Cone 10 Firing, October 24, Part II
The 10/24 firing was interesting. Everything was going great, nice and even, until cone 10. Cone 8's had dropped together, and 10's were starting to bend. Half an hour later, 10 was down on bottom, and hadn't moved on top! Not sure what happened there. I got it evened out, though, and the pots looked good. Here are some examples:
The first piece is stoneware, Standard Clay's 306, a nice dark clay. It is decorated with sgraffito through a band of porcelain, then glazed with Hot Tea, one of our class glazes. The mug is a new form I just started making. The little loop handle is quite comfortable. It's glazed with Pete's Black (tenmoku) under Betty Woodman White. The third piece is 306 stoneware again, scribed with an aluminum notched trowel (for spreading tile adhesive), and glazed with Gustin Shino.
I'm just starting to make stoneware pots again, after working exclusively with porcelain for the last several years. It's been a bit of a challenge, but it's starting to come together. I've been going back to some of the decorating techniques I used to use in grad school when I was wood firing, and trying them with the class glazes. I'm having some good results, and have even started to use some of those techniques with the porcelain, too. I've got some platters in the kiln today that I'm very excited to see. Hopefully all will go well. I'll post photos next week.
The first piece is stoneware, Standard Clay's 306, a nice dark clay. It is decorated with sgraffito through a band of porcelain, then glazed with Hot Tea, one of our class glazes. The mug is a new form I just started making. The little loop handle is quite comfortable. It's glazed with Pete's Black (tenmoku) under Betty Woodman White. The third piece is 306 stoneware again, scribed with an aluminum notched trowel (for spreading tile adhesive), and glazed with Gustin Shino.
I'm just starting to make stoneware pots again, after working exclusively with porcelain for the last several years. It's been a bit of a challenge, but it's starting to come together. I've been going back to some of the decorating techniques I used to use in grad school when I was wood firing, and trying them with the class glazes. I'm having some good results, and have even started to use some of those techniques with the porcelain, too. I've got some platters in the kiln today that I'm very excited to see. Hopefully all will go well. I'll post photos next week.
Mighty fine looking pots coming out of that kiln of yours. NICE. Love the blog. We started one up too. Funny how this technology thing keeps racing ahead of us. Starting to make me feel old.
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Thanks, Alex! Yeah, keeping up with technology is tough when you spend the day playing with extremely non-technological materials. Interesting dichotomy there. I think for any of us to survive as potters, though, we've got to embrace this opportunity to communicate with as many people as possible. Plus it's nice to be able to 'talk' with people about what's going on in the shop after spending the day alone at the wheel. Makes me feel less isolated.
Hope all is going well at your studio. Happy Holidays to you and your family!
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