table number 2...

the clean up begins .... the tile cut outs were completed last wednesday after a marathon 10 hour stint, i was determined to get them all cut last week and now comes the next phase
of sorting any warped ones cleaning up the edges identifying the tiles and numbering them all... they then go back into the stack for finishing the drying stage and being a warm week quite a few have dried too quickly and warped...

here's how i keep track of the little critters... each section has a list of cut tiles, when i flip them i keep track of moving them about and when cleaning and numbering they get re tagged on the backs....fairly soon comes the deco and i'll be watching the weather for a cool day to deco then restack until the bisque firing..

must get some vid of this project too, i'd like to document it as its now quite a special project for john who passed a way 12 months ago now, and his family is looking forward to it's completion... it also has a lot of personal stuff attached for myself, i'd like to give it a good finishing touch with a mini vid..

tis the season for placky...

here we go a 'lil frydee action'.... works all done for the week and friday is clayday woohoo....

a tad warm but the trustee blower i my studio is still doing the job nicely.. no a/c yet, maybe in the future or i could just take those sweltering weeks of summer off it makes sense really...

so i went with the intention of ripping out some cups today, weighing out 12 oz.... what was i thinking? ok for mugs... so i did a few then cut all of the balls of clay down to 8oz.. that's better..

after enough of those i whipped up a few plates for sunday's print workshop at the club, between jess and myself we should be able to capture the event on vid.. its our last 30 yr celebration workshop at the club for the year, it's been a good one...
the teams all rearranged now with new committee members and a few of us taking a rest from what seems to be never ending stuff to sort out.. good luck for next year guys..

and for this evening i went down to the club to get cleaning up on the 2nd table tile project...full steam ahead for christmas deadline..

sstttttiirrrrrrrrlliiiingggggg......

In stark contrast to yesterday today was freeeeeeezing....but excellent company!!
some new pots went down well and a few sales not our best day but great all the same ... Rose made me a lovely birthday cake gluten free made of delicious snakes...my favourite and!! a do do doooo candle which took a heck of a time to light the wind was a blowing even under the covering of roses coat but we did get the baby to light eventually...

here some pics from today, how many glasses can i wear at once?

some black and whites to amuze myself and todays setup a couple of extra tables and display cabinet for my mini wall sculptures which today were accepted into the stirling fine art exhibition...oh yey, that's in a week and a bit....

so all up a lovely day.. came home with tomato plants, a new t-shirt with a funky combi on thanks raj...a new scarf, some honey, a new bowl from rose and that's all folks....cheers all have a good week.. printing workshop starts next wkd and a run for the cancer council on sunday morning, note to self must hike up the pace for training this week..ciao

spring has sprung...

what a super day for a spring fair! It was so warm this morning on the trip to mt barker i thought for sure we were in for a warmer day than forecast but soon after setting up some clouds appeared and kept the day fine but cooler.... what a cracker of a show... it's such a great event the waldorf school spring fair, it's well supported by the parents and past students and folk really come to look at hand made work and really appreciate it, such a great space, really nice and green this year too after all the rain we've had.. and some super entertainment all day...finished up with some great music by the dads or ex parents of the school i expect, some gear that reminded me of the dinner dances my dad used to play at, a fair bit of Roy Orbison some beatles and a whole bunch of songs i had no idea i knew the lyrics to..HA!...


oh and a pic of my new showcase of exhibition work, thanks pops..!

Doug Fitch's lil film...

hollyford harvest....Doug Fitch's little film on facebook now... check it out and you'll get to see doug in action, some of the stunning countryside of Devon and some lovely sheep too, 'hello sheep'....brilliant piece mr doug just lovely..

more shino this time...

this is my only issue with glaze overlapping a bit it's the shino and the dark celedon, they just don't get on!!..there's bubbling or a coarseness everytime....have no clue why it does this....other than that about half a dozen bowls with this issue, the rest of the kiln load is great, some lovely carbon trapping, most of the refire were successful - oh and the 'elusive purple' stood up to it's name...can i say really happy ang..! and i hope there's something here you can enjoy...cheers all..

shino, shino, shino...

cracked lil hotbox this afternoon and look what we got..shino, shino, shino... well plus some gear thats been waiting to be refired some dark celedon bowls a chun or two and a couple of teapots oooh noice...





whooooar lovely stuff.....

sat-dee...

ooh nuthin like a bit of clubbin to fill the wkd, here's anna and jess working hard from saturday...

laters....

well.... much much later...finally at 1.30am cone 9 was down, i'd chucked in quite a few chunks of redgum chips about 12 and fired an intermittent reduction opening up dampers for 15mins on the hour, i was very optimistic with my estimation of finishing the firing at 7.30pm..HA!

the burner prob. is a possible solenoid issue, the 2nd burner just goes out at random, it went out 4-5 times during the firing which lost temp at several points when i wasn't around the studio...so later i made sure i was there.

late night was quite good i have a rather old telly in the studio just for night like this and love actually was on last night so good fun to watch while nursing the kiln......and the evening was rather chilly after a cool day with the bottles freezing up at will....

In the afternoon I finished up mondays throwing work with handling some mugs, put the teapots together and note to self i really need to mix up the recycled clay with a firmer body, that's what most of these are thrown in it just doesn't feel good when trimming, the finish will be ok with some nice porcelain slip over..

lastly i trimmed some covered bowls but they're a bit light on in the bottom thickness good for a practise run though.. and much later threw some lil bottles for raku too, that's it til opening and check out if it's a success or not, cheers all happy wkd..

it's warm in there...

nearly 850 deg C now, the big burners are on and bung in, its the time into reduction that gets interesting and since i'm firing some 'perfect purple'- odd name that one i should change it to 'elusive purple'!! reduction needs to start early..

just had my gas delivery..yey..and yey the cost didn't go up...so we're ready to roll now...

we have ignition...

got up early to light the lil hotbox this morning so tank number 1 is expired now, it had enough gas to warm up the kiln so it did its job...yey!! well 7.30 am is early for me, i'm more of a night owl..
delivery should be mid morning, so yip here we go for a reasonably long day, it really depends on the weather and if the tanks freeze up early,, i think my last firing went well into the night and i have been known to nurse it at 2am waiting for the cones to drop, so hopefully the sun will shine and we'll get some heat into the day...and a good start ..

ready..set..fire....

monday studio day & a piece from the british museum
entirely curious!!!......


it's firing day tomorrow...my bestest efforts to fill the bisque fire again have been thwarted by wet weather and that pesky thing called a day job, well one has to eat...so teapots are sitting waiting to be assembled just as wet as the day i threw them..!
ha and the new raku bottles weren't being produced by my hands either...i want to replace the guys that didn't work out on saturday....and....i'm having a serious case of the procrastinations with making what i intended and with tile making too...
......somebody give me a woop woop i need a nudge along....!

well for tomorrow, i've bitten the bullet and loaded for a glaze fire instead and checked on the gas bottle delivery it's coming mid morning, so i should start early to get the best of what's available in the lowest tank as i'm fairly certain i don't have enough to get me through a stoneware kiln..

apparently more rain is on the way...over it and the wind!!! enough i say.....anyhoo happy weeks end all....seeya friday..