Hot Weather, Hot Cat, Hot Kiln

It has been hot, even hotter in the studio the past week.  Many days both kilns have been clicking away which makes the studio really, really hot.

Even my fluffy, long hair cat, Raku is hot.


 




Two kilns???? You may be thinking... Yes,(I say with a big smile).  I got a second kiln a few weeks ago, it is an itty bitty little thing. 

The Paragon Home Artist kiln is only 12" x 12" and plugs into a regular wall plug!  It even has wheels and one of those pull up luggage handles so I can wheel it outside for Raku or move it out of the way when not being used.

My husband, Stu calls it the Easy Bake after the kids play oven.  Adorable, easy and fast!  The new kiln allows me to offer 24 hour turn around on Paint Your Own Pottery and Fused Glass projects.  Oh so fun!

Keep Cool, 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

Clayworks at Kilohana

Clayworks is a really cool spot, located just South of Lihue on an old plantation, this pottery studio and gallery has it all.  The set up is simular to T Pots Pottery iwth classes and instruction.  Clayworks is the perfect rainy day activity for those on vacation, looking for something fun and different to do.  The "studio" with wheels, work tables, and kilns are outside under a covered porch in a tranquil, garden like setting. 

If throwing is not your thing, Clayworks also offers paint your own bisque and they seem to specialize in Raku firing.

Inside is a retail gallery space with some beautiful pottery from different artists.  The prices are reasonable and they will ship.

Next time you are on kauai, be sure to check out  Clayworks!

Bisque Load

People are always extremely surprised to see a full bisque load in the kiln, even other potters have are surprised at my procedure.

To see the kiln- it looks like complete and utter chaos! One person told me it looks like a kids toy box with everything just thrown in. There is actually quite a bit of organization and fine tuning to delicately squeeze it all in there.

My goal is to get as much in the kiln as I can. Being that stilts and kiln shelves take up precious space, I try not to use them. Often times they are needed, especially with many tall, fragile and/or odd shaped ones.

1. I start by nesting the bowls on a large table.
2. Next I stack flat items- plates platters with the larger on the bottom.
3. Put the above items on the bottom shelve of the kiln.
4. Figure out what size furniture you need to hold up the shelve above the nested items. Use smaller items to fit any spaces and thin slab type pieces on top if you have room without going taller than the kiln furniture.
5. Put the shelves in. I use two 1/2 shelves per level which sit on 4 pieces of furniture. They they share two of the 4 furniture stilts so there is support under the two corners and the middle of the curved side.
6. Find all the larger, odd shaped items (those that you can't put anything on top of and have it stay stable (IE pitchers) and put them in. As you can see in the video, I put them on their side, it is easier to stack on top of them that way and they are strong to put more on top of.
7. Fill in around and on top of the layer or put another shelve in,which ever works for the pieces (and courage) you have.
   
8. The last thing i put in are the tall things which didn't fit in already as well as those things which I can put something else on top of it, like mugs. If you put cylinder forms upside down, it is easier to stack stack on top of them.

I have had really good results loading the pottery to be bisqued in this manner. Here are a few tips:

• Be sure the weight of each bowl, plate or platter is sitting on the base of the the one below it and not on the vertical wall.
• Never, never put a large platter or flat slab piece on the bottom shelve- they always crack.
• If you have a lot of flat slab pieces, stack them on their side vs flat or do single layer. The bottom one always cracks.
• The crazy stack needs to be stable with out large gaps, as the clay shrinks during the firing, you want everything tight so it shrinks together.
• things don't have to sit pretty on the shelve, they can be placed in which way as long as it is stable and won't move during the firing.
• Fragile items are typically last and don't have anything on top of them.

I put together a video showing a bisque load being done... click here to see it on you tube.