Pictures of Latest Pots from Wood Kiln

Much of the ash on the bowls and pitchers was sprayed on before firing. The bowls and pitchers were fired in the back of the kiln this firing.

Two-piece vase with tree stamps,
natural ash glaze

Two-piece vase with lugs,
natural ash glaze

Large coil-built pot with sgraffito
design through flashing slip

Shino-glazed bowls (lower right bowl glazed with
alberta slip glaze)

Shino-glazed pitchers

Flashing from ember bed caused by
stoking through passive damper

More ember flashing

Big Pot Crack

Clouds moved in and gusts of wind picked
up as we finished firing the kiln Friday
at around 5 p.m., a 17-hour firing.

We took the kiln up slowly this firing. Levi started with gas around 10 p.m. Thursday, and stayed with the kiln until 5 a.m. when Mary took over. I took over about 8 a.m. Levi and I began to stoke a bit more heavily after lunch.

And then we noticed one of his big pots had a big crack right in the middle. Hopefully, it won't fall over and mess up other pots around it. I won't make any guesses as to the cause of the crack until we unload.

I stoked a lot of small sticks into the outside two bottom passives for a few hours at the end of the firing. We reached cone 10 at the back and stoked heavily and sealed it up slowly.

Setting in this Load a Bit Different

We have two stacks of shelves in this kiln load - one in the very back and one in the front - with big pots in between. I usually place pots glazed in an ash glaze in the back of the kiln as the glaze can mature at a lower temperature, and the back of the kiln is usually two or three cones lower than the front.

But I didn't have any pots glazed in my wood ash, so I chose to place shino-glazed pots in the back. And I set the back shelves away from the back wall more, hoping this will help the pots get hotter in the back. I also stacked a little looser on the shelves, both in the back and the front.

I was reading an Owen Rye article where he says a loosely packed kiln tends to produce an oxidized atmosphere. Well, that's not what I want, either, but we'll see. Levi wants to develop some early reduction (body reduction) thinking it may help with getting some more red on the shino pots.

Maybe, we'll seal up the kiln at the end with a big stoke to create a bit of reduction cooling, too. It will be interesting to see what weather we have tomorrow.

Anyways, here's some pictures of the setting in this kiln:

I placed the bricks on the floor to block
wood from reaching too far into the kiln
as I "end stoke" through the two outside
passive holes.

There's two smaller tall vases behind
the tall vases on left and right.

Kind of open at the top, but not as much as
the picture seems to show. I shot this picture
with my lense at wide angle.

Open at the bottom

Loading the Wood-fired Kiln

We're loading the wood-fired kiln today, a day after our eastern earthquake, and we'll be firing Friday, a day before Hurricane Irene is predicted to hit the North Carolina coast.

We're loading a shelf of shino glazed pots toward the back of the kiln and decided to spray some ash onto the pots for some added effect.

Sieving some fly ash from the kiln

Spraying fly ash onto shino glaze

New Stamps on Platters

I've been anxiously waiting for the opportunity to use some of the new stamps Levi made on my large platters. I got the chance today to make two platters, using a heron stamp and using a "Celtic tree" stamp. These platters are about 25 inches in diameter.

Levi's "Celtic tree" stamp surrounds a triskelion or
triple spiral. I'm thinking I might glaze this platter.

The heron stamp surrounds a triskelion. Outer portion
of the inside is my mangrove stamp. Rim is stamped
with my driftwood stamp. Maybe a red iron stain will
show the details of this platter.

Look what Popped Up in my Clay

The clay fairies popped up their beach umbrellas to
help celebrate my latest batch of local clay. I love
their color choice.

A Few Tree Pots

Multi-tasking here.... I've got a customer who wants to purchase one of my tree vases, so I fired several recently and decided to post pictures here and send her a link. These are all made from Highwater cone 6 Brownstone and washed with red iron, fired in my electric kiln.

I use stamps that I've made to create the pattern on the pot when it's a cylinder on the wheel, then shape it afterward.

9 1/2" by 11 1/2" soul pot $250

Same pot from above

8" by 8" $150

6 1/2" tall by 8" wide soul pot $150

Same pot from above

Fun with Plates

Levi threw quite a few plates of different size the other day and we slipped them with a white clay and decorated them, carving through the white slip. Here's a few of my favorites.

Levi's

Levi's

Michael's

Levi's

Michael's

Levi's

Cracked Bowl Great for Eggs

Our newest egg producer found a nice spot to lay its eggs:

A cracked bowl glazed in our Southwestern
glaze pattern is perfect for laying eggs in.

A bit of pine straw makes it very comfortable.

Working with New Stamps

It's been too long since I last blogged, so I thought I'd share what I've been working on this week, mostly today. Levi made a few new stamps and I tried them on some pots today. I didn't get to all the stamps. This heat just zapped my energy today. I've been working with Highwater's Brownstone for the past couple of weeks. I don't know if they've changed the recipe, but I really like the way it throws.

Here's a few pictures:

Large vase stamped with a "Celtic Tree"

New stamps: Celtic tree and Egret stamps
(You've got to click for a larger picture to see anything.)

You can't fit much in a kiln with big fat pots loaded inside.