2017-07-14 - Friday - Wedding preparations

Friday we set up the Vintage Barn for Stephanie and Brett's wedding. It came together great with the leadership of Kimberly, the wedding planner. She really outdid herself.

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2017-05-25 - Thursday - New pots

Thursday I got some of my pots back from the kiln. Kimberly fires it beautifully with lots of reduction in our shino-centric firing schedule.

I'll get better photos taken soon. Until then, here are some snaps.

A cart full.

One side of the snorkel pot...

...and the other.

This guy.

Abstract.

Tea bowls.

Mugs.

Detail of the bottom of the snorkel pot.

Different detail of the snorkel pot.

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2017-03-10 - Friday - Empty Bowls and raku

Friday was a busy day for Clayworks.

South Charlotte Middle School was here for a raku firing class.

The mud daubers were making pots in the courtyard.

Adrienne, Kimberly, and I went to the Empty Bowls event at the convention center. It was larger than ever and I forgot to take photos inside the ballroom, but I got some of the line outside.

People picking out their bowls.

It was quite a long line.

Really long line.

I was demoing.

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2017-02-14 - Tuesday - Kiln firing

I helped Kimberly fire the gas kiln at Clayworks on Tuesday. It takes most of the day, and I arrived in the afternoon.

In the early evening we did the "final soak" where we push the damper in a bit and really reduce the oxygen in the kiln for about 20-30 minutes.

Firing the gas kiln in reduction is quite a balancing act: getting the temperature to rise while keeping the oxygen levels low. Kimberly is very good at it and I am trying to learn the process by shadowing her.

During the final soak the flames
come out of the flue trying to find oxygen.

Pulling the peep shows a lot of "back pressure".
Once again, the flame is escaping the kiln to find oxygen.
Vince looks on.

By the time I left, the temperature had fallen
from 2299 F to 1729 F with a long way to go.

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2017-02-13 - Monday - Load the kiln

Monday night we finished loading the kiln so Kimberly could fire it on Tuesday. I have several pieces in this kiln so I'll be looking forward to the unloading.

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2016-10-17 - Monday - Glazing and kiln

While I was busy this weekend, I left my latest face pot crash-drying on a chair in front of a fan on Friday evening. Saturday my friend Grace loaded it into a bisque kiln for me and Monday night I glazed it, put it in the gas kiln, and started the kiln candling so Kimberly could fire it on Tuesday.

Phew! Talk about last minute!

It's good to have friends.

Glazing is such a lonely business when
you're the only pot being decorated.

He's in the kiln.

It was already at 457 when I left.

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2016-03-10 - Thursday - Empty Bowls

Thursday was Second Harvest Food Bank of Metrolina's Empty Bowls. Adrienne, Kimberly, and I went to the convention center and demoed during the event. I threw on the wheel, Kimberly showed hand-building, and Adrienne talked to people about Clayworks and helped out with the volunteers.

After lunch the MC, Maureen O'Boyle interviewed Adrienne up on the stage.

Soon it was time to pack up and take everything back to Clayworks.

Now it's time to start on next year's contributions.

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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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2015-09-17 - Thursday - Bisque kiln

Thursday morning I went to Clayworks to load the big oval kiln with Kimberly. We filled it, set it to candle for eight hours (some of the pots were pretty damp), and I left to do my day job.

Thursday night I went back and made a face column and some bottles out of craggy crunch clay.

When I left, I checked the kiln and it was way past candling, into the firing schedule and up to 782 degrees. If those damp pots were going to explode they would have done it when the temperature got past 212. Cross your fingers...

Bottles and a face column.

Climbing kiln.

It's pretty large.

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2015-09-16 - Wednesday - Pots, bisque, and kilns

Wednesday I put some faces on some of the pencil holders and started loading a bisque kiln. Unfortunately I reserved a 7 cubic foot kiln and my pots wouldn't fit so I had to request a 10 cubic foot kiln. There were also some other pots that needed to be loaded so we ended up choosing the larger, oval kiln that would fit everything. I will be loading that with Kimberly, our studio manager in the morning.

I'm trying to get everything glazed so we can load the gas kiln on Sunday. If we start the bisque kiln on Thursday morning I should be able to unload it on Saturday afternoon.

Pencil holders.

Pots ready to bisque.

I tried laying these tall pots down in the bottom of the
7 cubic foot kiln, but I couldn't fit everything in it.

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