Making Sets

When we unloaded the kiln last week, Jeff commented that my order for dinnerware with flower stamps was a big one. In actuality, it was two orders not one big one. It was sheer coincidence that two people who have been collecting this pattern, ordered new pieces within days of each other. 

I wish orders like this happened more often. It is much easier to get in the groove of making one style of work for a day or two, never mind the fact that glazing goes really quickly.

I usually make extras whenever I do orders. No extras of bowls this time, but I did make an extra of the sugar and creamer set, as well as mugs. You can find those in my Etsy shop.

Today, I am back to making piggy banks.

The Lazy Potter

I will admit that deep down inside, I can be a lazy potter. Especially when it comes to glazing. It took me some time to realize that shortcuts usually don't work and in the end cause frustration and then extra work.

Now I tell myself, "Do it right the first time!".

I used to try and glaze everything in a five gallon bucket. The thought of pouring the glaze into another container, then pouring it back in, cleaning the container, made the lazy side of me say, "I think this plate will fit in the bucket". I can guarantee you that 9 times out of 10 it didn't! Either the glaze wasn't deep enough to cover the piece, or it scraped against the sides, creating a mess.

That's when the frustration kicked in.
Then the extra work of trying fix the glaze or washing it all off.

My other cop-out for large pieces was, "It's going to be shino". Why shino? Because we mix shino in a large trash can... you can glaze almost anything in there!
I have nothing against shino (I actually love it very much) but not every plate or large bowl I make is suited for it.

So I have learned to embrace the pouring out the glaze into a proper container, dipping pots without stress, and cleaning the container afterwards.

Over the years we have collected a variety of big bowls and tubs to pour glaze into, to accommodate different sizes and shapes of pots. My favorite for plates is the big plastic bowl in the top photo.  A great place to find big plastic containers is at an Asian market. The Korean's make kimchee in big quantities, therefore you will usually find a good assortment there.

Glazing day this week went quickly. Two colors, nuka and celadon. I fought my lazy side and there were no catastrophes.

This is what's happening outside. No matter how long I live in North Carolina, flowers in winter will never cease to amaze me!

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!

Done and Delivered

Jeff fired the rest of the dinnerware order while I was in New Hampshire. The new owner picked it up this week. There are a few extra pieces and I snagged a bowl and plate for our own cupboard. If you click on the photo it will take you to Etsy where you can order a set like this one.
Have a great weekend!

Yay for New Pots!

 Last night we un-bricked the door to the kiln and took out a few pots. We knew right away it was a good firing. ALL of our orders were PERFECT! This morning I was out there unloading the kiln in my jammies. I was anxious to see how my nuka mugs with underglaze came out. I was pretty happy with the results.

These mugs were underglaze applied to leather hard pots and bisqued (above and below)

Below is underglaze applied to bisque fired mugs. All are glazed with  nuka. 

I did some flowers in blue and green but they pretty much burned out or melted away into the nuka. I think if I want flowers to be blue or green I will have to apply it to greenware. 

 I played around with the new carbon trap shino that Jeff mixed for his workshop a few weeks ago. The stripes are where I applied liquid wax.

 and every firing has to have pigs...

Simply Elegant in White

 I am loving these pots of Jeff's glazed in only nuka. They remind me of snow in winter. The mug makes me want to fill it with hot chocolate. How about a table set for Christmas or Valentine's day with this dinnerware and red table linens? I am definitely keeping a mug for me!

Orphans

I am sure this has happened to many of you. The kiln is unloaded, pots are sanded, priced, and sent out into the world. Often there may be a few that are set aside... glaze too thin or bubbly, a crack, or just something about the piece that makes you say meh. The worst of them get the hammer, the others hang around.

It's those "meh" pieces that I call the kiln orphans. 

Jeff brought this porcelain cup into the house a couple of weeks ago and wanted to know why I had left it abandoned on the shelving near the kiln...

First... I am not crazy about the form, second... I can only handle this peach blossom glaze in small doses and this just seems like too much. After moving this cup around the kitchen counter for two weeks, I finally decided to give it a try. I poured in a little tequila, a squeeze of lime, ice, and cranberry juice. I was pleasantly surprised that cup felt good in my hand, particularly the silkiness of this glaze over porcelain. Maybe she wasn't such a bad little cup... or was it the tequila that influenced my thoughts?!

The other type of orphan is the project or idea you excitedly start and don't complete. Two years ago I made some raku fired lamp bodies. My favorite one cracked in the firing and I lost my excitement. The two other lamps just hung out on the shelves collecting dust. Jeff ordered new lamp parts a couple of weeks ago and he decided to wire one of my raku lamps...

I was totally shocked that I actually like it... and tequila had no influence on my decision! Now of course I want to get into the studio and start cranking out some more lamps to raku. I can only hope that it won't take me two years to finish them.

I was tempted to keep this lamp, but I really don't have a place for it... if you click on the photo it will take you to Etsy, because you or someone you know, just might need a lamp.

How about you? Do you have pots or projects, that hang around for months or (gasp) years? Feel free to comment.

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)

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.

My name is...

Nuka, I glaze on the second floor... I glaze upstairs from you...

okay, I'll stop now.

Yesterday I spent the entire, sweaty afternoon mixing three different glazes. One of which was nuka. All day the Suzanne Vega song was stuck in my head with Nuka substituted for Luka.

Jeff can take the blame for this silliness...

When he was working at the production pottery in NH, he and his fellow potters passed the time by singing popular songs and switching the words out with pottery terms.

Wild horses, couldn't drag me through clay... Rolling Stones "Wild Horses"
Creamers, Sugars and Creamers, well can you put your hands on your clay oh no... Supertramp's "Dreamers"

Squish the little babies and make them throw cups..... Ween "Push Th' Little Daisies" (google it if you aren't familiar with Ween)

I am sure there are more, as well as the "Movie" versions of the production pottery, but THAT could be a whole other post and I am not going there.


Back to glaze mixing (much more serious business!)... I used to use nuka all the time when I was making pots at NH Institute of Art. It was one of their more consistent glazes so I used a lot of that and spodumene. When something works when you have little or no control over the glaze or the firing, YOU STICK TO IT. I am looking forward to glazing pots with it again, and see what it will do in our own kiln of which we THINK we have control over. I also mixed a batch of glaze called peach blossom. It's one that JZ had tested during the last few months he worked in the studio. He had mixed a small batch and tested it on porcelain...

Looks like the test got a little beat up during the move, but we didn't manage to lose it, or the recipe!

I couldn't find his tests on stoneware, but I am sure it will look great. I think it will be a good color for some piggy banks. The kiln is firing as I type and there are tests of the nuka  and peach blossom in there.

My name is Nuka...