Wood Fire

Lately I've been admiring wood fired pottery. It's a process I haven't experienced yet, but I'm looking forward to seeing the process and its results. I've pulled together some of my favorite wood fired pots from Etsy artists. This stunning bottle is from woodfirejim. I love the variety of colors.

This casserole dish by wagnerpottery demonstrates how lovely the shino glaze can be. As an added bonus, the item description includes a detailed account of the wood firing process for the uninitiated.

The mug above is also from wagnerpottery. You will find that the woodfired pottery is often in this orange-rust-brown color vein.

ttbam2001 features the work of artists like this mug from Gary K. Hootman. I enjoy that he included a bit about the artist in his listing.

This flounder vase by Joe Winter is also found in ttbam2001's shop. I love that the glaze can look like other elements than clay; in this case, it recalls rust.

MorrisPottery offers this funky pitcher. I enjoy the multi-colored glazes, and the extra carving and detailed additions.

This monarch bowl is also from MorrisPottery. The design is done with black and white slip trailing - breathtaking.

I want to learn to make such free formed pieces as this mug from landrydeese. Sometimes my pots are funky, but usually not on purpose and never this cool...

A wood fire post on my blog would not be complete if I didn't include a piece from khphillips. Many of his items are wood fired, including this bowl. I want to visit the bird in the weeds...

I found this gorgeous gravy boat at justinlambert. The spout and handle are perfectly proportioned.

I can't get over the glaze on this teapot I found at JordanTaylorPottery. Doesn't it remind you of old iron patio chairs with layers of decades of white paint?

I love the subtle details and simplicity of this vase from jarstudios. The blue is from blue glass impressed into the piece.

The richness of these goblets from heatherledwards123 is sure to add value to your dining decor and complement the best wine in your home.

GREENWOODSTUDIO offers this mortar and pestle complete with a pulled handle and spout.

You will not see this jug in a country band including a jar harp and washtub with a broomstick and twine on top. The brushstrokes and looped handle are far too elegant. Find it at foxpots.

Clayoh's shop has this lovely plate with a helpful description of some of the magic of what happens in the wood kiln.

Here's why I've been thinking about wood firing lately. I bought 25 pounds of wood fire clay, and have been working on some pieces to give it a whirl. The wood kiln at Tin Barn Pottery is up and running. These pictures are of one piece I've been working on. I threw the pitcher, trimmed the bottom, added a handle, and then added an external spout and carved away some of the original form so that it will pour nicely. My apologies for the bad quality of the pictures, they were taken with my cell phone. I spent half of class on Sunday adding the spout. There are so many opportunities for it to turn out poorly, so I am trying to be coy. If it turns out nicely, great. If not, it was a learning experience, and I'll apply what I learned to the next one.

They say never to get attached to any pot. My heart has been broken enough times that I try to be aloof.

Feliz Dia De Los Muertos

(Ceramic skulls and cross bones I made from an ice cube tray mold, painted with black underglaze, bisque fired, and glazed with clear glaze.)

Weekend Update

I had a fun weekend, with lots of goodies to share on the blog. I hadn't been antiquing in quite a while, and I was able to sneak off on Sunday to visit three shops in the area. Iron Horse Antiques in Manassas was first on my list. They always have a great selection, and a few of the booths upstairs are so well curated that I almost always find something I need. And they have a giant iron horse on the first floor, plus a running choo choo train that runs a track around the ceiling. Next up was the Bull Run Antiques Mall. As with all antique shops, it's hit or miss for me, since you never know what they'll have. Sometimes I walk out with a car-ful, other times (like yesterday) I walk out thinking how glad my husband will be that I didn't buy the giant carved piano legs at $75 each. Then I stopped by Old Town Manassas Antiques, which for some reason, I am not as familiar with. This is soon to change, though, because I discovered most of my finds there. So without further blathering, here are my treasures:

Galvanized tray with handy drain spout, which will be perfect for storage in the studio. Three Audobon Society postcards.

Black and white enameled bowls with measurements printed on the side. These will also be helpful for storage in the studio.

Milk crate from Birmingham Dairy in Manassas, Virginia, and long galvanized garden tote. Again, very useful for storage and display. My not-so-secret weakness is "things to put things in."

Large wooden chopping bowl. Apples on the kitchen table, anyone? I made one other large purchase - the wooden bench that these are all photographed on. I will make a separate blog post about it - it's cool enough to deserve its own. Next I want to share with you the stunningly gorgeous raku vase that I bought at Manassas Clay. It was made by my friend, Karen Lachow, a studio potter there. She has an area at the shop where you can buy her work, and every time I go in I gaze at her shelves. Finally it was too much for me and I had to buy her large raku vase. If you live in the area, I strongly encourage you to stop in at Manassas Clay - it's not just studio and classroom space, it's a shop with the most amazing pieces for sale by the most wonderful people you've ever met. Thanks again, Karen, your vase will live in a place of honor in my home, as an inspiration to me!

It seems silly to post pictures of my work now, but since I took pictures of some green- and bisque-ware, here they are. These are two bisque fired pieces I made using silicate with iron oxide painted on during the throwing process. You let the silicate dry on the pot, and then you belly out the sides, creating the crackle finish. I took these pictures prior to glazing them, which I did with soda ash. On the darker pot, I added some black lapis glaze to the rim.

You can see that I squeezed the sides of the white pot to create more of an oval shape.

Crackle detail.

These are some greenware pieces that I put handles on last week.

Mug and pitcher.

Another pitcher.

Stamped handle.

Another stamp.

Pointy spout. Thanks for wading through! Today, for the third and hopefully last time, I am waiting for the electrician to put my pendant lights in the studio. So be sure to check back for (*crossing my fingers*) pictures of the studio lights.

Pottering

I recently brought home these soy bottles that I made in class. I'm not thrilled with how the glaze turned out, but the forms are okay. I intend to try again, and hopefully the glaze will turn out better. I threw these using JB Speck, which fires to a biscuit-y brown with speckles, which I really enjoy. Pottery gives you so many opportunities to mess up a good thing - throwing the form (it can go off center, get dented, collapse...), trimming (the number of "flower pots" I have generated due to accidentally trimming the bottom until there is a hole is sad), and glazing (I may have to change the theme of this blog to be one of those Fail Blogs...).

And now for something completely different: some hens and chicks that I had in a pot last summer have come back with a vengeance this year, and look at these crazy blooms they're sprouting!

Plumeria Postmortem

My faithful readers (hi mom!) are surely waiting to see pictures of the plumeria tiles now that they have been glazed and fired. If you want to catch up on how I made them, check this post and this post. Overall, I am fairly pleased with them. For someone 9 months into clay, and for first tiles made from a first mold, they're pretty good. I used the same underglazes and clear glaze on top of these tiles so that I could compare the two different clays I used. I believe the Shenandoah and Dogwood clays proved to be about the same.

The green underglaze that I used for the background doesn't like the clear glaze over it, which resulted in a brown or washed out effect in areas. The darker green on the leaves came out much better, and I will probably use it again, but with a different green in the background. I was pleased with the white and yellow parts of the flowers, but next time I make tiles from this mold I will probably spend some more time perfecting each individual tile. At the workshop I was just trying to get several made in a short timeframe. The back of each tile could use some work as well, but since I don't have an air compressor, I'll have to carefully extract them and go back and smooth the surface.

I don't plan to list these prototypes in my Etsy shop, but I have learned a great deal from them and I think the next round will be even better.

Black Walnut

Just picked up fired pieces from Manassas Clay. Very pleased with one piece - turns out the mystery bag of clay that looked orange is actually BLACK. (edited to add: I would love to post pictures, but it will have to wait until after Father's Day.)

Plumeria Progress

I finally painted two of the tiles I made at Joan Gardiner's workshop. I used Amaco underglaze in white, yellow, and several greens. As a reminder, here is how they looked prior to painting.

Here is how they looked after I painted them with the underglazes.

Once they had a chance to dry all the way, I waxed the backs and sides with wax resist. Then, with the help of a friend, I poured clear glaze over the top of each tile. They're now sitting on a shelf, waiting to be fired. Cross your fingers for me!