Pit Fire & Raku Results!

I love this part of the semester, when after 8 weeks of building, scraping, sanding & polishing... you finally get to see the final results of your efforts. Below, pictures from the pit firing~

Pots emerging from the fire~

Classmates looking at our freshly fired pots. There is generally a lot of pointing, ooohing & aaahing going on at this time.

I only had a few pots in this firing & here are my favorites~

We also did a couple of Raku firings at school~ below the kiln is being loaded.

Removing the hot pots from the kiln & placing them in metal cans with combustibles... generally newspaper and/or sawdust.

The pot is left inside for a period of time to reduce.

Testing pots over open flame.

Below, my faves from this firing~

Double click on any image for greater detail.

I have to admit,  I am partial to Raku firing & reduction of these pots. I think the surfaces achieved by this method are simply delicious!

:) 

While this class is over, I'll likely continue to build more pots over winter break, though most of my time the next 6 weeks will be spent focusing on creating more bears in my hand building class. I hope to have a series of pots & bear sculptures to present for the SFCC student ceramic sale coming up at the end of November! It will be my first time participating, so I'm anxious to see how it goes!

:)

Evolution of a Pot

I am not generally one to add abstract designs to my pots, but for whatever reason, on this particular day, I decided to give it a go. I have to admit, I was not happy with it at first & I was sooooo tempted to recycle it when it was in it's wet state, but a few people in class said some things that made me decide to keep it.

I cut the lid just after the photo above, and the pot began it's drying process.

Unfortunately, this is what happened as it dried~ the lid & pot dried in different directions.

I don't know why this happens exactly, but I find when I make lidded pots w/ the Micaceous Clay, the lids tend to warp. It doesn't happen every time, but I'd say with me, it happens about 1/2 the time. I've tried drying the lid with the pot, drying the lid upside down with support, and then a combination of the two. I think it is just the unpredictability of working with real, honest to goodness natural, directly "of the earth" clay. Or maybe it's just me! But I digress. This presented a challenge, and it seems I am always up for one (ha ha) so I figured I'd give it a go at repairing it.

That is one thing I love about working with Micaceous Clay... you can do repairs when it is bone dry... something you cannot easily do with commercially processed "regular" clays. It is, however, a rather tedious process. I started with water scraping & sanding down the high points. Then I began the slow process of rebuilding the rim by wetting the pot & very gradually adding more clay. You can only add a teeny bit at a time, then you must let it dry, and repeat this step over & over until it comes close to fitting.

Then you must sand, adjust, add more clay if needed. I worked on this pot little by little over the course of several weeks.

Here it is after all that work~ all sanded & ready to polish. The lid fit was not quite perfect (I am a stickler for the perfect lid fit!) but pretty close. I figured it was as close as I was going to get.

Polished pot with a fine Micaceous Slip. At this point it went into the bisque & awaited the final firing. I knew with this pot, I would want to do Raku for the 2nd firing, and as luck would have it, we did 2 Raku firings on the last day of class! Yay!

Below are the results.

:)

"Evolution Pot"
Hand dug Micaceous Clay
Hand Coiled, Sculpted, Scraped, Sanded, Polished.
Low Fire Bisque/Raku/Reduced

*Double Click on any Photo for greater detail :)

I've included many angles, as I do, to show the delicious effects of the Raku firing on Micaceous Clay. I'm in love with Raku & reducing pots... I find the effects to be simply wonderful! The lid did warp just the tiniest bit during the final firing... just enough so that again the lid does not fit just perfectly. But with clay, just as with life, things aren't alway perfect... & sometimes those little imperfections are what make life more interesting.

:)

** We just finished firing the rest of our Micaceous Pots this weekend... I'll post the results just as soon as I have time to photograph them properly!

Out of the Kiln~ Soda Fired Polar Bear

I just got my first piece of the semester out of the Kiln this week & I'm pretty excited about it!

:) 

I used the same glaze that I made last semester in glaze calc class as I really loved the variation of color & texture that was achieved with that glaze in the Soda Kiln.(Click on the sidebar Polar Bear for details.) It was a difficult piece to photograph. I really need to take the "Photographing Your Artwork" class offered, but at this point, that would just take time away from clay... & I simply can't do that now! I took shots from a few different views to show the variation as best I could. 

Click on image twice to enlarge for greater detail.

Detail of Crystal Formation on the Neck

Soda Fired Polar Bear
Dimensions: Approx 12" H,  21" L, 9 " W
Ann's Soda Cone 10 Clay Body
Satin Mint Green Modified Glaze

Despite using the same clay body & glaze as I used last semester, this piece, while retaining some of the variation as last semester's bear actually came out quite different, but I am totally happy with it.

:)

In other clay news... my 2nd Bear made it through the bisque & is now in the Soda Kiln & will come out next week~ I'm really excited to see how this one turns out! This week is also the last week of my Micaceous Clay Class~ we'll have firings Friday & Saturday, so I should have some new pots to post in the not too distant future. I also finished working on what I have dubbed "The Beast..." a killer 3 week project involving 100 pounds of solid clay... details forthcoming.

:)

My Favorite Piece Ever... & Other Clay Stuff :)

Polar Bear~ Hand Coiled & Shaped, Ann's Soda Clay Body, Cone 10 Soda Fired,
 Satin Mint Green Modified Glaze.
Dimensions: 13" Long, 9" High, 6" Wide

I had built this bear a few weeks ago & it was one of the last of my pieces to go into the kiln. While I will generally find something that I don't like about whatever it is I'm making, when I finished building this piece, I absolutely fell in love with it. The posture, form, & shape of the bear all came together in terms of what I have been working towards. Now, you know that can all change when you do your glaze work... I have had many a piece that I have ruined with funky glazing. Fortunately, I had been testing this glaze (Yup~ Satin Mint!) in my Glaze Calc Class for the last half of the semester at least... on various clay bodies & with different variations & additions of color, so I had at least a general idea of how the glaze would look. I've included several views so you can see the glaze effects form different angles.

Click to enlarge any image for greater detail :)

I was really beyond ecstatic with the results! The guys that loaded the kiln had placed it facing the Soda... so the blueish crystal effect on his nose & foot are a result of that placement & the reaction of the soda & the glaze. While soda firing can be unpredictable, I think sometimes that is the beauty of it... and I don't think it could have worked out any more perfectly in this case!

:)

It is my piece de resistance! Everything else I got of the kiln seemed to pale in comparison, and I had A LOT of stuff in the final firing. I will not bore you with it all, but will share a few things. I tried to do a series of bowls/cups with the dark brown clay in attempt to achieve the same results I did here. No such luck! I used the same clay body, same glaze, and same firing technique.

The two above were about the closest I got to the effect I was looking for.

But check this out- and I am not kidding you! The inner glaze on the bowls above are the same glaze on the inside, same clay body... and were in the exact same kiln!

Same thing with this bowl! This tells me two things- this particular glaze & the soda fire combination yield very unpredictable results!

This was one of my last bowls of the semester- the shape is not great, but I love the glaze... it's the Ronbeck Blue that was developed in my glaze calc class- over Bailey's Red.

This was the inside of another bowl w/ the Ronbeck Blue... I didn't have time to photograph it properly... off it went to it's new home in Seattle w/ my best friend who was here visiting.

:)

"Oso"

This was the bear that I had made for a friend at work. It was supposed to turn out with that coppery somewhat iridescent finish... but It came out more of an oilslick finish. I can live with it... though it is no Satin Mint Green!

:)

These were some of the series of little bears that I had made... I was actually going for the oilslick finish on these. These are not glazed- the effect is simply from the clay body & the soda fire. I did not photograph them all, as they would not all fit on my little background paper. I've enjoyed making them, but I think for future sculptural clay work, my plan is to keep working on the larger Polar Bear form. It's been a great semester & I feel like I've learned a lot. Though I am a little sad to see it end, I'm also looking forward to having more time to get out & about & do some of the other things I love. 

Happy May Everyone... and thanks for visiting!

:)

Results!

Just got a fired piece out of the kiln yesterday, and I'm pretty excited about it! I made this bear back in Feb, but have been working on testing glazes in my glaze calc class & wanted to come up w/ something cool before I glazed it.

Soda Fired Bear, Satin Mint Green (modified) glaze.
Height 3 1/2" Width 5" Length 8 1/2"

 This glaze is actually the same glaze (Satin Mint Green "Slop" in which the glaze recipe was modified w/ added copper carb & rutile) I was testing on my previous post. While the test bowl & cup which were soda fired on a recycled clay body did have the elements of green I was looking for, the bear (which was made from Ann's Soda Clay) came out totally different than the test tiles. Not what I expected, but I have to say, I quite like the results!

I've added several different angles just to show the different color variations attained w/ the same glaze. I believe this is partially due to the properties of the glaze itself, but also due to the varying thickness of glaze poured over, as well as effects from the soda kiln. The darkest color on the feet is simply the color of the clay body when soda fired.  From my tests, I found that this glaze is quite drippy, so I left about 3/4" of the feet unglazed, and I still had problems w/ the glaze dripping off, in a rather inconsistent manner. This may be an issue when I when I fire the big bear, but I hope to remedy this by spraying the glaze on lightly. 

Speaking of which, I did a another full round of glaze testing last weekend (the campus was actually closed- so I mixed my glaze recipe last week & took it home to do the triaxial.) I'm retesting the Ann's Soda Clay & testing the High Hills clay body, of which the big bear is made.

They're going in the kiln this week & should be out Monday, along w/ about 13 pieces from my wheel throwing class~  Iooking forward to seeing the results!

:)