So then this happened… after carefully taking our spoons to the kiln room, and asking the monitor if we could carefully slide them in… he said he would take care of them for us. Only to find one of Jen’s ladles broken on the “reject shelf” just a few minutes later. Thankfully there was a note… we knew they were fragile… and I tried my darnedest to fix it for her. We’ll just have to see if it “survives” another trip to the kiln.

I get it. We all do… and I know the kiln loader is putting in hundreds of fragile pieces! It was just bad timing as we had just offered to put them in ourselves… so if it were going to break, it would have been Jen breaking her own piece… instead of the monitor!

After the “eventful” firing day Saturday…
and a full cooling day yesterday, it was time to come back and unload the soda kiln with my workshop participants. I stopped in on Sunday to help speed-along the cooling process, as well as early Monday morning pulling a few bricks off the top row.

When the class showed up, we started taking off the kiln door brick. It’s always fun to see the “treasures” inside kind of reveal themselves layer by layer!

Eventually the entire door was off… and they could all see their newly soda-fired pots!!!

We unloaded the kiln, took all of their pots into the classroom while we cleaned the kiln, scraped the shelves and re-kiln washed the shelves. Once all of the busy-work was done, we could enjoy our potluck… and admire our new pots!!!

Cassie’s pots…

Kate’s pots…

Martin’s pots…

Christi’s pots…

Dan’s pots…

Charles’ pots…

Jacob’s pots…

And a couple of my mugs… as a little kiln filler along the way!

All in all, a great firing. Even with the crazy firing “issues’ we had, the work still came out nice. Good amount of soda, lots of flashing, nothing too crazy!!!

I think all-in-all, everyone had a great time in the Soda Workshop. I know three days are not really enough time to “learn” everything about soda-firing… but it was at least a good primer for them. Kind of a quick glance to see if they “like” soda-firing or not… before the addiction truly begins!

Tonight was the kick-off of my 3-Night Soda-Firing Workshop at Lillstreet Art Center. I’ve been firing the soda kiln for awhile now, and it’s always fun to share some of that knowledge with my students. The first thing I always stress is that soda-firing is very random based on the air flow of the flames & where the soda mixture lands. So we can “try our best” to plan for want we want… but no guarantees!!!

We started with a discussion & overview of soda-firing… then quickly moved onto glazing & wading our pieces. It was great to have some of my current & past student sin the workshop, as well as a couple “newbies” to Lillstreet. The group bonded quickly and were very helpful – working as a team to get everything glazed & wadded.

Once we were all glazed & wadded, we started to load the soda kiln. Always an interactive project with all students taking time to understand the process, the placement and the hopeful results of how location in the kiln might affect their final fired results. And then the loading began…

We discussed air flow, and how it will affect their pieces. The importance of putting different clay bodies in different areas of the kiln as each kind has a different finished effect. Luckily, we had just the right amount of work to put into the kiln… with just a few of my own pots to help fill-in here & there!

Once fully loaded, we added in the cone packs and then started closing up the brick door. Brick-by-brick. layer-by-layer…

When the door was finally bricked & closed… we called it for the night. For tomorrow I will fire the kiln, with students coming back in the evening to help add the soda mixture into the kiln.

Another week of fun on the British TV show “The Great Pottery Throw Down.” This was GREEK WEEK in the pottery studio… with a handbuilding sculpture challenge, and a wheelthrown amphora challenge! So fun to watch these potters working on their projects… many of them so far out of their own comfort zones. Not only with an oversized sculpture challenge… but also with TWO NAKED PEOPLE standing right there just feet away!

Click here to watch episode six of “The Great Pottery Throw Down” on YouTube.

So we started with the Greek sculpture challenge…

I mean, c;mon… who’s not loving some Rainna???

And yes, apparently in Greek sculpture week… size DOES matter!!!

And then switched to the amphora throwing challenge…

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Looks like my cousin Kim is starting her day off right with a fresh-squeezed sip of orange juice… made easier with a handmade citrus juicer!

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Another week of pottery fun on “The Great Pottery Throw Down”…
this time very illuminating & illustrative! Plenty of wheelthrowing which I could watch forever… but let’s just say there were some people struggling, some bisque explosions & some poor design choices! Good TV for all !!!

Click here to watch this week’s episode on YouTube!

So it was Week Four in The Middleport Pottery…
this time tackling slip casting & a wonderful wheelthrowing challenge that none of them saw coming! Another great episode on THE GREAT POTTERY THROW DOWN.

Click here to watch episode four on YouTube!

And here’s a “hint” of what they didn’t see coming…
always a fun game to play with my students both adults & kids at camp!!!

This week in my LILLSTREET THROWDOWN class, they brought back their “dice-decorated” maquette cylinders along with the taller vases they made using the first piece as inspiration. The second part of the challenge was that it had to be a minimum of nine-inches tall. It was great to see how they each “embraced” the challenge both using the single die to decorated the cylinder, but then again to decorate the larger piece. The “spirit” of the challenge was to use that “one dice-one tool” concept for the larger vase once again… and to use the design concept from the first maquette cylinder to create a beautiful larger vase.

Dice-decorated maquette and “inspired” vase by Jen …

Dice-decorated maquette and “inspired” vase by Molly …

Dice-decorated maquette and “inspired” vase by Norah …

Dice-decorated maquette and “inspired” vase by Taylor …

Dice-decorated maquette and “inspired” vase by Tracy …

Dice-decorated maquette and “inspired” vase by Christine …

Dice-decorated maquette and “inspired” vase by Helen …

Dice-decorated maquette and “inspired” vase by Jacob …

Dice-decorated maquette and “inspired” vase by Jen …

Dice-decorated maquette and “inspired” vase by Stacey!
This project came in second… mostly for the overly-creative way Stacey worked outside of the box and extrapolated her layered maquette design into a stacked & textured “layer” vase!

And the FIRST PLACE dice-decorated maquette and “inspired” vase by Dana …
mostly for sticking with the “pure intention” of the challenge… and for learning & re-designing her vase based on what she liked & disliked about the maquette… as well as the smoothest burnished surface ever!!!

 

 

For those of you who have been enjoying the projects that my LILLSTREET THROWDOWN class has been making… be sure to watch the newest episode of The Great Pottery Throw Down! It’s the inspiration for our class… although I can guarantee that we won’t be tackling raku firing as they did this week on the TV Show!

Click here to watch episode three on YouTube!

Last night I watched the second episode of THE GREAT POTTERY THROW DOWN
season three… and loved watching as the creative Brits were challenged to make ceramic chess sets.

Click here to watch the second episode on YouTube!

 

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