The Week In Review

What a week it has been! We unloaded the gas kiln, had a snow day, and I worked through a few more letters in my modern calligraphy course.

We had a really good firing. The copper reds looked great. I have a few ginkgo bowls that I am pleased with but I haven't gotten photos yet. I had two piggy banks in this firing that weren't orders. I posted them to my Etsy shop and they both sold within a few hours. I can't seem to get ahead of the banks. I like to have a few in the shop that are ready to ship. I shouldn't complain... I guess it's a good thing.
We actually had a couple inches of snow this week. It's mostly melted now, except for in a few shady areas. I will admit, it did make for a pretty day. I am just happy that here in North Carolina we can enjoy the pretty and then it's gone. In New Hampshire we had winters where we didn't see the bare ground for months. A few days after fresh snow, we had to live with brown, dirty snow banks all along the roads.

I am now at the half-way point of the minuscules portion of my calligraphy course. Today was the letter m. I now know enough letters to be able to write my name.

I feel like a proud 4 year old.

I have been itching to do some letters in color. I ordered a set of large brush pens. There is definitely a learning curve with these. The tips are very long and flexible. I need to go back to the beginning with these pens and practice the basis strokes.  I guess I can compare it to learning to throw pots with stoneware and then throwing porcelain for the first time. As with any new skill, practice, practice, practice.

Tombow does make some small harder tip colored pens. I may have to breakdown and buy a set of those too.

This could become an obsession.

Fire Away...

Jeff worked into the evening, loading the kiln and bricking the door, while I cooked dinner in the warm kitchen. Hmmm... I wonder who got the better end of that deal?! He lit one burner and "candled" the kiln for a couple of hours, turning the gas off just before we went to bed. Early this morning he turned one burner back on. We always fire slowly, and this time probably a little more slowly. Jeff has a vessel sink in there that is being re-fired, hence the extra caution. I am sure the firing will go late into the night.

New Technology

Jeff has a new toy, I mean tool! During the first glaze firing of the new gas kiln, one of the burners shut off during reduction. We have baso valves on the burners, so when the flame cut out, the gas shut off. Jeff wasn't sure how long it was out before he found it, but it couldn't have been too long because we didn't lose too much temperature. The next day he was searching online for a webcam. He thought it was a good idea to have one, since our kiln isn't quite as close to the house as the last one. Now no matter where we are - in the studio, house, or yard, we can monitor the kiln via our laptops or smartphones. Wouldn't you know, we had a burner go out on firing #2 as well. Thanks to Jeff's webcam, he caught it right away. Now we are researching what's going on with this burner. I hope we get it solved by firing #3.

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.

Firing Frenzy

We glazed and loaded the kiln on Thursday and started firing early Friday morning. While that was happening, Jeff loaded the bisque kiln and fired that overnight.

We had work for the League of NH Craftsmen's Fair, which starts next Saturday (EEK!) and a few vessel sink orders that need to be completed before we head north.

While the gas kiln cooled, we glazed the pots from the bisque kiln. Last night we reloaded the kiln while it was still quite hot. A fan helped to take the edge off of the heat.

In between the hard work, we have taken some time to enjoy the multitude of butterflies that enjoy the apples that have started to drop from the trees.

This little butterfly, with a half eaten wing, stayed attached to the apple when Liz picked it up. I guess it is fearless and perhaps that is why half of it's wing is missing!

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.

A Little Excitement to Kick off 2015

 Did you ever wonder what would happen when the propane company tops your tank off to nearly 100%?

 There's a darn good reason they are only supposed to fill it to 80%

Jeff and I were discussing something in the house when all of a sudden we both said, "I smell gas!". It was going to reach 55 degrees today in Seagrove, NC, so we let the wood stove burn down and turned on the Rinnai gas heater instead. We quickly went out to see if the vent was clogged. It wasn't, so we hurried out the back door to the kiln shed to find our 500 gal. tank, in the backyard, spewing propane from it's overflow valve. My first thought was call 911, because I was scare sh#$2tless that it would blow... Jeff (being more reasonable) called the propane company. We had propane delivered on the 31st and they thought it was over-filled. They said don't call 911 and they would send someone out to blow it off.

 It took about an hour for the service guys to arrive. The valve started to freeze from the gas releasing, which eventually slowed the spew. I liken this valve to the pressure release valve on my pressure cooker. I imagine it's basically the same thing... on a much bigger scale.

It took what seemed like forever to bring the level down to the normal fill of 80%. The gas smell was horrendous. They aren't sure exactly how many gallons they had to blow off, but they will credit our account for 50 gallons, which translates to about $79 at $1.59 gallon. The comical thing about this event (and you always have to find something funny in a scary situation) is that the service guy said, "Why don't you turn on the kiln and fire some pots with this fuel we have to get rid of?"

If he only knew.

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.

Labor Day Weekend

We don't have a grocery store in Seagrove. They are building one, but it's been in process for four years now. I might be retired or dead by the time it opens. In the meantime it's about a fifteen minute drive to buy food. This summer there has been a guy in truck parked on the Pottery Highway, about 1/4 mile from us, selling fruits and vegetables. It's been very convenient to buy fresh tomatoes every few days. His prices are reasonable too. We didn't grow tomatoes this year, only basil and greens. Jeff and I both love tomatoes and can go through quite a few in no time at all. 

 A few weeks ago I tried my hand at making tomato pie. It's a little time consuming to put together, but it's worth the effort. I have been using either a frozen or refrigerated  pie crust, to cut down on some of the work. It's a recipe from the infamous Paula Deen so of course you know it's very rich. I cut the mayonnaise in half. I can't imagine it with more than that. I have also added a few strips of bacon, cooked and chopped. The key to a less sloppy pie is to drain your tomatoes longer than the recipe says. I even layer a couple of paper towels between them to squeeze out some more liquid. The recipe says to peel and slice the tomatoes. The easiest way to peel them is to blanch them. Ms. Deen even shows you how to do that in the video.
You can find the recipe here. If you love tomatoes, I think you will love this pie.

Aside from eating, we have been making pots and finishing pots. Right now, Jeff is fast asleep, after firing the kiln overnight. I think I heard him creep into bed at 7:15 am. We have a deadline to meet and orders to fill.

These little pigs were made on August 27th, put outside to dry on the 28th, bisque fired the 29th, glazed and loaded in the gas kiln on the 30th. Lots of other pots were pushed through as well. We keep the bisque under 200 degrees for a few hours. Once there is no steam coming out of the kiln we fire as usual. A blow up is a rare event in the bisque firing and we usually have a few wet or damp pots in every kiln load.

My plan for the day is to finish unpacking from the Lazy Days show. Right now it looks like our trailer threw up it's contents onto the porch. I can't look at the mess for another day. Jeff (when he wakes up) is heading down the road to help Fred Johnston cut wood and get ready for a wood firing this week.
It's definitely Labor Day weekend here at the pottery... we are laboring away as usual.

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!

Shino & Tea Bowls Workshop

Jeff taught a personalized workshop here at the studio this weekend. Two potters, Ray and Randy from Maryland, came for the weekend to explore firing shino glazes in the gas kiln and the making of tea bowls. Friday was spent glazing pots and experimenting with two shino glazes, layering the glazes, and working with wax resist. The kiln was loaded and door bricked by noon. While the kiln fired there was tea bowl demonstrations and hands on making. The kiln reached cone 10 by around midnight. In between the work we enjoyed good food, tea, sake, and wine!

Ray and Randy toured Seagrove on Saturday and then returned to our studio for an afternoon of trimming tea bowls. This morning we unloaded kiln and were very happy with the results...

Lots of juicy carbon trapping! Randy had some great looking mugs. I can see a face in this one, actually there were multiple faces...

This tea bowl of Ray's got lots of good carbon trap...

Jeff glazed this bowl that Robert Young made while he was working here this summer. I think it's awesome and we are going to ship it to him to enjoy...

The cool thing about giving workshops is that it expands your horizons as well as the participants. After seeing the results, I am excited to give some of these other shino techniques a try.

This post is part of Sunday Ceramics. Be sure to check it out and see what else is happening in the ceramics world.

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!

fresh from the kiln

These are a few highlights from this week's firing of the gas kiln...

Jeff made these brandy snifters for a customer. He had never made this shape before and I think he nailed it! I don't think there is a form that Jeff can't throw.

and no firing is complete without some pigs...

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.

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!!!!

let's do the math

Mr. Young commented on my last post, asking how many pots fit into our little gas kiln. It just so happens that we do, on occasion count the pots. So I actually have an answer for him today.

The total number of pots in this firing was 74. The retail value of this kiln load is approximately $2000+/-. 

The goal we set for the LNHC show at Mt. Sunapee in NH is $10,000. Simple math says we need a minimum of five firings for show inventory. We have done three in the last two weeks and we will fire once more, although we are not sure it will be cool enough to pack up for Wednesday! Aside from these three firings, we have inventory fired over the last couple of months to bring with us as well. If there is anything left after the nine days on the mountain, it will go to galleries in NH... we are planning to come home with an empty trailer!

These are a couple of Jeff's that were my favorites from this kiln....

 Textured bowl with nuka and gloss green

Platter with ash glaze, there were two of these and they both are beauties.

Time to get to work. This kiln load needs to be sanded, priced, and boxed. 4 days till departure.

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.