Ups and downs

I had my first miss-hap yesterday. My kiln over-fired, and did not shut off when it was supposed to, so it got way too hot, and I lost 16 pieces. I think. I'm firing one of those pieces right now to see if the glaze I applied sticks to it, or if the clay has become too mature, the glaze could just slide off the piece when it gets hot. WE WILL SEE! I certainly don't have my hopes up.

I did throw 16 new pieces yesterday, so at least it feels like I've already made-up for the loss. I made 8 large, curvy tumblers, 4 small wine cups, enough parts for a pair of raygun salt and pepper shakers, an espresso cup, and a bowl with a hollow rim.


I was also recently able to photograph the last project that I had my college class do. It's a bit of a version of "exquisite corpse". I had everyone make parts and pieces, without much direction other than they had to make at least 5, they could be spheres, wheel thrown pieces, coils, slabs, clay pizza, or whatever. After about 20 minutes, we put the pieces outside to firm-up. We then chose words randomly out of random books, and put together a sentence, randomly. That sentence became the title of the piece, and we then constructed the sculpture to fit the title. They learned about gesture, narrative sculpture, and team work, as well as how to collaborate and "let go" of one's work, as no one was allowed to use pieces that they had originally created.

The title of this piece is, "The Spooky Cow Danced on Florence's Tongue

Many people took one look at this piece when it was still in clay-form, and said that it could never make it through a firing, and yet, Florence persevered. After she was fired, we rummaged through the AVA Community Art Center's fridge & cupboards to find mustard, many teas, fruit punch, and coffee, which we brewed, and painted onto the sculpture, when the tea was too weak, we added watercolors. It was crazy, kind of smelly, but a lot of fun. When I get the kiln built this summer, I'd like to cement her to it.


I know the picture of the spooky cow is very blurry, but I thought it was such a funny picture, I just had to show it off.

Trailer Fire Studio's first firing!

I finally got my first finished works photographed! The shiny glazes are kind of hard to get good images of, I'm doing some research on how to get better results. But, I'd rather be making pots, so for now, these will have to do.

The blue raygun is now my favorite. It is much brighter blue than shown here, and it's fin is too fun! I can't wait to assemble some more.

I am making lots of cups today, some space-mugs, and some tall cups similar to the celadon ones shown here. I've got another firing to do tomorrow, and I just received a book telling me everything I need to know to build my outdoor kiln, a 10-year-old dream, finally coming true. There's so much going on it's hard to make time to maintain this here blog!

In other news, the Pearls of the Prairie banquet was this weekend, it's an event where a local artist/art group is honored, as is a patron/supporter of the arts. I had a beautiful (i thought) set of four black and white cups for sale, a medium-sized black and white kitchen bowl, and two collaborative pieces (Jimi Wickenberg's) for sale, AND THEY ALL SOLD! I was a very happy lil' potter that night!