Getting it done...

The itty bitty gas kiln is firing tonight. Inside it's belly is an assortment of mug, plates, and a vessel sink. All are orders. Fingers and toes crossed for a fabulous firing. We are fortunate that we have this little kiln to hold us over until our larger kiln can be rebuilt (soon, very soon... wish for good weather so our kiln shed will be installed).

While the kiln fires, I have taken some new photos of mugs for the Etsy shop. It's always good to freshen things up for the new year.

We Moved...

Well, sort of. We are mostly in our new house. All the big stuff was moved on Friday. There are still some odds and ends that need to travel up the road, and still lots to do at the house. We realized it would be easier to move in and finish it while living there. Too many nights have been spent working until after 11pm, then going back to the log cabin, cooking dinner and falling into bed exhausted. Now we can tackle the house in the evening and have dinner cooking while we work.

The living room is the only room in the house that isn't filled with boxes! Sophie cat is adjusting quite well to the move. I am sure she misses playing on the spiral staircase at the cabin, but this house has so many more rooms for her to explore and hide in. Centurylink really dropped the ball with our telephone and internet move. We kept internet only at the studio until our move is complete and for some reason that made the switch over very complicated. Are we the first people to ever move phone and internet to a new location and keep internet only at the old one for an additional 30 days? They acted like we were. I spent over four hours on the phone talking to different departments and waiting on hold. Today I finally spoke to a reasonable and polite woman at our local office. It took her only an hour to get a tech out to the house and hook us up. I finally feel like we are connected to the world again. How did we ever survive back in the day?
Today we are firing the kiln. Jeff got up early and lit the first burner. He came home and we switched places so he could do some plumbing work. It's a beautiful evening to sit on the porch and wait on the kiln to climb to 1650 degrees. At that point I will put her into reduction and Jeff should arrive to finish off the firing. I am still not sure when we had time to make the pots that are in this firing.
Perhaps it was the elves.

Things can get a little buggy here in Seagrove...

The kiln is firing away this evening. When we were loading  her up last night, this giant daddy-long-leg decided to get inside where it was warm. Not sure if he escaped before the door was bricked in.

Let's Eat!

I haven't had much time for blogging, but I always make time to eat! I figured I was overdue at posting a food shot. Last night was lasagna primavera, served beautifully in a slip trailed bowl by Maureen Mills. Maureen is chair of the ceramics department at NH Institute of Art (where I learned to make pots AND met Mr. Brown). If you are looking for a good information about surface design, her book "Surface Design for Ceramics"would be an excellent addition to your library. Lark Books is the publisher.

It didn't dawn on me until after my second cup of coffee this morning, that we have a kiln to unload today! The big ginkgo vase is in there... keep your fingers crossed for us.

These came out of the kiln week before last. Aside from a sink with some crawling shino, we were very happy with the firing.

I hope everyone had a fabulous 4th of July weekend. My friends and family in New England had a very rainy Independence Day, and we had gorgeous blue skies and low humidity here in Seagrove, NC. We are now on day three of this great weather and I am taking advantage of it while it lasts.

Baby it's hot outside!

It's been a hot week for working, but the show must go on. Two and half days were spent glazing. Typically we would have been done more quickly but we took it slow, stopping for multiple breaks throughout the day. Last night we finished loading the kiln, bricked up the door, and called it done.

Sophie cat woke me up a little after 7:00 am. As soon as I wasn't too blurry eyed to light a torch and turn on the gas, I went out to the kiln and lit the first burner. We might even be done firing before complete darkness. Our little gas kiln takes about 12 hours to fire. Once in awhile we are closer to 13 hours.

Since I was awake and fairly coherent, I decided to photograph some mugs from a couple of firings ago. They should all be in the Etsy shop by the end of the day.

Happy Friday to all... for some reason I still like Friday evenings, even though I work on Saturday!

July Firing #2

We actually finished loading the kiln and I bricked up the door before it was dark last night! Jeff lit the first burner this morning at around 7:30, so we will be finished early today as well. This is firing #2 for July.  These two firings, along with the wood firing in June, means we will have a nice selection of pots for our anniversary celebration this coming weekend. Once again this will be a joint celebration with Eck McCanless Pottery. Eck is celebrating the second anniversary of his shop in Seagrove. Our shops are less than a mile from each other. Visitors at each shop will be able to see demonstrations, purchase new pots, and enjoy some tasty summertime foods. Eck is planning to get out his guitar and play some tunes in the late afternoon. The details about the weekend are on the right sidebar, here on the blog.
I can't believe that Jeff and I have been in Seagrove for three years already...time flies when you're having fun and working hard.

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!

Firing Solo!

The Treasures of the Earth Show in Shelby, NC ended yesterday and to make the best use of our time Jeff drove up there today to pack up our display while I stayed home and fired the kiln. You may remember that Jeff typically fires the gas kiln. I often make adjustments when he asks me too but basically, he is in charge. Since moving to Seagrove I haven't fired this little kiln from start to finish on my own. I swore I was going to learn this kiln and it is so easy to put off when there is someone else there to do.

Today I had to do it out of necessity!

I didn't have any trouble keeping the temperature rising to 200 degrees per hour, it seems like I struggled with that in my big kiln in NH. It either went too fast or too slow.

 View through the passive damper when I put her into reduction

View through the damper

My test mugs are in this kiln as well one of Jeff's vessels sinks, glazed in shino. It's an order... I guess he trusts me with the firing! We will probably be done about 10:30 tonight, unload late Sunday or Monday morning.

Keep your fingers and toes crossed for me!!!!

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!

Getting back to work... but I have the best job in the world!

I often find it hard to get back to work after taking a few days off. In between loading the kiln this week I HAD to touch wet clay... it seemed like weeks since I sat at my wheel (yes I am still sitting). The first day I threw the bodies of oval baking dishes and the next day I rolled out the slabs and assembled them. This time I made some large ones, most of them 12" plus in length. 

I am also working on some more wall pockets. This was a form I played with awhile back and they have sold really well. There are only two left in the gallery and since they are simple forms to make I figured why not do some more? 

In the past I have either glazed these in shino, dusted with wood ash or wood fired/salt glazed. I may experiment with some other glazes this time.

The kiln is at 337 degrees and I am anxious to unload. There are some piggy bank orders in there that I am nervous about. I really don't like to do special orders for that reason! I will get some photos up here on the blog as soon as I can.
Happy Saturday and don't forget to put a bird on it!

it was a good firing!

oval bakers and covered oval boxes with carved designs

the wedding cake box... looks better in person. I'll take a better photo soon

porcelain cupcake stand

Jeff's tea bowls were awesome!

and of course there is a new litter of pigs... we had some fun with glaze combos this time!

a day of surprises...

Yesterday was a fun day and full of surprises. First thing in the morning I packed an Etsy order and placed it in the big mailbox for pick up. Later when I went out to be sure it was gone, I opened the box and it was FULL of mail... and it wasn't just bills! There were three packages inside.
One was a new type of mask that a company wants me to try out and write a review (more on that later), the other was a laundry line cup that I ordered from Ron Philbeck... it's as sweet as can be and it's in good company with my dinner plate and small bowl. The THIRD package was from Gary Rith! I helped him out with a real estate question awhile back and he sent me one of his dogs chasing cats (or is it cats chasing dogs?) mugs as a thank you. He really didn't need to do that, but I am real happy that he did. Gary and I have soooo many connections in NH but we have never met. He met John through the League of NH Craftsmen (LNHC), Jeff was one of the jurors when Gary applied and was accepted into LNHC. From these connections we have a whole bunch of mutual friends and acquaintances. One day Jeff and I will have to take a road trip so that I can meet Gary, Maude, and there menagerie of pets for real.
Now that the weather is great we moved the glaze operation outside to give us a little more elbow room. I brewed a pot of coffee and enjoyed it in my new mug while glazing in the afternoon sunshine...

Thank you Gary!

Today is a finish glazing and load the kiln day. Jeff is going to fire tomorrow while I am working at the co-op. Have a great day everyone.

5th firing 2012

We spent the day organizing and packing for our trip north. We also unloaded the kiln... I think this is firing #5 for 2012. Our photo taking set up on the dining room table was dismantled so I just snapped a few quick pictures of some of my pots.

I am really happy with these shino glazed mugs... the one in the front I am going to keep for a bit and another I wrapped up and added it to Danielle's birthday package.

Remember those itty bitty pigs?

I glazed them in shino, splashed them with tenmoku, and dusted their little hides with ash. They are as cute as can be. I photographed them on my laptop, so that gives you an idea as to their itty bitty size. Jeff says they should have been salt and pepper shakers. Next time perhaps.

There were other nice pots but they got wrapped and boxed upon unloading. Many are heading to League of NH Craftsmen galleries in NH.
My next post will most likely be from the road. Catch up with y'all later!

blogger frustration

This blog has been around since 2007, and I knew this would happen eventually...

I reached my photo storage limit in blogger :-(

I can only add new photos that are small unless I pay for extra storage on picasa. I made this discovery when I changed my header (see puny picture above). Now I can't get my old winter scene header back.
There must be a way I can find the other photo in picasa and put it back but in the layout editing. Blogger wants me to put in a web address for the photo but I can't locate it in picasa... at least not yet.

Evidently I can host my photos on Jeff's website OR resize everything before uploading,  but that means another step in the process. I prefer to keep it simple because I do need to get other stuff done throughout the day!
I knew there was a storage limit and stupidly thought I would be prepared with the gypsy potters blogspot BUT, I did a DUMB thing. I didn't open a totally new account associated with a new e-mail address and picasa account.

My other thought was that this might be a good time to switch to a new format and ditch blogger all together. I am just not sure I have time for that right now.
If anyone has any insight or suggestions, I would appreciate hearing from you.

On the bright side... the firing was done by 10:00 pm last night. Here is a pic (a resized version of course) of the door with flames licking out of it...

at this point it's always a good idea to push the door back in... but it's fun to see that fire!!!

behind the scenes...

Throwing pots is so enjoyable and fun, and yes, it is like Christmas morning every time a kiln is unloaded... but there is so much more work that needs to get done in order to have those fun times.

Like grinding and washing kiln shelves.

We have been lazy about that since moving to Seagrove. My NH kiln was much larger than our new one so I had lots of extra shelves... then add Jeff's kiln furniture to the mix and I think you get my point. Unload the kiln... oops a stuck pot, set the shelf aside. No need to grind and clean right away, we have LOTS of shelves!

**warning - if you have been firing kilns for years, you may find this post boring - newbies might learn something**

Eventually the time comes when the job HAS to get done. We need to fire the kiln and we're going to be short on shelves. We are having great weather so we set up our work outside. Jeff did all the grinding (electric side grinder) while I mixed up the kiln wash. We use equal parts silica and kaolin, mix well and add enough water so it is thick like brush-able slip.

Some of our shelves were left with craters after grinding

I went over all the scarred areas and applied kiln wash with a brush, trying to fill in the craters.

Since we had so many shelves to do, we decided to apply the kiln wash with a roller. It was fast and we are hoping there will be less flaking after firing.

Look at how pretty they look now!

We let them dry overnight and today we will wipe the edges with a sponge so that we don't get any stray wash falling into the pots as we fire.

Today is loading day, we have lots of pots glazed and ready to go... back to the FUN stuff!

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.

flames & firing

flame out the top peep towards the end of the firing

Peter asked some questions yesterday about burner failure systems...

Not a great picture in the dark but you can see how the wire connects from the baso safety valve to the thermocouple inserted into the burner. John and I had taken the burners to a welder and to retrofit our existing burners to the new safety system. Thermocouples are relatively inexpensive and we keep extras on hand. Safety is important, gas can be a very scary thing!

A quick peek in the kiln this morning and the shino is looking good, can't wait to unload in the morning.

the last firing of 2011

Last night Jeff and I bricked up the door of the baby gas kiln so that we would be ready to go this morning. I woke up at 6:00 am without even having to set the alarm! I crept down the spiral staircase in the dark and slipped out the back door in my jammies to light the burners. I fed Sophie then crawled back into bed and dozed for a short time. At 8:00 I nudged the burners a bit. All the while, Jeff is snuggled in bed, fast asleep. This routine is so much easier than when I was in NH and I would have to get in the car and drive 4 miles (in my jammies) to light the burners... never mind the fact that this time of year it was really, really cold out! The positive side of that situation was that after the second set of burners were lit on the big NH kiln (4 burners) I had to stay the day to tend to it. That meant there were no distractions (like laundry) and I could make more pots or do some cleaning up. I had no choice but be more active in firing the kiln. Jeff would check on me and give advice. He was usually there when the kiln went into reduction. Jeff was teaching at NHIA back then so I always wanted to be done before he was off to teach. I have been a slacker with this kiln, letting Jeff handle the work of firing. I do most of the loading, which for some reason I really enjoy. My New Year's resolution will be to master firing this little kiln!

I wasn't sure if I had ever shared a picture of our very high tech door bracing system... towards the end of the firing it it hard to keep this door tight, so Jeff came up with this solution. Sort of reminds me of my brother's erector set when we were growing up!

and now for a little advertising...

We are having a very laid back Holiday Opening on Saturday & Sunday. The kiln will be unloaded in the morning and there will be hot coffee in the gallery for morning customers. On Saturday, 3 -6 pm we will be serving wine and cheese. If we are feeling ambitious we may do a raku firing on Friday and that means some new tiles and pendants for the weekend. There are lots of other kiln openings in Seagrove and it will be a perfect way to finish your holiday shopping without the stress of the malls.
Here is a list of potteries that I know are having openings (and there may be more!):

Dean and Martin
Bulldog Pottery
Ben Owen III
Donna Craven
David Stuempfle
Johnston & Gentithes
Chris Luther
Seagrove Stoneware

the results are in...

overall we had a good firing with nice reduction... most of this kiln was Jeff's pots to take the League fair in NH next week, but i did get a few pots in there...

i am very happy with the slip trailed pots. my daughter's friends had a new baby last week so the plate on the left and mug are gifts for them. i had a few extra plates and decided to finish one for my great niece Arianna as well.
i had an order for a spoon jar to finish... as soon as you say the work "order" glazes start to act up! i fired three spoon jars in the red and shino combo and only one of them was acceptable...

pin holing... ICK! the jars are also not as red as i like them to be, but the buyer thought she wouldn't mind if they were light.

the successful one!