Throwing, Handling, Carving

Monday there were pots to ship and took up the entire day. I was really happy to be back to clay work on Tuesday. I had mugs to carve and I was getting worried that they may have gotten too dry. I don't like carving dry pots. It's hard on the fingers and not good for the respiratory system.

I had wrapped them well on Sunday and some were still a little too soft. Once unwrapped, the air conditioner took care of that situation quite quickly. This last batch of Highwater clay is soft like baby sh$t. A total pain to throw and even worse for pulling handles. That's why I prefer using our recycled clay. I can get it to the consistency that I like. 

 I had one mug that was very distorted after coming off the wheel. I decided to try creating a version of Jeff's squared mug. This is definitely not my forte but I had fun trying!

Easing back into reality.

I thought I should post a pottery photo as a reminder that I am a potter and I really have been getting a little work done. These are collaborative mugs that Jeff and I make. He throws the bodies, I carve the ginkgo leaves and put the handles on. We spent yesterday glazing and loading the kiln. Jeff got up early this morning, lit one burner, then went back to bed. I got up a little later and turned it up. We actually might be done firing by 9:00 pm!

Tuesday was Danielle's last full day here in Seagrove. On our way to the market in Asheboro, we took a short detour and visited Pisgah Covered Bridge.

After the market Danielle requested "Cook Out" for lunch. She had been intrigued by the "40 Shake Flavors" on their sign and said she couldn't go home without trying one.

The food really wasn't bad, but I can tell you we needed to go for a long walk after eating!

We fired a kiln...

imagine that! When we unloaded I had mixed emotions. The shino had a lot of carbon trapping, which I usually embrace. This time, it wasn't the carbon trapping that I love. Don't get me wrong, there were some nice effects. They just weren't on my pots. I also had some shino crawl on the inside of ginkgo leaf carved mugs. Why is it alway the labor intensive stuff that persnickety shino decides to misbehave on? I really only got a quick look at pots tonight, after a day of working at the Co-op. I may fall in love with others by the light of day. Here are a few down and dirty shots that I took tonight...

These are some slab plates that I made some time ago and never got around to firing. I am very happy with the ash glaze one above. I need to spend some time with the shino/tenmoku glaze ones, to form an opinion.

I am happy with the ginkgo leaf mugs that didn't have glaze crawl!

I would really like some opinions on the shino/tenmoku slab plates. Jeff really likes them and I made "a face" when they came out of the kiln... still not sure what I was expecting. After all, I do know what shino and tenmoku look like.