Right now, the new Ghouls are “green with envy”! A bit of sprayed glaze… looking kinda like mint chocolate chip ice cream… but will turn to a glossy clear glaze after firing! Getting ready to go into the kiln… one step closer to this weekend’s art fair!!!

Just unloaded another kiln in time for ART IN THE GARDEN this weekend. For those who like to start their day with a splash of color!

Another kiln done for this weekend. This time a cone six glaze kiln with some bright colors. More fresh pots inside cooling… getting ready for this weekend’s ART IN THE GARDEN art fair in Glenview!

Happy Belated Birthday Tina! Looks like you had a yummy birthday cake… errr, cheesecake… presented on a nice stamped & glazed platter! Making every celebration a bit more special… although I don’t see any candles here?! Thanks David for sharing the festivities!

Here’s a close-up…
perfect for another TEXTURE TUESDAY!

So Friday night I loaded the soda kiln… layer by layer… brick by brick… pot by pot. It always takes longer than I think it will. But it’s important to think it through while loading to allow some air space & flow through the kiln for good soda exposure… while at the same time getting in as many pots as possible! The more pots you squeeze in, the more pots you can divide the kiln costs over. Can’t wait to see how these turn out… as many of them will be going to ART IN THE GARDEN next weekend!

So it’s been a very busy couple of weeks… finishing up Summer Camp AND throwing & glazing a lot of pots. I loaded the soda kiln late Friday night after the final day of camp. My studio cart travels from the second floor to the first floor kiln room on a rickety freight elevator. So I use a lot of masking tape as “seat belts” so none of them jump off along the way!

One of the coolest part of soda-firing is the randomness that happens during the firing. So anyone who is soda-firing needs to be aware of this before they expect “matched perfection”… ‘cuz that’s not gonna happen!

Here’s a great example…
As each of these mugs have the exact same glaze on the interior. All from the same bucket of glaze!!!

But notice the color variation that happened during the firing… based on shelf location, firing, atmosphere, reduction, oxidation & tons of possibilities!!! A wide range of unexpected colors…. all from one bucket of glaze!!!

So now I’ve wiped off the top layer of tenmoku glaze so you can see the geometric shapes even better. I’ve also added the liner glaze to all of them. The request was for the colors to mimic the colors of the wedding… which is based off of a “fig.” Yes, the fruit. So we decided that the liner glaze would be a purpleish-plum color. Fingers crossed that they look good after the soda-firing!

Starting the mug glazing process… putting some tenmoku glaze into the stamped details. When they dry, I’m going to wipe the high surfaces so that the glaze stays inlaid in the indentations.