Kiln Opening

We made it through the Kiln Opening and Sale last weekend. It went great. The weather was perfect. Lots of people showed up and the kiln was still warm Saturday at Noon. We sold most everything that was in the kiln. I also sold lots of pots in the Lookout Mountain Pottery Gallery. I have been making face jugs and a bunch of them left here for a new home. Some get filled with whisky. I wish I could make and sell Moonshine and fill my jugs. Here are a couple of the pots that were in the kiln load.

New Clay

I had bought a 100 lb bag of Lizella a while ago and finally decided to use it. I mixed it up with Fire Clay and added a dash of Feldspar. I made 3 different batches . I like the 50/50 the best for color. I fired it to cone 10 reduction in my good old Alpine . I made some mugs and I also made some small jugs and some Face Jugs . I really like the colors of my glazes on the clay. I glazed on small jug with Shark Skin Shino and ii is yummy. I have also used the Shark Skin Shino in the wood kiln and it was amazing .

I fired my Gas kiln Wednesday and am having a Kiln Opening at 12 Noon Tomorrow . It will be still warm. I also used a bunch of different glazes on the new work. I have no idea how it will be. The kiln was packed. It took 16 hrs to fire. The cones were even top & bottom.

December 17 & 18 from 10 to 4 with Kiln Opening ,Pottery Sale with friends

Ash Glazed pots

I have fired the trusty Alpine twice this week , I made some face jugs and they just crack me up. I guess Im now a whisky face jug maker. I also had other pots in the kiln . I had made some Basket vases and also some of my slab platters where in both firings. I just really enjoy firing the Alpine. Its sort of easy to fire, get to reduction and sit back and let the kiln fire . When the kiln gets to cone 10 on the top I back off for a 1/2 hour and the firing is done.

Making Lots of New Work

I have been making pots and firing kilns. I glazed Friday and fired the Alpine Kiln Saturday and I have a bisque kiln going now. Im going to unload and load and fire to have new work for Praters Mill show October 8 & 9 next weekend.

I have started making some whisky jugs and I have eight that are in the kiln now. I actually started to make face jugs. I think my face jugs are different than the face jugs I have seen. I am going to use my ash glaze on them.

New pots from the Plum Nelly Manabigama

We fired Tuesday and that made it extra hot , We fired in about 12 hours. I started using small wood and a propane burner at 4 AM and we had the kiln finished about 4 PM . We got cone 10 in the back and and cone 12 was flattened in the front.

New Pots fresh out of the kiln

Finally Ive fired my trusty Alpine. I have been making pots and just stacking them up waiting for the urge to glaze. After working on two old tractors , planting corn and okra in the big garden and repotting lots of my Cacti and succulents I glazed a load of pots. I have 3 big Bonsai pots that came out of the kiln and lots of platters and bowls. I also had made a bunch of mugs and 2 sizes of glasses and a couple of Bourbon bowls. I used Purple Haze on the cups and bowls and af course my 50/50 ash glaze. I used a lot of Val Cushings Tomatoe Red . I really like that glaze and its good in my kiln. I want to do a test with Baileys Red next firing next week. I amd gearing up to deliver pots to Perspectives in Watkinsville Ga. The show is 50 Georgia Potters

New Whisky Cups

I threw a bunch of Whisky Cups using some Jack Troy Wood fired porcelin that I got from Standard. I wedged in some colored grog that Chris Campbell send me. Im hoping it will show up as colors when I fire it. Im going to Salt some of the cups and wood fire the rest.. I am using a Dirty Girls wire tool that I really enjoy using.

Making pots

Howdy all, its been a hot one, I finally quit working on cutting up fire wood. The rest will have to wait till it cools off. I have stacks of logs and rounds to turn into fire wood.I just started working with some Jack Troy wood fire Porcelin . I have 500 lbs of it and it has been sitting for a year or more.I am softening it up and it seems to throw OK. Im thinking about signing up for a wood fire at Hambidge with Rick Berman or I will just fire my Manabigama. I have lots of bisque pots and am firing a load right now. I might have enough to fire the Alpine about 3 times. I made some big planters and large platters and they eat up lots of space in the kiln. I have been throwing a lot of mugs and wine glasses to take up extra space. The clay for the Alpine is Wonder White. I really like my Ash Glaze on it.
Ive also been working on two old tractors. A Farmall 100 and a Avery V. They are money pits. Its like I still have a sail boat..
Also have growing all kinds of weird succulent plants. I have been pollinating the Pachypodiums and actually have been planting seeds of Pachypodium Brevicaule a really cutie

Thanks for reading
Mark

Still Splitting and stacking fire wood

One of these days I will be a Potter again. Since the big wind storm/tornadoes Ive been cutting , splitting and stacking fire wood. Here are a couple of photos of what Ive been doing. I had to quit for today because its 87 degrees out there. Actually I get worn out fighting these big rounds of Oak. Once I get them on the tractor bucket Im able to put them under the log splitter . I am able move them around using a Cant Hook..Great tool

I have found more big trees on the property with there roots in the air.I think it would be a lot easier if I was 30, or 40 or even 50 years old again

Also Im showing a photo of our Bog Garden. The pitchers are growing and also they are flowering. I had bought the Pitcher Plants from Ponds and Plants in Dayton Tenn. We also buy all kinds of Conifers and other cool plants there.

Critter Habitat

Nona and I worked on cutting up the old Oak that went down during the wind storm Wed. I make piles of brush and have been doing this for years in different spots through the property. I have been adding to old spots and its interesting that the old piles have been breaking down and needed to be replenished. Of course there is no way to do all this with out my Blue Tractor with the quick release forks and bucket.Also its 4x4.

We spent all day sawing and lopping limbs to be able to stack them on the tractor. I have piles of brush all around the property for Critter Habitat. Its a great place for birds and other wild life. We have about 15 acres and a lot of it is still wild. We have lost maybe 6 or 7 really nice trees from this storm. We are also going to buy some mushroom spores for inoculating logs to grow mushrooms. I do love the mushroom soup that Nona makes. Of course I will have lots of wood for firing the Plum Nelly Manabigama.

Wind Damage

I havent posted for a while . I had Cataract Surgery and was told to stay away from clay because of dust and could not lift 25 lbs. I got the Go Ahead yesterday to go back to work. Well now work will be dealing with a big old Oak that went down during the Tornado outbrake that hit a lot of the South including the small town of Trenton. Trenton was hammered. Two people were killed. We lost power at 12:15 P.M. Wed and got power back late Sunday. Trenton Georgia is 7 miles by car and 3 or 4 miles by crow.We were very lucky. I will have fire wood for a long time.

Here are a couple of photos of the tree. It also took down 3 other trees

NCECA/Tampa

I was in the Larkin Booth for this NCECA with pots that had just just been unloaded a few days before we set up the display. Jim sent a box of soft fire brick for some elevations. I had Pots from Becky, Loren , Brenda and some of mine. It seemed to me that the crowds werent there.There were some great demos going on and having the Clay Galleries close by was a treat. Its great to be able to look and actually handle pottery that was 4 sale.

During this trip my Wife and her brother walked a beach and picked up a big bag of shells for using in the wood kiln. We also drove to Miami and visited with my Mom and went to a shell store and bought a bag of shells for wadding. I will now have lots of shells big and small for wadding in the wood kiln.

Some of you know I grow plants and my favorite are succulents like Pachypodiums and Adeniums. Well I have started takeing some of them out of the greenhouse. The Pachypodiums are flowering and in doing some pollination of a few of the Pachys.

Plum Nelly Manabigama Kiln Opening

here are some more photos

Opening The Plum Nelly Manabigama

We had a great firing, finally was able to unload the kiln. There were many happy surprises. Im going to pack a bunch of pots from this firing to be in the Larkin Booth at NCECA. Please come and see the pots my photos dont do then justice

Thanks for looking

Wood Storage

I keep collecting wood so that I can store it and use it a year later. I was able to get metal cages that are more or less 4x4x4 . They come from a friend that reconditions 275 gallon totes. They have a metal cage and a plastic bladder. He ends up with a lot of cages that he used to sell for scrap. I now buy them from him to store wood. I also sell his reconditioned water totes that I use for saving rain water

When I drive up to the Studio/Shop I jump on my tractor and using the forks I lift up a cage and park it behing the truck and just throw the wood in the cage. What I like about this system is that I only handle the wood one time..Horay!!!

Here is a photo of a cage I just loaded and a couple of photos of some of my wood storage set-up

wood haul

Getting wood for my wood kiln and 3 wood stoves is a interesting pastime. I mean I can cut trees that have been hit by lighting or wind damage on my property which I do. But that means hauling out the chain saw , useing the dremel tool to sharpen it , get some gas mixture cut the tree up, get the log splitter , spend the time doing the splitting then moving it and stacking it or find a place that I can get a truck load of hickory cut ready to use after some curing. I actually have 2 places , one makes pallets of popler , hickory and oak and the other place makes handles for logging tools like peavies and cant hooks. I also have a way that I throw the wood into crates that are 4x4x4 and haul them around with my tractor. I get a truck load for $20 and $25. Got another load today of the handle wood,,

The Old Alpine firing

I had 2 firings this last week. My crew and I fired the Plum Nelly Manibigama wood kiln and I also fired my Old Alpine. It was a hot firing where I put cone 10 down top and bottom. I used mostly Ash Glaze 50ash/50 red art and some Shark Skin Shino. I also had a few cups with Purple Haze. It was a very good firing , meaning that most everything turned out fine. My Alpine is a 24 cu ft that came from Florida Keys College years ago . I had to throw away the burner system because of rust from Key West and I put in a High Pressure system and it works fine, Here are a few photos of the firing