Here’s a few examples of the wonderful glaze effects that Steven Hill is creating on his pottery. His glazes are sprayed onto the piece in layers. Several layers of different colored glazes that blend, run, crystallize and do other magical things to create these incredible results!!! Sure, the forms are great too, not to mention the textural slip decoration.

I was glazing a couple class demo pieces last night and I saw this sign once again.
It makes me chuckle every time I read it.
And this glaze is different from any of the glazes how?!!!
Like all of the other glaze buckets where we stir from the top?!… NOT.

Well, the “instant” tiles I made on Tuesday before class turned out just fine. Surprisingly flat after the bisque firing… none of warping or cracking that I was dreading. The textures pop even more when I add temoku into the stamps. Lets hope that they stay as flat and un-warped when they come out of the soda kiln too?!

Looks like it’s going to be a long day of glazing, wadding and loading for my soda kiln firing tomorrow!!! I unloaded my last bisque kiln this morning and now have another large batch of mugs to glaze!

I’ve also been working on my holiday ornaments adding some glaze details. Still a lot of other pots waiting for their chance to take a “dip” in the glaze too! It’s going to be a LONG night!!!

Tonight the glazing continued with some of my new bottles. I’m pretty excited about these new shapes, and the possibilities of random groupings & sets. I’m pretty excited to see them come out of the the soda firing next Monday night!

With my last batch of “new” work drying for tomorrow night’s bisque kiln, it’s time to turn my attention to glazing everything else! Starting with the first big batch of mugs.

The first step is to clean them all and inlay the temoku glaze into the stamps. I painted it into & over the stamps, and then wipe off the top layer with a damp sponge to reveal the stamped texture now with inlaid color contrast.

If I expect to get the new Black Cats into the kiln, fired and to ART IN THE BARN, I had a lot painting & glazing to do tonight. So I started by painting the cats with underglazes.

And then a thin coating of low-fire clear to cover everything. Yes, do no adjust your TV, these are indeed green. It’s a special low-fire clear that goes on green, but works great for my single-fired terra cotta projects giving things a beautiful clear shine.

Late tonight I was able to unload my cone six glaze kiln… with gloves!
Once again, mixed results… but at least I have a few more answers.

Apparently, the top of the kiln is not getting to top temperature. Remember that this time I placed pyrometric cones on the top & bottom shelves. The bottom cones melted just perfectly for a cone six firing. The top cone pack however didn’t show ANY movement at all. So who knows how hot it got on the top?… we know it WASN’T cone six!!!

Okay, so now I might be onto something. And maybe this explains some of my “random” results. I’m getting tired of testing a full kiln’s worth of work to find another problem… more pinholing, more crawling, more yuck!!! Maybe once we fix the kiln temperature problem I can start to get some consistent results???

With “Art In The Barn” just a week away, I’m working extra hard to make plenty of new work. So while I’m firing a soda kiln full of new work, I decided to glaze & load another kiln. Why not do two kilns at the same time?!!! I’m stuck in the studio all day firing… why not tackle another project?! I had already cleaned my studio… so more is more. And the more I have in Barrington next weekend, the more I can sell right?

My past couple Cone 6 firings have had mixed results. More pinholing & shivering that I would like. I was hoping that Cone 6 would be an easy firing with quick, colorful results. Not so far… still trying to find the right solution. So this time, I’ve added pyrometric cones top & bottom to double-check that the kiln is reaching temperature evenly. I’ve also put on a much thinner “sprayed” layer of glaze on most of the pieces. And one dipped to see if that makes a difference. Fingers crossed that something turns out okay. And that we might find some “answers” along the way!

Kiln Layer #1 – spoon rests, tiles… and a serving bowl that I’m re-firing!

Kiln Layer #2 – two bowls, mugs and more tiles.

Kiln Layer #3 – two more bowls, spoon rests , mugs & tiles.

Kiln Layer #4 – bowls, tiles and more of my “Relic Rattles.”

Kiln Layer #5 – textured fortune cookies.. and two tiles that didn’t fit on the layer below!