2017-02-27 - Monday - Glazing

Monday I glazed the rest of the Empty Bowls. I did a lot of different processes on them and ended up the decoration with some fun doodles.

Sanded.

Waxed.

First dips.

Second dips, waxed, sprayed, painted, doodled.

In the kiln.

Overflow.

A while back I posted a photo of my sad little rosemary plant. It's still in water and it's blooming again. I really need to plant it in the ground somewhere.

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2017-01-16 - Monday - Waxing

Monday I waxed some face pots in preparation for glazing them, but I decided to wait for the glazing until I have more pots. Glazing takes a lot of effort and I'd rather do a bunch of pots at once instead of cleaning up twice. So they're only waxed for now.

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2016-02-06 - Saturday - Glazing like a crazy man

Saturday was a marathon.

I started out with one of my new favorite breakfasts.

Took some photos of the flowers blooming in the front yard.

Went to the farmers market with Karen and Stephanie.

Went to Clayworks and helped Kimberly remove some stuck fuses from a misfiring kiln. Re-slaked some of my clay. Did a little housekeeping on my shelves. Talked to a few people for a while...

...and THEN the real day started.

Eggs and oatmeal and sriracha.

Daffodils.

Vinca Minor.

Remember all of those Empty Bowls I've been making? This year I decided to glaze them all at once instead of doing them in small batches.

It seemed like a good idea at the time.

I had to wax all the bottoms and after that I started experimenting with painting underglaze as a wash and using my squeeze bottle as a pen to fill in details. Suddenly I realized it was 7:00 pm. I dropped everything and ran to the grocery store. I bought some food for supper, went home and fed us, and then back to Clayworks to finish the glazing. I left Stephanie making a batch of fudge while her boyfriend, Brett was on Skype with her. Crazy kids.

Everything was where I left it (I left a note saying I'd be back after supper) and I was alone. I turned the music up and got back to it.

While I was having a lot of fun trying new things, I had to keep a pretty good amount of pressure on the squeeze bottle to keep the flow going and after a couple of hours of it I realized I was hunched over and my mid-back was killing me. I stretched my back out on one of the tables for a few minutes before continuing the process.

I finally got finished with the underglaze at about 11:00 pm. Next I had to paint clear over all the paintings. After that I painted wax resist over the clear. I dipped the bowls in the main color glaze for the non-painted areas. Finally, I wiped all the excess glaze off the feet of the bowls and took them to the kiln room.

By the time I finished cleaning up my mess it was almost 2:00 am and every joint hurt from standing on the concrete floors for so long. I'm almost 58 now, and these marathons are not getting easier.

Next year I'm going back to glazing small batches.

Stack 'o bowls.

Waxing the bottoms.

Having fun with underglazes. These are just some of them.

Stephanie making fudge with Brett's support.

Finished the underglaze.

Almost finished the glazing.
I still have to finish the six in the foreground.

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2015-09-19 - Saturday - Full day

Saturday was a big day at Clayworks. We had the Arts & Science Council's Connect with Culture program. Events were happening all over town and for us it meant three Muddy Fun style classes from 9 to 3 and four children's classes from 1:30 to 5.

To say things were hopping at the studio would be an understatement. The classes were great fun and the students were naturals at the wheel.

In between classes I unloaded the bisque kiln and after the last class I started waxing and getting a first coat of glaze on a lot of the pots.

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2014-01-23 - Thursday - Glazing bowls

I glazed the second batch of Empty Bowls and tried some new things as usual.  Fun stuff.

New underglaze designs.

The same bowls with clear (white) and amber (black).

The gang.

Waxing.

Waning.

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