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! 

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!

Batten Down The Hatches

We are expecting a weather event! It's been really cold here, 27 degrees at 2pm. Snow and freezing rain are in the forecast for late this afternoon and into tomorrow. We are prepared for the worse, hoping that it won't really happen. Last night I roasted a chicken, and today I am making chicken stock with the bones. If we lose power overnight, I can make a soup on the wood stove.

The studio is a little harder to heat than the house, so I have to admit that I have been a little slow with the clay work. I finished a litter of pigs and moved on to baking/serving dishes.

Along with ovals I created a few squared off dishes. Rather than make them in two sections I decided to try cutting a crescent out of the edge of two sides and squishing it together, a la the B Van Gilder technique. I am still concerned with cracking on the two seams so I also experimented with pushing the sides with a board to created the square. I did this right after throwing, and before cutting it off the bat.

The first two were a little wonky, but I think I finally got the hang of it. This method does leave a little ripple in the clay where it was pushed in, but I sort of like the effect... once I learned how to work with it. I am waiting for the squares to firm up enough to finish the undersides and then I will attach some handles and give them some flower stamps. I guess it's time to put on some layers, get out there, and go to work.
Stay warm!

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!