October 3 - Thursday - Kiln opening and raku firing

Thursday night Kim, Becky, and I did a raku firing and I collected pots that came out of the gas kiln earlier that day.  While all that was going on, Rob was doing a barrel firing.  Busy night.

I was very pleased with my pots from both firings.  You can see more of them here.

Cone 10 gas kiln pots.

Closeup of face pot.

Raku and barrel firings.

Raku pots.

Kim, Becky, and Rob labeling postcards for the upcoming
Clayworks fundraiser,
An Evening of Earth & Fire

.

November 11 - Barrel Firing on 11-11-11

Friday we held the first barrel firing in the new building.  It was quite an affair and very well attended.  As usual, we had a lot of fun chatting, snacking, and laughing and --oh yeah, we fired some pieces too.  It was a glorious evening with a full moon overseeing the whole affair.

Filling the barrel.
Photo by Kim Marcadis.

Elaine and Becky lighting the barrel, re-enacting the first barrel firing.
Photo by Kim Marcadis.

Photo by Kim Marcadis.

Photo by Kim Marcadis.

Photo by Kim Marcadis.

It's lit.

Kim and Rich trying to get that perfect shot
while Elaine and Ansley look on.

Fred, Becky, Cyn, Jaime, Greg, Elaine, Chuck, and Carolyn.

The fire rages on.

Lots of wood.

After it's covered, lots of copper (green) and cobalt (blue) flames.

Minke's "diving lady" sculpture in the flames.

After the barrel burned down and people started drifting away, I added some handles to my crackle pots.  I have some plans to enhance these handles when I glaze them.  Stay tuned.

The other night Chuck mentioned that my bag of little loafers clay (next to the head) looked like the Necronomicon (book of the dead) from the Evil Dead movies.  (My favorite is Army of Darkness.)

The bag that looks like the book on the left.

One of the porcelain eyes fell out of my head.
Now it looks even creepier...

.

2010-09-05 Sunday - Barrel Firing

Sunday was a barrel and raku firing with Becky and Kim.  The firing had the usual mixed results.  After we got the barrel going I got a lot of glazing done.

The barrel starts burning.

Becky breaking up cow pies for the fire.

Pretty tough cow pies.

Ta-Da!

Our clay came in for the next session.

(We use a lot of clay.)

My glazing.

My palate, a dollar store plate.

(Apparently I was thinkin' Arby's.)

More glaze work.

I put more wire on my sutured pot.

A short video of the barrel.

.

2010-08-21 Saturday - Barrel Firing

Saturday saw another barrel firing and the maiden voyage of the new barrel.  Becky and Kim used several different things to add color to their pieces and carefully built the layers in the barrel.  One of the things added to the mix was kindling from the "lightning tree".  Becky had wood from a tree that was splintered by a lightning hit and it really was fragments. 

It was an "OK" firing as some things came out well, but others didn't.  You never know exactly what's going to happen in the barrel.  Once the barrel was started and the raku kiln was firing merrily I went into the studio and started making some pots.

Becky and Kim loading the materials.

Part of the lightning tree and some other kindling.

White bag: dried cow pies, black bag: wood shavings.

(Yes, I said "dried cow pies".)

Seaweed I dragged back from the shore.

She's loaded and ready to light...

... and there she goes.

A leaf pot (thanks, Ju-Ian!).

A frog pot (ditto).

.