Bowls, Bowls, More Bowls... and a Mug.

I was up early this morning and unloaded the kiln before Jeff even got out of bed. It went quickly because he had un-bricked the door last night. It was a really good firing with a variety of work from piggy banks, sugar & creamers, mugs, and our 50+ bowls for the Empty Bowls event next week.

Early in the week I posted a "before" photo, here is the "after" photo...

This is the BEST looking mug from the STARworks FireFest wood/salt firing.

It's also the one with the small S-crack, so it's mine to keep. 

Doing our part

It's that time of year again. The Second Harvest Food Bank is having their Empty Bowls event next week. I think this is the third year that we agreed to make 50 bowls for them. They pay us $5 a bowl, which probably pays for materials and firing, we donate our time and energy.

Jeff threw all the bowls, since he can throw a nice soup bowl that doesn't need trimming... thanks to his many years of production work. My contribution was prepping for bisque, waxing bottoms, and dipping into the base glaze.

Jeff did the all of the glaze trailing. Half are "nuka" glaze with blue and green trailing, the other half are shino with copper red. We were really happy that we had a bright sunny day to work outside.
Tomorrow is firing day. I hope to get some photos of all the bowls before they get picked up by volunteers this weekend.
Stay tuned for updates!

Throwing Bowls

Like many potters, Jeff and I have always supported Empty Bowls. I am sure you all know the premise; potters donate bowls, restaurants donate soup, people come to the event and purchase a bowl that is then filled with soup. All funds raised support agencies that feed the hungry in your community. Since moving to North Carolina, we have been donating to an agency that has a very large Empty Bowls fundraiser each spring. This year they contacted us to make 50 bowls for them. They will pay for a portion of the bowls and we donate the rest.

Since Jeff is the production potter in this studio, the throwing of the 50 bowls was left to him. If I were doing the throwing, we would have had to start a week earlier! He is able to throw a soup bowl that needs no trimming. Yesterday was the day he got them all done.

He wheeled a ware cart out into the driveway to allow for quick drying. I kept a watchful eye on them, thumbing smooth the foot and stamping with Jeff's chop and his Empty Bowls chop as soon as they were stiff enough. Tonight he is loading them into the kiln for the bisque firing. Our glaze plan should go quickly as well as fun to do. More on that next week!