Salt Kiln Shed

We worked on the building for the Salt Kiln today. The weather was wonderfull. It was great working in a T-shirt and we saw the sun. WOW.. We got a bunch of the rafters up but now we need to add 6 feet of chimney and I need to clean bricks and that is a nasty job. I need to get a filter for my full face mask.

Face Pots

I just finished 6 pots for holding plants , they have no holes . Once in a while I will sit down and make some of these. It seems that this cold weather is good for some thing. When it warms up I will be busy outside doing yard stuff like making new planting beds and playing on my tractor.

I learned how to use and make press molds from David Dye when I was at the University of South Florida in 1972. We would work on planters together. I would throw and put handles on hanging baskets and David would come and put all kinds of crazy press molds on the baskets. We would Raku them so that they were black and we would plant them with strawberry plants. I wish I still had one of them. I have different things in my studio that I have made press molds from.

I had made 3 of these planters and we had them at the house, my wife put 2 of them in the gallery during our kiln opening and Holiday sale. Well we ended up selling them. I really make these for myself and my plants. I will most likely use a shino on them.

That is also a photo of Elvis Issenberg ,nothing but a hound dog

Altered Flower Vases

Im back in the studio making pots, Yay,, Im making a group of Altered vases . I will be at the Alabama Clay Conference demonstrating in the Potters Council space . http://ceramicsartdaily.org/potters-council12011-alabama-clay-conference/

I really like making these vases. Some I sell with a metal frog or Kenzan to hold the flowers. Im trying to slowly dry them. I have wood heat in my shop and it gets warm quickly. I have been keeping them covered to somewhat control the drying. I guess the hard part to fiqure out is do I want to wood fire them or use Ash Glaze and Gas fire them. Im really looking forward to the Alabama Clay Conference and hoping to eat some fresh sea food in Mobile

slab platters

So besides just trying to stay warm and hauling wood around to all the wood stoves Ive been making slab platters.I mostly start a new clay cycle doing hand built pottery before I get in the swing of making thrown work. I am really lucky to have a great 4X drive tractor to keep my walkways open .

I have been using up all the forms in my shop for making my slab platters. I have some really nice big woks and small woks and other forms that I have collected over the years. I have them hanging in the shop on hooks when Im not using them. I was able to buy the big woks at a used restaurant supply house. They sell used stuff. My woks had at least 4 inches of grease built up on them. I had them sand blasted and painted . The problem with the slab stuff is they really take lots of space. Im going to have to start throwing shortly and want to make a group of altered pots like the ones that I will be demonstrating at the Alabama Clay Conference. I will be throwing in the Potters Council Booth

4 X wheeling in the snow

Just finished back blading my property so that I can walk up to the Pottery Shop. I knocked down 6" of snow to 1" of snow. Now its easier to walk to the green house and back and forth to the Shop. I have a wood stove in a green house and the shop that Im keeping running. I let the wood stove in the house be cool for the day. So I have 3 woods stoves and wood eating kiln. OH My!

Started doing slab platters yesterday . Made 8 platters and hoping to put feet on them today. I thought I should use the slab roller now before it gets covered up with stuff. I uncovered it for the Kiln Opening and Pottery Sale.

Bonsai Pots and Cactus Planters

Just finally was able to unload the firing with all the Bonsai Pots and Cactus Planters. I grow lots of Succulents like Adeniums and Pachypodiums. They are African shrubs. They flower and have great fat bases and become succulent bonsai. I actually polinate the plants when they are flowering. I have a 30x50 green house full of them. When it warms up again I move all of them outside for the spring ,summer,and fall.

I glazed the planters with Shinos ,TomatoRed, Ash Glaze, and Temmoku , then fired to cone 10 reduction in my old Alpine.

ash glaze

I fired for my kiln opening and most of the clay I used was Orange Stone from Highwater Clay. I had about 400 lbs sitting around and was out of Wonder White also from Highwater . I ran the Orangestone through my Peter Pugger to soften it up for me to throw. It was sitting for more than a year. I new that it would make my iron glazes look good and they did. I sold every bowl and platter from the kiln. I used Angel Eyes and also used Vals Tomato Red. That is a really nice iron red.

The reason I like the Wonder White is because it makes my Ash Glaze sparkle . Here is a photo of two mugs , one is Wonder White and the other is Orangestone.

Well I now have more that 2,000 lbs of Wonder White again so I am looking forward to a New Year of making Wonder White pots again.

I also have some Phoenix for the wood kiln and have some Jack Troy wood fire clay and some McKensie Smith wood fire clay from Standard for the wood kiln. I will be firing the Plum Nelly Manabigama January 20 with the group from Mid-South

My ash Glaze is 50 ash and 50 Red Art