pop...pop...pop...

I know that sound and its usually not my work making it...silly me i needed to fire up something quickly this afternoon. Some very small backing pieces as i'm short a set for my tiles to hang from and they were bone dry but i thought hey why not put in a couple of tiles which turned into 4 that i had in the studio and well done me i blew up 3 of them!! who hoo!! My lil raku kiln is difficult to control at the bottom end of the firing and as i put in 2 slithers of wood off they took and pop...pop.... then later pop!!!! well i knew that was at least 3 so slowly went up from 200C to 300C for the next hour then 400C and slowly again to 500C and no probs after that...

It was freezing outside today and i placed the kiln in the shelter around the side of my studio on 10 slab pavers...the idea being that it would be easier on the knees and my neck loading it a little higher.. i also happened to blow up my fav piece of white on white landscape tile.. oh well i make em, i break em!!

The market was lovely yesterday i think all the rain on saturday gave us the relief for market day..
It was very cold and clothing layers are not to be understated on these wintery days..and apart from the cold lentil pie all went well...I think if it is at all possible more peeps keep turning up every month..
Tomorrow is drop off day for The SA Ceramics show and the opening is friday night and I'm very much looking forward to this show. So have a great week all, more pics later this week i hope..

tea...

So Friday night was an opening for a show at the jam factory here in adelaide all about tea...and what a lovely show... it's always a great time to catch up with friends and meet newies. I never was a jamette just know quite a few friends that have been, it's a great hub in town and the go to place for all sorts of networking..

So here's the total bummer i got that letter yesterday informing me that i didn't get the grant i applied for the clay & blogs show, boo... I'll just have to adjust the size of the work i was sending as freight of course comes into it for this one..

And moving on rather quickly from that.. I have plenty to do with bricks arriving today..that means more kiln plans on the way....
:p yep..

So enjoy the pics and drop in if you can to see the show there's some lovely work!

The top teapots are by Bruce Nuske.. some lovely beakers by my friend Stephanie James-Manttan and some great teasets by Jane Robertson and also Pru Venables, Sandra Black and prob heaps of names i missed...

NVN...

Thanks Tracey for the title for this one.. The pre fire packing footage is from Jess ta mucho... While we packed there were a few last minute tweeks to do like putting the bung holes in the door and wiring the casings in and attaching the roof fibre wires to the outer layer..packing is karen and jill teacher extraordinaire has single handedly taught most of the kids in this area in her ceramics classes...and still is... way to go jill!

And the cracking of the kiln last night with only one blow out sandy's big fish unfortunately couldn't handle the pressure and blew just as i was standing by the kiln i heard and felt it underfoot...! I was a little concerned about budda boy but saw him aglow through the bung hole and was fairly certain it wasn't him...so there it is finally after 6 years of waiting...up and running again...can i hear a cheer???

noice one...

Well not bad for the first firing!! I'll put together some moving pictures today for a better view...

good clay hunting...

I made a small diversion when heading out for a walk today...my poor lungs needed some flexing as that flu took its toll on me and what did i find???? all sorts.....we had some lovely sunshine and was a lil adventure heading off the beaten track..

big mummas off!!!

had a rippa of a day today firing the old girl in her 4th life now...she's been moved rebuilt and pulled down more times than any other kiln i know and here she blows again...a big shout out to all who had a hand in this rebuild and getting to this point yet again... we'll test, make adjustments and then get the commissioning over and complied with all the new regulations, followed by the official check and off we go! woo!

it's been a full day started at 7am by the brave who slowly coerced up to safe temp to bring in the big burners ... copious amounts of steam flowed freely from every orifice available, followed by a steady trickle from the roof too...then the rain came down and the birds sang, we scrubbed clean our newly acquired bbq, sold an old one to the theatre group.... there'll be a ward kiln on ebay soon and possibly a tetlow kiln too as we are clearing up and cashing in some assets for some other well needed new tools..

all this flurry of activity followed by a yummy bbq lunch, thanks belinda, maker of budda who is still intact despite a large pop i heard at about 160 degC... i later saw one of annas apples in the firebox so he's well toasted sorry bout that anna...me thinks something may have blown and pushed him over the edge!!

after 600C it was relatively uneventful apart from the usual studio antics....nice work team the unveiling will be tuesday night when we crack it....

not so white....

I went up to the studio this afternoon to add just a little to these white on white tiles and as always got a bit carried away, maybe i'm just not ready for white on white yet! I'll just go with touches of colour for now...
I've used some red glaze, a bit of copper slip and some amber glaze.. I'm treating theses tiles more like canvas and working and adding some marks and some slip and wiping it out if i don't like and continuing till something emerges from the surface that i like...

Leaving these for now as tomorrow is the big day we fire up the kiln at the club...'big mumma' is waiting! news tomorrow....

you make em..we stack em...

A small sample of the club work we loaded today into 'big mumma'...the planning and execution of this kiln has gone on for years and finally here we go this saturday the big fire up!! We'll be taking it slowly as there's quite a bit of stored moisture in there..in the works and in the kiln itself..

There's a good combo of work from most of our clay clubees and some pieces have been waiting patiently to get toasted! and yes it did mostly fit in....happy firing chaps...

the urban cow studio...

One of the best places in town to support local artists is the urban cow studio..it's on frome street, adelaide..

My raku pots are in store as is some groovy dippy bowls, mini platters and the funky teasets too.. drop on in for a real view or visit their web and facebook page..

reshuffled...

all done...woohoo

day 3...

this is where the studio was at first thing this morning..shelves up and glazes moved and a total reshuffle of glaze materials..I've moved one of the tables to make some more space and tossed lots of old glazes and forms that had been sitting around..that's the drama of changing direction regularly i have loads of leftovers!

by tonight the whole place will be sorted.. yey!!

site scavenging...

Quite a busy lil day today started with cleaning my new shelves and thinking about the new setup which i hope by the end of this wkd is all happening....the 2nd shelving kit is about to be liquid nailed to the framework and bolted in a couple of spots...I hadn't realised the amount of gear i had on these shelves so a lil securing is def. called for..

so that was all done and i headed down the club to get started on some more tiles..all white on white is the concept it prob will evolve but that's where i'm starting from and mixed up a few white slips and got to work forming the tiles...when I arrived today jess says how about we fire up the raku?? it looked a bit like rain and after a few spots we were all set..

jess, anna and the girls had been site scavenging for some wood earlier and came back with quite a load! We are very lucky at the mo to have some building development nearby and lots of offcuts just waiting for us!! unfortunately it's also been raining a lot this week and some of the timber being rather wet wouldn't burn,....
so temp dropping some drastic action was called for hence the new frock jess is modelling, the new eco friendly placky number previously containing wood slithers..super great for finishing off the firing.. jess's super lil kiln nearly took off hitting reduction whilst firing and a red hot flue to boot..a rather lovely day again, it's getting dark early now and i headed home to get all warmed up by the fire with a nice glass tonight...hope you all have a lovely wkd..

studio shuffle...

Created with flickr slideshow.


hey all, yep i've been out of action and hibernating with the dreaded flu for a couple of weeks now and feeling quite a lot better this afternoon I took the opportunity of a quite day to start the studio shuffle!! I knew things were going to have to get worse before they got better but who knew i had so much stuff!!!

The new shelves from kevin are up..they need a good clean up and then starts the reorganising.. Also on the move the storage shelves with all my glaze gear, a big swapsee means they will all fit better in the space then comes the new heater fitting and shuffle of the throwing space too and no doubt another clear out, what to keep and what to toss...'oh mr hart what a mess'...

I also got news this week from SA Ceramics Award my wall pieces were accepted for the show, 5 tiles from the journey theme. The show is in July and held at Adelaide Central Gallery, it's always a great show and really nice to have work that felt would fit the show this year..