Glazing Ginkgo Leaf Pots

When I am glazing pots with the ginkgo leaf design, I often wonder why someone who doesn't really care for glazing, chooses a time consuming method of applying it?

As anyone who works with shino glazes knows, shino is applied first. It typically doesn't like to be on top of another glaze. If it is, cruddy things usually occur. After the pots get a dip or a roll in the shino, I wipe it back, or away, from areas that I don't want it to be. Once the glaze dries, I cold wax rims or handles, that I either want to keep shino, or avoid drips when pouring in the gloss green glaze. Can you tell I am confident that firing #3 will be reduced beautifully? Why else would I commit to so many shino pots?!

Speaking of ginkgo leaves, last week a potter in town, gifted me something very special...

My very own baby ginkgo tree! As soon as it has grown a little more, Jeff and I will find the perfect place for it our yard.

Drippy Glazes

One of the great things about moving is that you have to pack and unpack stuff that has been ignored for some time. We tossed a lot of seconds during the move but also packed a box and labeled it "needs grinding". These drippy ash glaze mugs fell into that category. They only needed a little bit of grinding but it just never happened. Until yesterday, that is. 

I still love this glaze combination of shino and ash. I think I am going to explore it some more in 2016. The down side of it is... grinding bottoms and grinding shelves. 

My NH potter friend, Paul Haigh, shared this joke on facebook this week. I thought some readers might appreciate it:

What's the difference between a potter and a large pizza?

A large pizza can feed a family of four.

Have a great day, and an awesome weekend.

Luminaries

I have been thinking about making luminaries for quite some time. About two years ago I made a small one, but didn't do a good job sanding the edges of the cut outs. They were much to sharp so it got the hammer. How about that crawly shino on the left? Rather scary! We aren't sure why, but we had a few pots in this firing with the creepy crawly shino.

 The luminaries are about 6" tall. 

There is a little cutout in the back of the jug to insert the tea light.

Dad update: He is still in the hospital. They aren't sure when they will move him to the rehab center. The day before yesterday he began hallucinating and has been delirious ever since. The vascular doctor ordered an ultrasound to see if his carotid artery was blocked. All they could see was a little calcium, which he doesn't think would cause this. So we are all still waiting. 

The Old and The New

I seem to always be on a quest to come up with new ideas for piggy banks. I decided to glaze a couple of them like my water color mugs. Not only am I looking for new colors that will appeal to buyers but also trying to keep myself from becoming bored with the little guys.

I like the new blue and white, but will always have a soft spot for plain old shino, dusted with wood ash.
I will be adding more "ready to ship" piggy banks to my Etsy shop, and there is still time for special orders for Christmas delivery.

My Girl

Thank you to everyone for your condolences and expressions of sympathy on yesterday's post. It always amazes me how supportive and encouraging the blogging community is. I truly appreciate you all.

Today I am super excited. Danielle is coming to North Carolina for four days! I will pick her up at the airport this afternoon. Originally our plan was to take a road trip and spend a couple of days in Savannah, GA. We were hesitant to make hotel reservations last month, when we realized my mother was failing. Last week we decided that since we probably couldn't stay where we had planned, and that I hadn't been home for two weeks, maybe we would take a day trip or two. We are planning to head out early on Monday and drive to Brookgreen Garden in S. Carolina with a stop at Myrtle Beach. It will be a lot of driving in one day and it will be an adventure. We don't have any set plans for the rest of her visit, but I do know we will sip martinis out on the porch.

Do you remember that I am a potter? It's been so long since I touched clay that I almost forgot! This shino piggy bank was from the last firing in April. The simple shino pigs are always my favorite. You can find this little guy in my Etsy shop.
Have a great weekend!

Glazing on a Sunday afternoon...

I was sort of lazy today. Slept in, then didn't get motivated to get into the studio until late in the day. I did finish all of my glazing (finally) and I should be happy with that accomplishment. 

 It seems like every year that goes by I make glazing a more complicated affair. The mugs above are carbon trap shino with wax resist designs. That process goes pretty quickly. Below are the platters for the cheese/dip/veggie/cracker platters and they involve a dip in shino, then washing off the interior. Next comes waxing the rim of the plate and glazing the center with gloss green. The bowls that go with the platters get the same process. Actually, all my ginkgo leaf design pieces get the same treatment.

The porcelain plates and platters have black velvet underglaze brushed into the stamps and then the excess wiped away with a sponge. That's the time consuming part. Thankfully they get dipped into a single glaze. I also had about 20 mugs that were stamped and glazed with this technique.

This post is included as a link on Sunday Ceramics, head on over there to read what else has been happening in the ceramics world this week!

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...

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.

Back by Popular Demand...

It looks like the swirly mugs are back in full swing this year. These were from two firings ago and I am just now getting around to photographing them and putting them in the Etsy shop. So much of our firings lately are pots that are already sold, mostly through Etsy. Sold is a good thing, but it also means that you don't get much time to spend with those pots and the others get ignored because you are too busy packing and shipping. Last night I decided these were needing some loving... and a new home.

There has been a lot of negative talk about Etsy and their new policy that will allow artists to use a manufacturer to produce their work. Many Etsy sellers feel the company is losing focus on their handmade mission. Sunday morning I sat down with a cup of coffee and a sketch book, and watched/listened to Etsy's town hall meeting that discussed the changes to Etsy and what it means to sellers moving forward. If you have a shop on Etsy I encourage you to take some time to watch it. Here is the link:

Etsy Town Hall Meeting

Etsy has been very good to Jeff and me this year. Can we stop doing shows or close our brick and mortar gallery? No, not yet, but our sales have continued to grow each year since we have been focusing on Etsy. There is nothing better than selling pots in your pajamas or while you are fast asleep in bed!

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.

first peek

Took down half the door tonight. The shino is looking good in the front.

My tests are sort of weird, but the bottom half of the mugs was the real test and it did what I was looking for. I can now glaze the rest of the porcelain dishes. As soon as I saw these I thought, "why didn't I glaze the top half of these mugs in tenmoku?". Live and learn. That's why they are called TESTS.

We will finish unloading tomorrow.

this and that...

 I have soft spot for little ceramic things...

I adore this small dish. I would use it for an Asian dipping sauce or a catch all on my dresser. I really like little unique pieces like this. I just wish there were more people in the world who felt the same way!  I may have to keep it for myself.

The weather was great today so I took a few photos outdoors. This is one of the soap dishes from the last firing. I can think of a few more uses besides a soap dish, but that was my intent when making it.

Jeff has been busy making vessel sinks...

 I love this one! It's like his bowls only BIG. Someday we will have one in our own bathroom. It's going to get the shino/turquoise glaze combo.

Jeff is working on a sink order right now. This one is a drop in sink with an overflow...

 I thought you may want to see how he creates that on the underside. This sink when finished will be similar to this one:

Jeff also makes disks to fire these sinks on...

So much behind the scenes work!
That's what's been happening around here this week. Tomorrow a friend from NH arrives for the NC Potters Conference. It's always fun to see our New England friends.

A few new pots and a pig

This is one of my favorites from this firing. The shino did everything that I like it to do.

Shino Always Comes First...

Anybody that has spent any time with Shino knows that she's the prima dona glaze, and always goes on first. If not she may get angry, blister, and it's not a pretty sight.

Because of her temperament, it means that I often have to do a lot waxing over shino and then applying a second glaze color. I dip these bowls, rim first into the shino, and when dry wax the rims and handles. I don't have to be too concerned with the overlap on the interior of these because the blue gloss glaze won't be affected much by the shino underneath.

The square plates were dipped entirely in shino, then I wipe the glaze out of the interior, leaving traces of the shino behind. I like to leave traces because the green gloss glaze will sometimes get a red blush over shino and I like that variation. I also have to wax the entire rim because it can create carbon trapping and I don't want any weird color variations on these rims. It also means that I won't have to think about which edge I will pour the interior glaze off. I have experimented with carbon trap designs using wax without much luck... but I am sure if I didn't want it to happen it would, so to play it safe... I wax the entire rim.

I am going to let the wax dry overnight. Tomorrow I will finish glazing the interiors and get the kiln loaded. We need to fire on Monday so that we will have some new work for the Treasures of the Earth exhibition in Shelby, NC.
While everyone else is watching the Super Bowl, we will be busy in the studio glazing some "Super Bowls". I hope everyone else is having as much fun as we are!

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.