Is it Spring yet?

I think this is the coldest March that I have experienced since moving to North Carolina. This weekend we needed to get the kiln loaded for a bisque firing. Saturday was spent outside in the kiln shed shivering, while sanding and loading pots. It wasn't a very pleasant day, but we had the kiln loaded by 5:00 pm and Jeff bricked the door before dark.

We have quite an assortment of pots in the kiln. I had an order for a sheep so I made a few. The smaller, roundy ones are rattles. Lots of ginkgo carved pots, and the usual piggy banks and vessel sinks.

Hey... what happened to my tail? Oops. How did I forget that? I will have to get creative with him. Maybe I will paint a tail on with under-glaze! Luckily he is not an order, but an extra.

Despite the chilly weather there are signs of Spring in the yard. Friday was a sunny day and while hanging out laundry (yes I do that, and actually enjoy it!) I noticed the iris were blooming near the clothesline. I love irises and we only have white ones here at 505. I have to remember to plant a new variety this year. I am not even sure what time of year they are planted I guess I will have to "google" it.

Ready, Set, Go...

Jeff has been finishing up an order for a set of canisters. They needed to be ready to go in the bisque firing this week, and therefore needed to be dried rather quickly. When we were living in the log cabin we brought pots inside our living space all the time. In winter, the wood stove helped move things along. In our new home we were trying to keep drying pots (and dust) out of the house.

Then this happened...

The humidity in the studio was quite high so the canisters came into the den.

After 24 hours in the house they had dried enough to get the overnight ceiling fan treatment! Today we will move them out to the kiln shed to join the other pots to be fired. It's a nice warm day for working outside, hopefully the wind will die down a little. 

Heat Work

 Yesterday was spent prepping pots and loading the kiln to fire a bisque. The weather was no different from any other day this summer... hot and muggy. Our kiln is in the sun, great for winter loading, lousy during the heat of summer.

There are several "out of control" California Jasmine bushes at that end of the house. They are in full bloom and their scent wafted over us as we worked. At first it was pleasant, then it almost became too much. We spent a day last fall cutting these back. It looks like we will be doing the same again in a few weeks. Everything in North Carolina grows like crazy.
Our outside work ended at 4:30 pm with a thunderstorm and a good dose of much needed rain. The rain brought cooler temperatures, but the humidity is still here. Today we will finish loading the kiln and fire a long slow bisque. Next week we will load her up again to glaze fire.

Load 'er Up!

Our first firing in the new kiln will be a load of bisque. Typically we bisque fire in an electric kiln. Our electric kiln sits in the basement waiting to be wired. Originally, the plan was for our electrician to hook the kiln up to the box that currently is used for the old baseboard electric heat in the house.  We quickly learned this winter, that the heat pump is expensive to run when it's really cold, and it's foolish for us to heat 2000 square feet of house for two people. After our first ginormous electric bill, we kept the heat pump thermostat down to 58 degrees and turned the baseboard heat on in whatever room we were in, to take the chill off. Doing this cut our electric bill down significantly. We have decided that we need to keep the old baseboard heat, thus costing us a bit more to hook up the electric kiln. Until we can afford to do that, we will bisque in the gas kiln. It's probably less expensive. One load of bisque equals two or more glaze firings. The electric kiln was two firings to equal one glaze firing in the gas kiln.
So why bother with the electric? It's less time consuming to fire the electric kiln. No adjusting burners, just turning up switches as needed.

 The rebuilt kiln is 4" bigger in each direction. 4" doesn't sound like much but it makes quite a difference. We can now use Jeff's larger Advancer shelves in the front and the back stack.

 We can fit some larger pots in there, and not have to switch to my smaller shelves until we get closer to the top.

Since we are now in a permanent location, we will mud over the fiber to encase it... and perhaps we will color the mortar and paint a cool design. Our wheels are turning, both literally and figuratively!

Back to Reality

What a difference a day makes. Yesterday we enjoyed bright sunshine and warmer temperatures. Everything was melting. It was a perfect day to get outside, sands pots, and load the kiln for a bisque firing. It was late afternoon when the work was done. I wanted to enjoy every minute of outside time before the sun set, and the cold returned. With phone in hand, I decided to walk around the house and take some winter photos.

We got our slab poured just in time. Now we are waiting for our kiln shed to arrive.

Resourcefulness

 Living the life of a potter often means that you are resourceful by both nature and necessity.

Our electric kiln for bisque firing hasn't been wired yet. Jeff decided that we would bisque in our raku kiln. 

He created a temporary bag wall to divert the flame. It's more time consuming to fire in the raku kiln, but it will get us by for our last glaze firing at the log cabin. Jeff has used this kiln to bisque fire large pots in the past, since it is bigger than our manual electric kiln. He is also considering a glaze firing in this kiln. There are a couple of potters in Seagrove that reduction fire to ^10 in modified electric kilns, with very good results. 

Seeing it an action again, has stirred up my desire to do more raku firings this year. After all, raku was my first love affair with pottery.

Which would you prefer; loading a bisque kiln or a glaze kiln?

of course you low fire potters get to have it both ways... bisque and glaze in the same kiln!

Jeff is great at loading the bisque kiln. When I load it, he can always rearrange and squeeze in a few more pots. I would much rather load the gas kiln for a glaze firing... which will be happening this afternoon. One more firing before Festival in the Park in Charlotte, NC.
I better get to work!

glazing for a wood firing

I know I have said this MANY times before, glazing is my least favorite part of the pottery process. I dislike the mess as well as how the skin on my hands feel after a few days of getting the job done.

This week we are getting ready to wood fire with our friend Ouida in Carthage, NC. Glazing for a wood firing is so much easier. Most pieces only get a liner glaze, and lots of things don't get glazed at all. I yearn for the day when we can have a wood kiln at our own studio.

The bisque load in the gas kiln is cooling and I will spend another day glazing. We moved our glaze operation outside, which gives us more room, fresh air, and sunshine.

Electrical update: electrician #2 is coming today... hopefully this one can solve the wiring problems and then we can trouble shoot the electric kiln.

a little fun with porcelain...

A little cake decorating influence? 

I had a little fun with porcelain this week and these were two of the results...

Kristen Keiffer meets Maureen Mills!

Not sure about how I will glaze these. Perhaps they will be ladies in waiting for a wood firing. Which would be my preference if I am patient.

The weather was great today. I spent much of it outdoors, preparing and loading pots for a bisque firing. I feel like spring is imminent... I even ordered some new light weight (but hopefully sturdy), studio shoes online today... my getting older feet just can't handle working in flip flops anymore!

What did we do before the internet?

I for one, probably read more books and wasted less time, but this weekend Jeff and I were very thankful for the internet.

Saturday we sanded pots and loaded the bisque kiln in preparation to fire it on Sunday. As usual, we had some pots that weren't completely dry so Jeff wanted to turn it on low for a couple of hours. He turned the switch to on and nothing happened. He checked the breaker and it was in the on position, yet it didn't appear there was any electricity running into the kiln. The timer on the kiln sitter wasn't even working. Before the last firing Jeff had replaced the plug and prior to leaving for NH he unplugged the kiln. We don't own a tester for electrical outlets and it's not like we had anything else that runs on 240 that we could plug into to see if it was working. After fiddling around a bit Jeff finally saw a spark on the kiln sitter, so it appeared we did have electricity.

This kiln is a very old manual L&L...

Once it was determined that there was electricity going into the kiln, Jeff knew that the problem was in the kiln sitter box. He went on line and read that sometimes crud gets on the contacts and needs to be cleaned off. He took the box apart, cleaned them, and when it was re-assembled we had power!

If it wasn't for the good ol' internet we would have had to wait for the next work day to call L&L. Since this was a holiday weekend, that would have meant waiting until Tuesday to fix and fire this thing.
While the kiln was firing yesterday, Jeff went to load pots in David's anagama, and I threw some bowls and assembled these...

only 30 more to go... guess you know what I will be doing today.

Happy Labor Day!

this is our reality.

Our deadline for the League of NH Craftsmen Fair at Mt. Sunapee Resort is looming. We have pots growing all over the yard, trying very hard to dry in this humidity, and get into the bisque kiln tomorrow...

 Not a single spot is spared, not even the giant trash receptacle...

or the two outdoor grills...

pots even grow in the garden here...

 then there are the pots that are getting glazed...

and a kiln to be unloaded... and loaded again to be fired once more before we leave on August first.

aside from the pots, we grow tomatoes too.

 after all, we do have to eat.

Pot Roast...

or pork roast?

Jeff loaded the bisque kiln and when I went to unload it, I had to laugh at the mini piglets inside the baking dishes. Next up...

pulled pork

... yes, I think the hot weather has fried my brain.

family, food & fun

I think this might be the world's largest fiddlehead!

Inside the aviary at the NC Zoo.

I had such a great weekend with Danielle and Jason and I really hated to see it end. We spent a day visiting potteries and a day at the zoo. Evenings were spent eating great food (thank you Jeff for slaving over the smoker all day to provide us with the most awesome barbecue!) and enjoying refreshing cocktails on the porch. Unfortunately I hardly snapped a photo all weekend.
Today it's back to making the pots. We fired another bisque yesterday and hopefully the glazing will get done today, and the gas kiln fired tomorrow. We are running low on inventory! Aside from having a fun weekend with company, we also sold quite a few pots here in Seagrove.
Can a weekend possibly get any better than that?

convenience or lazy or conveniently lazy?

That's our pyrometer, conveniently sitting on the phone table next to the sofa. We watched a movie last night and could check the temperature on the gas kiln without having to get up and go outside until adjustments and cone checks. When we are firing a bisque in the electric kiln we place the pyrometer on the kitchen counter so I can cook dinner and keep an eye on the climb.

I am feeling a little disconnected from this firing. Lately I have been doing most of the loading but Jeff did it all this time. He also fired two bisque kilns while I was in Connecticut. I basically came home, glazed my pots and he did the rest.

Yesterday I unloaded the remainder of a bisque kiln and waxed the bottoms of mugs and pasta bowls. It will be back to glazing today. We will most likely fire the gas kiln again next week. I was amazed at how many pots we have made since the holidays... and I thought we had been lazy!

Next is to get all those pots sold!. So far, I have kept up with my plan to stay active on Etsy. Jeff is doing the same and we have had sales in both shops since the first of January. Next on our list is to open yet ANOTHER Etsy shop... it will be a collaborative and will have a theme. I will keep you guessing until I am ready to blog about it.

One last thing... even with the pyrometer so handy the kiln fired to ^11, oops. Most of our glazes get fired to that and more in a wood kiln so we are hoping everything is fine, especially the vessel sink order.

big pot bisque

today we set one of Jeff's big pots into the electric kiln to be bisque fired. we made a sling out of a drop cloth to carry it and drop it in... Jeff learned this method when he helped Daniel Johnston with the last firing of his large jar project. no pics of the carrying method since it took the two of us to do it, but here is the pot, safe and sound in the kiln...

the pot is a little taller than the kiln, so we use this method for the lid...

a layer of soft brick with ceramic wool in between and the cover from another electric kiln (it's always a good idea to have spare parts on hand!)
tomorrow i should be able to get the gas kiln loaded and ready to be fired by Friday the latest... then one more gas firing along with a raku before the Celebration of Seagrove Potters... i am trying to not be stressed about being ready for this show... i don't know why i am, it's only two days!

i feel like a worker bee

it's been a busy week with no signs of slowing down. the last few days have been spent getting ready to fire the ground hog kiln at the NC Pottery Center here in Seagrove. i have been glazing the interiors of pots, while jeff has been finishing some vases and getting them bisqued. the good news is jeff replaced a switch and put new elements in the bisque kiln and it fired in just 6 hours.
we are excited to fire the kiln at the center because we have a lot of pots made that were intended to be salted. jeff also has some big pots that don't fit in our gas kiln...

the one on the right is going in the ground hog, it's about 26" tall... the one on the left is about 35" and is too tall. it will have to wait for a firing in a bigger kiln. saturday is firing day so if you are in the area stop by the pottery center and see what's happening.

it's a nice cool morning and i am heading out to unload the bisque kiln before it gets hot out there. happy thursday to all!

PS: jeff is scheduled to teach a throwing and altering workshop at the NC pottery center on July 15th & 16th, for more info click here.

useful or useless information... take it for what it's worth.

it has been a rather uneventful week here at the pottery, therefore there hasn't been a whole lot to blog about.  we are getting ready to raku fire this weekend and i have spent a good portion of the last two days glazing beads and pendants (very boring).
today we fired the bisque kiln for the second time this week.  we were down to knowing that it would be done in about two hours so jeff set the timer on the kitchen stove to remind us to shut it off... it's an old kiln without a kiln sitter or fancy computer stuff... just a timer.  jeff was still in the studio working while i was getting stuff for dinner ready... i checked the pyrometer and noticed that the  temp was dropping (yes we have the pyrometer on a long leash so we can read it in the kitchen!).  i knew exactly what happened.  the timer on the kiln shut it off.  out the back door i went to turn it back on.  i got busy in the kitchen again and of course the next time i checked the kiln it was a little hotter than we like to bisque... it was at about 1915 degrees.  we should be still be ok.
i was a little mad at myself for not resetting the kitchen timer and it reminded me of something i saw on another potter's website this week.  this potter relied on her kiln sitter to shut off her kiln... well it didn't.  she melted all of her pots, popped the elements in the kiln, cracked the shelves and the posts.  a VERY expensive mistake.  she was firing a bisque to ^06 and she estimates that the kiln fired to ^10 (jeff says to cause that kind of damage to the kiln elements and shelves it was probably a higher temp that ^10).
...the moral of my story is...never trust a kiln sitter!

and this little kitten (a Dirt Works Pottery resident)  has nothing to do with this post, but he sure is cute!

let's talk about jeff today...

... and i don't mean gossip.  it's all good stuff :o)

he had a special order for a soup tureen.  jeff makes the coolest tureen's and he hasn't done any in a few years.  i am excited to see this one finished.  it is going in the kiln today to be picked up on wednesday... yep, it will still be warm from the firing when it goes to it's new home.

and here is a finished soup tureen from his web site... i really like the matching ladles

check out more of jeff's tureens & casseroles on his website by clicking on the picture above!  and of course you can purchase his work on etsy as well

i got up early to get the wood stove going and make the studio warm and toasty.  time to go make some cone packs for the firing today.  i wonder what kind of creatures they will be this time?

the bisque kiln is LOADED!

i have read lots of blogs and facebook posts about bisque firing this week, so i figured i should do the same!  this is the first bisque firing for us since moving to seagrove.  we couldn't fit all of our pots in so i am sure we will be doing another one very soon.
our shelves and posts were still on the bus so those had to be unloaded today as well.  we try to make use of as much space in the kiln as possible... saves on electricity and hopefully the environment as well.  we are careful about stacking... making sure that pots inside other pots are sitting level and bowls of like sizes are stacked rim to rim.  as bisque firing goes, this was sort of loose for us - we had to work with the sizes of the pots we had.  we load starting from the floor ( our kiln is outside under cover) and load to the very top.  we don't use cones in the bisque... only the pyrometer.  we fire to about 1875, always turning the kiln off before 1900.  i can't remember ever losing anything in a bisque firing so this method works for us!

as you can see the cover will JUST close :o)

after we finished loading we got some more yard work done (see earlier post) and jeff installed a gutter over the entrance to the wrap around porch.  when i came out to the porch with my computer i said that i smelled smoke... his reply was that someone nearby was firing a wood kiln tonight... being the pyromaniac that he is, he hopped in the truck to go and find it...

and now for something COMPLETELY different...

...i fired a bisque kiln today.  firing a bisque is rather boring and uneventful.  sort of like turning the oven on and waiting for it to reach temperature.  during all this waiting i had a visit from my friend cindy... finished some mugs...

then decided to do something totally different while waiting...

i sculpted a sheep!  i really had a fun time creating him... i have to say i have never made animals out of clay before - in a former life i was an early childhood educator (for nearly 20 years) and i did make play-doh animals...BUT i had to stop because the children would say "make me a  dog" or a cat or whatever... and they wouldn't create their own once they saw mine.  it was really hard to refrain from making things!
don't ya just love the smile on this guy?!