journal for june...

Studio time is a must right now even in the cold and damp of winter a tiny bar heater keeps me cozy out there! One day soon my stove will be hooked up with its chimney and so nice it will be to spend hours and hours outside...

 Saturday I dared put my hands in the chilly water to begin the Tagine throwing ... my first effort the other day had been all new testing ground and the initial atempt wound up on my plaster bat on the floor, too much stress and not enough clay... so this wkd I thought make some changes chief!! and the day was more successful...

 So as it stands the first couple are 8lbs of clay per base and 8lbs per top made from my recycled body, a combination of clayworks SWE, some terracotta, some LGH and some local dirt too!! added to one large polystyrene container plus 2litres of fine grog and topped up with water to make a fine sturry stir for a couple of weeks and when sloppy scooped out onto the plaster bat...

 The lids have a little Doug Fitch influence the top narrow neck is thrown seperately and added. Atop this a small bowl is added to finish off the neck of the lid.... plus another video inspired addition by Cynthia Bringle! i think she made some goblets with a tiny bowl insert ...a brilliant idea so I thought i'd give that one a try too... The bases are 34cm wide at wet stage rim to rim and I'm still not sure how much they hold ?? will have to wait until the firing to know exactly....anyhoo a couple of firings in the pipeline right now and some pics to go on with from the market yesterday and the Tangines in progress...

finally it has happened...the pics

So finally yesterday I got the time to photograph my latest pieces they were fired in the gas kiln to the top end of earthenware and I possibly overcooked the bottom shelves there were quite a few bubbly pieces down there..

Heres a few of my fav pics, I'm very happy with the Aqua and the Blue but the Honey and the Pink glazes need more intensity...

It's been a tad crazy here either my job is flat out or there's nothing happening so the last month has been all over the place and virtually no studio time with painting my house in the middle of it all that was 2 very packed weeks just finished! but this week back to it I have some 3 Litre Tagines to test run and some more big pots to make for SALA in August... the second of which got a start today and I'm thinking of revisiting my rope form pot building..It's a great technique you just need all the structure inside constructed then wrap it with rope or the like then the whole clay addition takes about a couple of hours and your done!! If i go that way i will document it :))

So here they are some sweet pots the beginnings of an earthenware range for me lots of dots and lines and some quite gnarly marbling of sorts... anyhow happy wkd all!! and see the beginning of this work on my weebly page

satd'y big pot, big kiln, big pop...

A lil satd'y clubbing!! I have a couple of large pieces to make towards a SALA show in august and since the clay is freshly pugged no time like a saturday firing day to get big pot making.. he's nearly finished about 5cm and a nice solid rim coming to top it off..

So saturday was quite eventful, the kiln fired up nicely and a good way to use up some of the lower gas bottles as the earthenware firing didn't take up much gas pressure at all.. I did however have a wee tiny accident with a gas line in the studio which involved flamage from the wand and me getting a tad excited and dropping the wand on the floor which proceeded to ignite a 1meter pool of gas around my feet with a lovely pop!! It was all over in a couple of seconds, I shut off the tank and just stood there in shock... all over and nobody hurt but the line needs a safety shut off not a release valve in it..

Anyhoo here's a sample off the pot I switched over to the heat gun after the gas drama... :))

marbley spree...

todays studio too much enjoyment was had with the black and white slip...I did resist the urge to lick!!! although it has the appearance of chocolate it would taste nothing like it!!! I way prefer the real thing.. :))

satd'y studio day...

Another Saturday and great studio time...the pots were way too wet from friday but trimming time is precious so out with the weed burner!! no handles done but at least the cups are ready should I get time tomorrow or monday to finish them...then some more slippety slop and marbling time, wow that the fun part about the deco time!! and speaking of time nothing like tea time in the studio :)) I have the remains of the last bag of TC clay and so really want to finish it for this kiln load so maybe another throw session this week and then that's it bisque and glaze time to fill the big kiln... It's Campbelltown Art Show time again I dropped a couple of Shino bowls off today and opening is Friday night, it's always a good show.. I'm looking forward to this year collection of art works... and that's it, catch ya next week, lets see what you've all been up to!!