New Clay

We recently bought some of STARworks Ceramics new Eastfork clay. Last fall we had a sample that we tested and really liked how it looked with Jeff's ash glaze. Jeff threw a couple of platters last week and brushed them with white slip. I spent this afternoon carving ginkgo leaves into them. It has a smooth consistency that makes it easy to carve, and I love the color even before firing. I haven't given the clay a try on the wheel yet, fingers crossed that I will like the way it throws.

evolving

 This week I took my carved bowls in a new direction. I threw a whole mess of bowls and couple of platters, with wide, thick rims, and then slipped and carved them.

As I worked on these today, I was thinking about glazing. My first thought was shino interior with gloss green rim and exterior... which means a lot of careful waxing and perhaps stressful glazing maneuvers. After contemplating that a bit, I have considered glazing them completely with the gloss green.

Would that make them boring?
Opinions encouraged and welcomed.

new pots and new pigs

A pig in sheep's clothing...

I am assembling piggy banks this week and trying to keep it interesting!

Here are a few photos from the firing.

This platter was my favorite. I made it months ago and finally got around to glazing it.

The pink on these pigs was the result of gloss green over Temple white. I never expected it to turn pink, I thought it might be a light green. The cross over on the mug below is the same combination. The one thing I learned from this is that I can now create pink pigs for those that have been asking!

A firing means new pots in the Etsy shop, be sure to check it out over the next few days.

Shifting into high gear

This has been the week of the platter. Both of us have spent the last few days throwing them. Unfortunately I lost two of mine to over zealous trimming. Yesterday it looked like we were growing platters in the yard. They were scattered all about so that they would be dry enough to bisque fire today.

Jeff gave me a couple of his to carve. There was a planned power outage yesterday morning, so I worked on the porch so that I could see what I was doing.

The first one has a cool textured rim. It's made with STARwork's new Seagrove clay. It definitely has a different feel for carving. We will save this one for a wood/salt firing.

This one is Highwater Aurora, which is like carving through cream cheese.

Yesterday Jeff organized the calendar with what needs to be thrown next, and created a firing schedule. We need to stay on track in order to be ready for the Craftsmen's Fair in August. I was looking at the calendar this morning and realized that we will be gone for nearly 3 weeks!  I am looking forward to seeing friends and family while we are in NH, but 3 weeks is a long time to be away from Sophie, and I know she will miss us too.

Thankfully we have a great kitty and gallery sitter.

work in progress...

in between talking with credit card processing reps and reading fine print, we managed to get some work done in the studio...

jeff has been working on large pots. he is making these to fit in our gas kiln.

i have been working on platters. half will be the japanese maple leaf design the other have will be slip trailed. we have reserved the ground hog kiln at the pottery center next month, so these will probably be fired then. all of our efforts right now are focused on having great new pots for the Celebration in November.
tonight we are off to the Zoo-to-Do, an annual fundraising event for the NC zoo. it's held outside, in the zoo and it should be a pleasant evening for it... no rain in the forecast! last year we go rained on during dinner, but we still had a great time.