Made some glaze testers

As the topic says I made some new glaze testers. Pretty much just a piece of clay with some texture that you cover with either one glaze or two to see how they turn out before you put it on a piece you actually care about.

Two new pots I am working on

Here are a few before and after pictures of two pots I threw on monday and carved today.

Weird

Made and fired this pot atleast a month ago, I had mixed in some Franklin NJ fluorescent mineral chips which are mostly calcium carbonate. That doesn't melt or frit at bisque temperatures but apparently this stuff does? So one hot and humid day I go to look at it and about 50 or so chips popped off and in the center were the graphite looking rocks I put in that shouldnt have done what they did. They must have absorbed the moisture from the air and expanded. There doesn't appear to be any structural cracks on the pot so it should still be salvagable. I'm definitely not mixing those large chunks into any more clay though. I am going to let it sit for a while on the shelf to make sure all of the rocks expand. Wouldn't want any explosions when I glaze it.

My teacher was curious about the rocks also so she took a bunch and put them in the last bisque firing in a bowl. I think we are going to explore glazing possibilities with the minerals at some point.

ready to bisque

All finished carving and sanding this. Ready for bisque firing.

more work done

did a bunch of carving to the base of this. should be done this week.

working on new thing

Worked on new pot tonight, got some carving done.

Current Projects

The three things below are bisque fired but are the most recent things made and fired in the new place. the small bowl was a group effort by my lady and I. The two pots in the one image are still greenware, the really big one i just made last night, i havent done any trimming/carving on it yet. Might be done that next week, we'll see. and the smaller one is pretty much all done, I am just waiting for it to dry more so I can sand it and put my name on it. Then it will be ready to put on the bisque shelf and into the kiln.

New Group Studio Space

Here are some pictures I took with my phone of the new studio space I was a part of. I really liked it. (Updated: no longer part of it as of 2017, work from home now)

some new and old pics from phone

new studio in top photo, i will paste more when i take more, the new place is awesome. storefront, lots of windows.