Monthly Archives: July 2014

Projects

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Creativity has never been a problem of mine. I have no problem thinking up new and interesting things to do/make. My real problem is following through on them. In order to try and keep myself accountable, I am going to post my list of projects with an approximate percent completed. This will be a helpful reference and it will keep me honest on whether or not I am getting things done.

  • Wedding Book 0%
  • Wedding Arch 10%
  • Bridesmaid earrings 30%
  • Groomsmen gifts 20%
  • Pottery for office craft fair 45%
  • Sketchbooks for sale 0%
  • Batch 11 of mead for the wedding guests 0%

I’m frairly sure that there are more things that I am forgetting. If I think of them, I will update this post.

Glaze Firings 2 & 3

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Friday and Saturday this weekend, I fired Δ5 (cone 5 or about 2151ºF). I currently only have three colors of glaze so my options are somewhat limited, but at this point in the learning process fewer variables is better. Notice the cones, the bent cones are from the first firing and the straight cones have not been fired yet. The blue one is cone 4 which will melt first and the green one is cone 5 which is the “Target Cone.”

Loading Kiln

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Bisque firing #2

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I have fired my second bisque with my kiln (affectionately named Arturito). This time I was able to fire to Cone 06 instead of falling short. The two cones shown are cone 05 and cone 06. The cone 06 is melted the correct amount and the cone 05 is still vertical. Its not a big deal to fall short on a bisque because the goal is not to fire the clay to maturity (and there is no glaze to melt) but it is nice to get better at hitting my targets.

Second Bisque firing

I was able to squeeze-in five bowls, five cups, and a small amphora. The amphora was thrown in pieces: body, neck, foot, lid, and handles as a prototype for a larger Greek prize vessel style project.

I hope to glaze fire some of these pieces this weekend.