frequent the old battered bird feeder beneath the River Birch. Birds aren't the only free-loaders in the rose garden either.

Busted.
Time to go as the storm has worsened, treetops are whipping posts in the wind and I'm wondering how much longer I have before the power goes out and my first post in forever disappears.

I may be making birds by candlelight this evening.