Now for a Bit of Fun

Meet Puff-n-Stuff (remember the old kids TV show)?

I have a major affinity for dragons - and it shows in my pottery.

Anyway - Puff is a little Teapot that I've been working on - and he was a real challenge in many ways:

-How to position the spout and body?
-What to do about hands and feet?
-Where to put the wings - for that matter - how
to do wings?



Our local guild is having a "fun" teapot
show/contest in a few weeks, and I've been
busy working on this fella for a few weeks now.


I have to say - he has been a learning process,
as he is mostly handbuilt - and I am not a
hand builder.

But I think that is a big part of this whole competition - is to learn from our experiences.


If I had to do it over again - there are several
little changes I would make to him.


But for Now - I am pleased. All that is left to
do is put gold lustre on his horns and wings.


I think he should be a fun addition to the contest.

I'd love to hear what you think?

Crystalline Glazes

I have to say that crystalline glazes have been some of my favourites!

In February - I took a two day class with a potter from this area who is very well know for his crystalline glaze pottery - Jay Burns.

It was hands on - so we learned on the first day, then went home, made some small pots, and brought them back for glazing on the second day.

Now - for those of you that aren't familiar with crystalline glazes. There are actually crystals growing on the surface of the pottery. This is achieved by having the right glaze medium - and maintaining a particular temperature in the kiln for a certain amount of time, in order to let the crystals form. The glazes for crystals are very runny - and in some cases will run right off the pot - so you have to make little drip trays to catch the glaze - or else your kiln shelves will be ruined. Crystalline glazing is actually a rather work intensive process - which is why crystalline pots will sell for so much more money.




These are some examples of my pots:



(if you click on the picture you can make it larger to see better detail)

This first image is of 3 small bowls that I made.

Now - we did encounter some minor problems
with the glaze. We had to reformulate the glaze
to a cone 6 from a cone 10 glaze - and it didn't
want to melt and run the way that it should.

So you will see a couple of bare spots on the
bowls where the glaze didn't fill in - but all
in all - for a first attempt - I was very excited
to get some nice crystal growth.




The second image is just a closer shot of the blue bowl that I made.




The third shot is of one of the green bowls that I
made.

I actually made 2 green bowls - but one of them had a very large bare spot on it.








And this last shot is of a little bud vase that I
made. I am quite pleased with the
vase - there is a little spot under the rim that didn't run - but it was pretty good over all.


I decided to try the blue on top of the green just for a bit of fun - it ran nicely and gave quite a good effect.

The pot did start to slump ever so slightly - as we were firing these glazes to cone 8, and I was only using a cone 6 clay - but it's not too noticeable from this angle.

I have been collecting crystalline glazed pottery for several years now, and have a sizable collection from various potters.

In a future post - I will show some of their pots - and the beautiful colours that can be achieved with crystalline glazes.

Hopefully by then - I can add in some more of my own pots to show.

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.........

In the Beginning

Well - here I am. I've had several requests from people, to set up some sort of site so that they could view - and possibly purchase my pottery. I'll see how this goes - I'm not quite ready for an Etsy Store just yet.

So - about me.

I'm really a structural steel estimator - and project manager for a small family owned business.
What does that mean? STRESS!!!!!!!!!!!
I spend my days - looking at blueprints - determining what steel is required for a particular project, then I estimate the cost of said steel, labour, etc. Then - we are supposed to fabricate the steel and install it. Most days - it doesn't go that way. Usually - I end up trying to figure out why someone who has a diploma on their wall - doesn't know what they are doing - and I'm supposed to figure out what they want, how to make it fit, and get the job done with the least amount of cost to the customer (that was wording it all very politely). It usually goes like this:
$%^#^&&%#@#@%$*&@@@$#%$^%! (sorry - can't say those words here).

This is where the pottery comes in.

In the year 2000 (remember that - Y2K thing)? I decided, that I needed a little bit of Me time - and to de-stress. My mother had suffered a massive stroke, there was that Y2K thing, I had this farm, 2 young children, this crazy job, and just needed a way to relax.

Enter - our local community college. I took a beginner's pottery course over the summer, as a one evening a week getaway. To my surprise - I really enjoyed myself. Scroll forward.........
to 2009.

I still work. The job is still stressful (very). I still have the farm. My kids are older (one is in university - the other is in grade 11) - and, I still need to de-stress.

Only now - I have my own studio (Green Dragonfly Pottery) - so I can do my pottery at home.
Hmmm - so much for the one night a week out. I might have to re-think this plan.

My pottery is getting better. I am always learning and going to workshops. But now - I feel pretty secure in the knowledge that I could probably show or sell some of my stuff. Here are a few of my creations - I won't say latest - because I have to take pictures of some of my newer stuff.


These are my Raku sheep. Each are about 1 1/2" high. I love the funky colours - you never know what you will get with raku.

These are little birdhouses - again - about 1 1/2" high. They turned out very rustic - I will post a picture. Once they were glazed - the colours became very intense and bright.

Tiny sheep again - they all became mobiles - then they all sold very quickly. I will have to make some more - as I have to do a little class at an upcoming meeting on making mobiles.

This is a raku vase - I donated it to ARF (Animal Rescue Foundation of Ontario) for a fundraiser. I have a few more dragon vases ready to glaze - just have to get out to the studio and get to work (soon as it warms up a bit)
Well - that's it for today - don't want to overload everyone with info.
In the next few weeks - I will take pictures and post what I have available - and show some of my upcoming work. Lots of great ideas - and I love to hear from people with ideas for pottery, so don't be shy - leave a comment.

Until next time..........