Leaving the wheel alone

It's been a weird week for me. I haven't been feeling the groove with wheel work so I decided to get out my hump molds and do some hand building. 

The square bowl has little feet to lift it up

Today I will add little feet to the bottom of this hexagonal plate. Yesterday it was too soft to support the feet. You may remember that I have had trouble in the past with this mold and a larger one. I have either had cracks, or they fired too flat and humped up in the middle. I wish that the mold was a little deeper. I think that would help eliminate the slumping.

Hand building is slow, maybe more so for me than others. If I had a slab roller it would speed up the process. I have to make slabs with a combination of throwing on the table and the old fashioned rolling pin. When I think of the time I put into just these two pieces, they should be priced at $100! I know I won't get that much for them, but I will be back at it today, knocking out a couple more of the square bowls.

Wood Fire Love

 A couple more pots from the wood firing.  Most of the the square dishes (I think there were five) came out quite nice. A couple of the handles were buried in ash, losing their texture. I may try re-firing one of them in the gas kiln to see what happens.

I LOVE the Albany slip on the interior! 

Glazing for a Wood Firing

Jeff and I have the opportunity to put pots in David Stuempfle's wood kiln, and help with with the firing.  At the last minute Jeff suggested I make a few square bowls using STARwork's Seagrove Clay. I kept the decoration simple. Stamps but no underglaze or slip. I hadn't used the fish stamp in a long time. Maybe it's time for it to go back into the rotation.

Since there won't be time to bisque fire, these will go into the kiln raw. Liquid wax was applied to the rims and handles and then the interiors coated with Albany slip.

 A few weeks ago I had thrown some vases and pitchers with the Seagrove clay. I had time to slip, dot, and bisque fire those pieces.

It's hard to believe that the pots above will come out of the kiln looking (hopefully) like the mugs below!

The magic of the kiln.

The Year of the Goat

 Happy New Year... a day late! Yesterday was Korean and also Chinese New Year. Jeff made traditional Korean Tteokguk soup, typically served on New Years day. It's a simple but spicy beef soup with rice cake.

While the broth simmers, the sliced rice cakes are soaked in cold water. The rice cakes are so yummy. They are like a very dense noodle. They do contain wheat flour, so they aren't gluten free. When the soup is finished, the rice cakes are simmered for a few minutes in the broth.

We always have sliced cabbage kimchi on the side. I like to put mine right into the soup.

Perfectly yummy on a cold February night!

 Later in the day today, the studio finally warmed up enough to work in. I finished putting handles on small squared off bowls and gave each a few flower stamps. These were also made by altering with a board, which means there are no seams to crack. They are smaller bowls, a good size for salsa, dip, soup, or cereal. I had fun making them and  I am happy with the way they came out. I think tomorrow I will make a few more. 

Have a great night and stay warm!