Gee - Forgetful Me.

Well - I started this blog in January - and I've been so busy, I haven't had time to post to it since.
But I'm back.

I've been away a lot the last few months - taking pottery and glass courses. So, I finally have a weekend at home - I thought I'd catch up a bit.

First of all - not all pottery turns out good. As a matter of fact - sometimes - really bad things happen.

In December - right before a show (of course) - my kiln decided to get cranky - and overfire.
Now - luckily - I wasn't too far away - and caught it before everything melted completely.

Unfortunately - my glazes - all started to melt - and bubble.

This first photo will show you the unfortunate
result:

If you click on the picture to make it big - you can see the bubbles. This is supposed to be a lovely
light green bowl - with red celtic accents.











The same thing happened with this jug - it was sitting right
beside the bowl on the shelf.
So when I opened my kiln - it was rather upsetting
to see this.

Now - not all glazing accidents are unhappy.

I also had a few birdhouses in the kiln that did the same thing - and it was a real interesting effect. I put them in the
sale - and they sold immediately.


Well - I figured that I should watch the kiln a little closer for the next firing.

Guess what - it overfired again. Seems - in the first overfiring, the sensing rod in the kiln sitter became bent - and - well - a lot of technical jargon later -
we now have it fixed.
But not before I lost another shelf full of pots.


This Blue dragon pot - was one of the unfortunate losers in this load.
Even after it came out, and was ruined- I still like it - I can never sell it because -








If you look inside the pot - you will see all the
glaze gooped into the bottom of the pot.

What you probably can't see in this picture - is that the clay pot actually started to melt - and there are lumps that we call "bloating" down in the bottom of the pot.

I figure as a reminder - I can put it up on the shelf - and look at the outside of the pot.






The same thing happened with this unfortunate
dragon pot - which the glaze turned brown and
ran off the pot. It was supposed to be a
very nice green and gold.

Now - the flip side of this is - that these are still
quite striking pots. And a friend of mine that is
a manager of a business out of town - just loves
them. He has asked me to do several more,
so that he can sell them.

Go figure?


The kiln is now fixed - and - I'm working on
another load of dragon pots - keep your fingers crossed for me.

Not all has been rough going. I recently took a glass fusing and slumping course - and have decided to incorporate the glass into my pottery business.




These are the first two dishes that I made.
They are basically test pieces for me - using the different types of glass. There are all kinds of glass items that can be purchased for the process - and you just need to be creative from there.

Of course - with glass work - the most important tool in my kit (especially since I'm such a klutz) - is a box of band-aids.

I only suffered one small cut while putting these
together. So I am very proud of myself.


I've also taken a course in crystalline glazes - and I have the vase that I made at the office, so I will bring it home tomorrow - and my next blog will be about crystallines. Until then.........