Seeing Stars

A couple of months ago I had an order for a personalized piggy bank with a couple of stars stamped on the side. I didn't have a star stamp, so I made one for the order figuring I may eventually use it again. Last week when I was finished making pigs for orders I decided to have some fun with the star stamp. Since the 4th of July holiday was just around the corner...

The star spangled, patriotic piggy bank came into being!

A Working Holiday

 

I tip toed out to the studio this morning to snap a few quick photos of work that I have in progress. I had a big need to make pots that I wanted to make, not pots that were ordered and needed to be of a certain type and design. This weekend I spent some time with my favorite b-mix clay body. I have had oval bakers on my mind, but opted for round instead. I just didn't want to deal with the heartache of cracks after spending hours on assembling and decorating. The plain round ones will get some ginkgo leaves carved into them. I altered the rims on a couple and played with stamps and slip trailed dots. The dots are slip I made with b-mix. They wont have a color, they will just add a texture to the surface.

I just had to step out of the studio and snap some photos of my zinnias, despite being in my pajamas and despite the fact that we now live in town. Thankfully our house sits back from the road and I don't think anyone saw me... and who cares if they did?!

These flowers are growing like crazy and I love that I planted them from seeds. Something I have rarely done. I am much more frugal as I get older. I also think that I take more time to enjoy nurturing them and watching them sprout.

The holiday weekend was great for business. We had a lot of traffic through the gallery. People were spending money. It was our best weekend in months. Last night we took a breather to celebrate Independence Day. Our friend and neighbor Phil came over with a juicy, sweet watermelon to share. We grilled some chicken, and watched the fire works in Boston on the television. No crowds, no bugs, a comfortable sofa, and air conditioning. The air conditioning promptly decided to quit when the fireworks were over. We have been battling with it all weekend. A part is on order and should arrive today or tomorrow. Hopefully it does the trick, if not, it's time to call in the professionals $$$$.

4th of July Firing

Jeff and I unloaded the kiln this morning. We actually waited until it was really cool before unloading, that could be a first for us!

 The firing was an overall success. I am happy with the small casseroles. Jeff had a couple of pots where the shino crawled (of course one was an order). I will spare you the sad photos.

The underglaze experiment is just ho-hum. The underglazes look much better fired to ^6. Jeff and I talked about doing some ^6 electric firing. Maybe during the winter when we have more time for experimentation.

There were lots of orders in this firing, so part of tomorrow will be spent packing and shipping... at least I have a plan for the day.
Enjoy your Sunday!

glazed over...

I have had little time for blogging these days. We are on a mission to get work done for our third anniversary in Seagrove event (July 20th) and then the League of NH Craftsmen's Fair, the first week of August. 

The last few days have been spent glazing. We are a day behind because of the rain. Typically we glaze a bunch of pots, then carry them through the yard to the kiln. This frees up space in the studio as we work. Unfortunately it rained so hard we barely had to time to move pots in between the rain drops, which meant we were working in a crowded space. Which also meant the kiln didn't get loaded. We seem to be having a break in the rain today (at least for a bit!). The kiln will get loaded today and we will have a 4th of July firing tomorrow.

To break up the monotony, I decided to experiment with some underglazes on this little bowl. I did a few test pieces some time ago that were sort of meh. I hoping that now I have a little more understanding of how they will fire to ^10. I will let you know in a few days!

The most time consuming thing is glazing my shino and green flower and leaf designs. I have to wipe off some of the shino and then wax the rims before carefully pouring in the green. The overlap of the two glazes will go a little red and I don't like it to be defined line, hence the wiping off. It's tedious work and my hands and elbow are sore at the end of the day.

Applying the wax goes quickly but takes forever to dry...

and actually this wax always stays sticky. You have to be very careful when handling the pots for the next glaze application because it will come off and stick to your fingers. I wished I had saved the bottle of wax I used three bottles ago, it didn't stay tacky. I have to do some research and figure out where I ordered it from. I am open to suggestion if you have any.

This kiln won't get loaded with me sitting at this computer and I best get to work while the sun shines.
Happy Independence Day to all!