Prudence's Pottery

WOW, another year is coming to an end and it's time for a year in review. 2017 was yet another eventful year for me.  Some of the pottery related things I planned at the beginning of the year worked out, some didn't, some wasn't planned but happened. The things that didn't happen - I didn't update this blog until December and I also didn't have time to make soup bowls for Great Bowls of Fire.  :( The things that happened as planned - I contributed 80 some pieces of Populace (that's the reason why I weren't able to make soup bowls). My Populace contribution Populace at the Canadian Museum of Nature I also made myself a beer mug, not quite the same as those ones that I'd seen in Blumenau but it holds beer :) My display for the Guild's Christmas Sale I took part of the Guild's annual Christmas Sale at the Lansdowne Park.  It was in December (December 8 - 10) to avoid football games and it seems to draw more peo...

Happy 2017 everyone!  I can't believe time flew by so quickly, my last post was a year ago?!  I guess it's time to review the past year.... Year 2016 was a tough and yet interesting year for me outside of pottery making.  Earlier in the year I lost my beloved grandma, but she lived a good life, it was just unfortunate that I weren't able to spend more time with her.  :( For work, it was an interesting year as I was given many different challenges but at the same time my workload has greatly increased.    Unfortunately with an eventful year, some stuff got to give and pottery was the one.  Although I didn't spend too much time making new pieces, I was still able to participate my first ever Ottawa Guild of Potters' Spring sale.  I didn't have my own booth, just shared a table with 5 very talented potters.  It's a great idea the Ottawa Guild of Potters' sale committee introduced, it allows someone like myself who can't replenish my invent...

Year 2015 came to an end and here we are the first day of 2016.  A perfect time to review last year. 2015 was an adventure for me on all fronts.  On the work front, I had 3 different managers and many of my co-workers who I'd worked very closely for the past 9 and a half year left.  But I did celebrate my 10 years working of the same company this past October.  Guess that's a great accomplishment. On the volunteering front, I worked on 2 different websites (actually one is still in the work and should go live soon).  One of them is for the Miata club, which the club organized a big invitation event back in August and I did the website for the registration.  The other one is for the pottery club, where the club is in the process to migrate the existing website to a new server and at the same time the website was redesigned using WordPress.  The migration is almost done and I am hoping to get it all up and running in the next 48 hours or so. We w...

It was a warm summer day here in Ottawa, the temperature was around 35 degrees Celsius with humidity and with risk of thunderstorm.  And I decided that it was a good time to start the kiln.  :)  It was really hard to say NO when there is a full kiln load of pieces.  So this afternoon, the kiln had cool down to 119F.......kiln opening time! Top shelf 3rd shelf 2nd shelf with 2 plates Bottom shelf I am quite happy with the result, although the top shelf was still a bit too hot to turn Mysterious Blue a bit green.

It's June 6, almost half way through 2015.  It's about low 20C during the day and around 10C at night.  It's perfect time to start the kiln.  :) This is the 2nd glaze firing of the year.  I didn't take any pictures from the last glaze fire.  However, I did notice the temperature might a a couple of degrees too high for mysterious blue.  So this time around, I set the temperature 2F lower and also put mysterious blue pieces on the lowest shelf.  It seems to have worked out better. After all these years of training, I am still anxious every time when I do a glaze firing.  What I meant is that during glaze firing, there is still a lot of uncertainty; like would the piece stuck on the shelf (glaze runs off the piece), would the piece develop crack while  firing, or would the colour of the glaze turn out to what I'd expected etc.  This time around, I was quite lucky.  There was only one casualty (one with S crack at the...

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.

There are only 9 days left for 2014.  I would like to conclude my year in pottery a bit early.... It's a very successful pottery year for me.   I was one of the potters who donated 25 bowls for the Great Bowls of Fire this year.   I made something new....espresso cups. I also made a small casserole. I brought over 100 pieces to the Guild's sale in November.  I didn't make 100 pieces this year, but there were enough pieces to reach this milestone.  Unfortunately, I didn't do as well this time. Even though I didn't do so well at the Guild Sale, but I was luckily enough to have my pieces at a local gallery.  I am so excited about the opportunity.  This allows me to show my work outside of the Guild.  I am thrilled! There is still one thing left on my to-do list from the beginning of the year...a teapot.  With 9 days left for this year, I will try to make this happen (at least, I should have a teapot built, I will...