Colored Slip Decoration

Yesterday was a terrible day in the studio.... just one of those days where nothing went as planned.  I could not even throw.  Today was fun, I eased into the day by mixing up some batches of thick slip for decorating.

Slip is just a fancy word for way watered down clay to the point of being a thick liquid.  My goal is to have colored slip stored in small, airtight containers for painting on pottery.  Since ingredients for slip (and glaze) and based upon dry weight in grams, I had been saving scraps and letting the clay dry to "bone dry" and brittle.  I mixed 8 small (100g) test batches today using oxides and stains. 

Stains are put on pottery while the clay is still wet so the clay in the slip shrinks with the piece.  The B-Mix we use in the studio shrinks 12%.  Above is a picture of the test piece I made today using the slips.  Once dry, it goes in the kiln for the bisque fire, a clear glaze will be applied over the entire surface then back to the kiln for the second glaze firing. 

A picture of the results along with details of which oxides and how much were used will be posted after it comes out of the kiln.

Teresa

Flower Power Pots

Gardening has always been one of my favorite things to do.  Our growing season here, in Truckee, is very, very short.  Gardening magazines are beginning to come in the mail, seeing all the wonderful flowers has motivated me to add some flowers to my pottery.

Daisy on a vase

I threw this casserole dish as a demo during drop-in.  Added the flowers, stems and leaves the following day.

The relief will be painted with bright underglaze then the entire piece dipped into glaze.  I can just picture the glaze pooling in the lines of the mountain scene creating a darker line of glaze color, a touch of blue for a river under the mountain and underglaze of green and brown on the tree.

Winter is a great time to experiment, try out new techniques, forms and ideas.  The cooler temperatures, higher humidity and using gas heat (moist heat) all make the clay dry slower which gives me more time to tinker around in the studio between kiln loads.

Hope to get these in the bisque load tomorrow, then glazed and fired by the end of the weekend.  I'll post pictures of the finished pieces!

You will have to let me know if they end of looking like what imagine they would. 

Flower power to you!  Teresa

Snow!

Today feels like winter, the white stuff has been falling from the dark sky all day.  Well, not all day, it started a few minutes after our morning snowshoe and is still piling up.

No where near the 10 feet some were calling for, the snow on the railing has landed since around noon when the deck was shoveled.  Do you see the ceramic birdhouse peeking out through the snow? 

The cats love watching the white stuff floating through the air, they do not like the snow sliding off the roof.

Raku is rest now.  He had a big day chasing snowflakes.

Enjoy!  Teresa

Low fire Commercial glaze at Cone 5?!

I've been playing around with some commercial low fire glaze and underglaze as decoration and addition combining with my Cone 5 glazes.

Color Chart- (by Cory Moore)

Commercial glazes lines up and down

Cone 5 glazes were painted on from left to right on top of the commercial glazes

(Top to Bottom- Purple, light blue, raw clay at "underglaze", celadon green, white)

It is really a lot of fun to see the spectacular results, especially the vibrant screaming red under my grassy green celadon glaze.

The purple (my favorite color) seems to fade to either violet or a dark blue, depending upon which low fire glaze I try.

When fired at low temperatures (04-06 range) these glazes stay in place with very little to no movement, on vertical surfaces at cone 5, they they run or "smudge" some.  I like the effect.

Element Chunkies look completely different at the higher firing temperature!  I love the way they still make crystals yet, they really run and "smear" creating wonderful effects, especially on texture!

I'll be playing with glaze effects more.... what do you think of the colors?

Positive thoughts for you today, Teresa

Spinning into the New Year

Life is beginninng to get back to normal after the excitement, stress and hardwork of moving the studio in November '09, the holidays and work. 

We celebrate Thanksmas, which for us is a wonderful few days at Moms house (check out her blog at http://pinkdogwoodblossom.blogspot.com/) where we celebrate Thanksgiving with a hike in the foothills and an incredibly delicous meal prepared by Forrest one day and Christmas the following with presents under the fake fiscus tree iwth white lights.

The hecteck holiday season begins after that with the finale of working the ER at Tahoe Forest Hospital from Christmas day through New Years day, the busiest time in the ER.  I also taught at Martis Camp for two days and helped with their budding paint your own pottery program.

As I said, life is beginning to get back to normal in the studio and at home.  Still busy yet, manageable and fun.  Last week I added an additional drop-in time on Thursdays from 10 am to 1230 pm to compliment the Wednesday and Thursday evening drop-in sessions at 5:30 to 8 pm.

A Mini Beginner Wheel Throwing class started last Sunday with an awesome group of 5 people, three additional pottery classes are scheduled to begin in January.

I really enjoy teaching classes and helping out during drop-in sessions.  I feel so blessed to have such a creating, engaging and fun group of people who frequent the studio.  So much of what I blog about is technique and/or studio issues, both are a huge part of what i do at the studio yet, it is the people and interaction which really make it such a comfortable and relaxing place that I am excited to go to everyday.

Enjoy Today! Teresa

Metal Flakes in Pugged Clay

Those little black specks in the clay are the culprit!  For months we have been fighting "contaminated" clay coming out of the pugmill... the first few times, I thought we must have had a stray tool find its way into the clay recycle garbage can but, after a few more times and just as many complete and through cleaning of the entire inside of the pugmill, I knew that could not be it.  The entire clay recycling program was put on hold for a few months while the studio moved to the new location.  After some time had passed at the new location and we had settled in, I decided to take the pugger apart for further investigation...

To the left is the picture of what the inside of the pugmill looked like, it is a close up so you can see all of the pitting to the metal.

The nice guys at Peter Pugger diagnosed this awful case of metal acne as "oxidation".  Well, humm, I thought, who would have guessed that after all of these months and safe guards put into place so foreign objects would not get into the pugger, it was all coming from the metal nozzle inside the pugmill.

 

Peter Pugger sandblasted then brushed on two coatings of Devcon Brushable ceramic epoxy coating making a lovely Tahoe blue color.  I did not get a picture of the fresh pugged clay, we used it all up already!