8 days to go and the kiln has been keeping busy

Can't believe only 8 more days to go 'til the Ottawa Guild of Potters' Holiday Sale 2013. Just like the past couple of years, the kiln has been working very hard these days. And it is on right now as I "speak" for the last bisque load before the sale. I feel I am rushing again, but at least I am not rushing to make more pieces. This time it will all be glazing, firing, pricing and packing.

I haven't been making much vases for the last little while, and I'd decided to try it again. One is to fill the kiln space, secondly I do like to try making something different from time to time. Although, trying things in October can be quite risky, luckily the first one turned out OK. And I have 2 more vases to glaze fire in the next day or so.

Mysterious blue is still too mysterious to me. The following pieces are not mysterious blue but placed on different shelves in the kiln....very interesting.

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It has been a busy first month of 2015...

It has been quite a busy month for me. I've been doing some overtime at work but also managed to make new pieces (mostly mugs). Also to fulfil my list last year, I made 2 teapots during the last few days of December and assembled them in January. I think they need to have a couple of teacups to accompany them. :) I will need to make a new lid for this teapot as the gallery is quite small for this teapot and the lid can easily slide into the pot. I will be making bowls this weekend, hopefully I will have enough to fill the kiln soon.

Another disappointment :(

I was firing up my bowls for Ottawa Guild of Potters' annual event: The Great Bowls of Fire last night. I made 7 soup bowls, was thinking to use them to try out different glazing techniques with Ron Roy's Black and Mysterious Blue. When I was potting at the Nepean Visual Art Centre (NVAC), I had this lovely combination of NVAC's black with Mysterious Blue (as seen on the right). However, I've been having trouble with the NVAC's black recipe, so I went with Ron Roy's Black. It looks pretty smooth and all. However, it just doesn't have the same effect as the NVAC's black and mysterious blue. It's quite disappointing. Also, I might have made too thick of a layer for the black, it cracked a little too. notice the chip - this one is with the same technique as shown above) this one is done by pouring in mysterious blue on black Unfortunately, since the chipping is in the inside of the bowl, I can't tak...

Glaze and Chemistry (or should I say glaze chemistry)

Until last weekend, I wouldn't put chemistry and glaze recipe together, because I'd been just following the recipes and didn't think much about the reaction to the glaze between those chemicals. But Ron Roy (the author of Mastering Cone 6 Glazes) workshop had totally changed my perspective. It was a very informative session. Ron showed us how to use INSIGHT and GlazeMaster to analysis glaze recipes and how we can fix it if there is a problem with it. It was a bit like going back to high school Chemistry class and the chemical symbols....NaO, KO, CaO, Al etc...and my brain almost exploded at the end of the second day. :p I have now purchased INSIGHT and my plan is to put in all the glaze recipes I have now and see how stable they are in cone 6. That should be fun. Inventory update: I managed to make my 6 pieces before the end of April. They are mostly plates. For May, I will be making mugs again. :)

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