New Pigs On The Block

I figured I was about overdue for a pig post. These are the latest oinkers from last week's firing.

I hadn't done any pigs with the shino and "glaze splash" combo in over a year. Our copper red glaze was crawling like crazy and the rutile glaze was often foamy looking. Jeff re-mixed the copper red, and added a little darvan. He said the darvan keeps it a little more fluid, but he doesn't think it's what stopped the crawling. As for the rutile... I just stopped using it. I can get a similar look by using our nuka glaze as a replacement. 

I have had requests for pigs with hearts and stars, but not necessarily together! The nuka glaze often gives a blurry look to stamps and lettering so I decided to glaze a "heart" piggy bank with Temple White. This glaze works well with the under-glaze and I think I like the simplicity of using this glaze alone. The true test is, "Will it sell?"

I will also offer this piggy bank with a name on it as well. You'll find this new litter of pigs in the Etsy shop.

Post Celebration Post

I am happy to report that our last show of the year was a success. It was our best weekend in Seagrove to date. Sales were good at the Celebration of Seagrove Potters as well as at our own gallery. The added bonus was hearing that "cha-ching" on my phone alerting me to an online sale in my Etsy shop! Finally having a smartphone helped me manage my Etsy shop while I was at the show. If something sold online, I took it off the display. If it sold at the show, and was listed on Etsy, I could quickly deactivate it.

 

This luscious copper red and tenmoku  piggy bank came out of the kiln that we unloaded on Friday. He is a larger pig - a little over 8" long and was a special order. This is one of those times that the glaze did everything you want it to. I love how the red broke into black around the ears and snout. It ties in so well with the tenmoku belly. One side has some beautiful mottling of white/gray.
Now to see if this can be duplicated...

Keeping up the momentum...

We had to work like mad men during the hottest July that I have ever experienced. The show at Mt. Sunapee Resort was looming and there wasn't a choice. We vowed that upon our return we would keep up the pace. After unpacking, I will have to admit, we were in fog for a week. That fog needed to lift because September through December is the most important sales quarter for the year.

Thankfully it did lift and we are back in full swing. We finished glazing yesterday and Jeff loaded the kiln, which was a nice break for me because I was the kiln loader for the month of July. At 9:30 last night the door was bricked and we sat down to a nice meal. I am still on the cooking kick and tried another new recipe...

Bleu Cheese Stuffed Pork Chops with Pears

Jeff really liked the pork chops but not the pears so much. I thought it was yummy all the way around. It was also easy and quick to make. I think my cooking kick has come about for two reasons.

1. Cooler temperatures

2. Pinterest

I have seen and pinned so many  new recipes from Pinterest and they inspire me to get in the kitchen. I think Jeff is enjoying the break because for a long time he was the chef in this house. I was burnt out and was glad to let him take over.

back to pottery...

I listed this mug and bowl in the Etsy shop this weekend. This is the new glaze combination of shino, copper red, and nuka. We glazed some piggy banks in this combo and they are in the kiln today. They should look pretty darn cute, who wouldn't love a purple piggy?

After Jeff mixed the nuka glaze in July, he remembered that it's extremely thixotropic, and settles like a rock on the bottom of the bucket. Bentonite should have been added to eliminate the problem when the glaze was mixed. It was a total pain in the ass to mix every time we used it. He was talking to a potter friend in NH about it and she said to add a cupful capful of muriatic acid to the glaze and it will stay mixed.

Muriatic acid, who knew? Not us, that's for sure. We bought some this week and sure enough it does the trick. Almost like magic.

So that's my tip of the week, add one capful of muriatic acid to a 5 gallon pail of glaze and voila! 

(Just be careful when handling acid)

firing results

we unloaded the kiln today and overall were very happy with the results.  we had great reduction in all areas, which is a first for this kiln.  the firing was long - 14 hours.  the kiln seemed to stall at one point close to the end and then it took off... ^10 dropped in the back first and it wasn't too much later that it dropped in the front and i turned off the burners.  at that point we saw that 11 was down in the back.  we realized yesterday when we peeked in that 11 was also down in the front.  luckily the glazes we use are usually fine at higher temps.

i had mostly bowls in this firing, nothing too exciting... the blues were a special request and that glaze is pretty consistent.

jeff was a little disappointed in his reds... some were looking a little more like mauve... i love the textured  bottoms and rims on these salad plates of his.  i think he plans to re-fire them to see if they get redder.  not all the reds came out this way there were a few keepers.

we will be firing again very soon and will follow the same program for reduction but we are going to try going a little faster in the beginning so that we can hopefully shave off some time... and HOPEFULLY get the same results... except for the mauve because that is so 80's :-)