Last night’s class demonstration was plates & platters. My beginners are progressing
quite nicely… cylinders, bowls, mugs… and now plates! I explained to them that plates
are fairly easy to throw, and that the drying & trimming of them is the hard part.
In class I threw two plates. But of course, I can’t leave a plate plain…
so tonight I stamped them up!

The class demo four-pound plate…

And now for the six-pound platter…

Plus, we have new clay at Lillstreet Art Center. For years we’ve had the same selections
of stoneware, B-Clay and porcelain. We’re now trying something new from Continental Clay.
It’s Stoneware with Ochre… which from what we’ve seen turns out to be a dark chocolate
brown after firing in a cone 10 reduction kiln. This is my first time trying the new clay…
hence the slight “greenish” hue in the clay. It was fun to throw with… although the color
was a little off-putting.

After three days of glazing & wadding, I finally loaded my kiln tonight.
And it might be my tightest packed kiln yet?! So now it’s time for a couple hours
of sleep, a quick shower and then it’s pack to the studio to get the firing started!

But first… a few photos…
Here’s my studio cart filled to the brim with glazed & wadded pots.
Thanks again to my Dad for making me a wonderful cart that works so well.

And here’s the Lillstreet soda kiln empty… just waiting to be filled up!

After about an hour of loading, the back stack was finished. I have a lot of work, and wanted
to get the most bang for my buck, so I packed the kiln pretty darn tight. Barely any kiln shelf
is showing as every surface has a pot or a tile covering it! I’m pretty pleased with myself…
notice how close to the arch my tall textured slab vases fit right in there!!! Sweet…

Part way through the front stack, I realized I didn’t have quite enough large pieces glazed.
So I went back up to my studio to glaze a couple more oval casseroles and a few serving
bowls. Then it was back down to finish off the loading!

I always find the front stack (of two shelves deep) to be a little tougher than the back stack.
I think it’s because the back stack is smaller and earlier on… so you still have a lot of sizes
to choose from and feel like you have a LOT of room to fill still. When you get to the front
stack, reality starts to set in and you start to realize you might not be able to squeeze
everything in?! Along the way, you start to get creative. I decided to split the two-shelves
into two separate stacks. And when I got to very end, I ran out of tall pieces, so I “floated”
a kiln shelf instead of leaving any dead air space at the top.

So, close to five hours later, my kiln was loaded… at long last.

Tonight’s glazing marathon was quite productive…
and yet I’m expecting another even longer marathon tomorrow night!
Still a lot of bisque waiting on my shelves?!!! So much to do still…

After driving back into the City from Midway Airport, I had to swing past
the studio to unload my latest bisque kiln. And everything looked good.
Not a single “explosion” from my “still-too-damp-to-fire-but-going-in-anyway”
textured slab vases! I knew that they had to fire while I was away in Delaware
if there was to be any chance of getting them into Friday’s kiln loading!

Back to back kilns… So tonight I unloaded my last bisque kiln, and immediately
re-loaded it with another batch of greenware. This may not be my finest packed
kiln ever, but it was more about getting all of my textured slab vases into the kiln!

Kiln Layer #1 – A collection of mugs, bowls, ovals and some more “kiln filler”
that didn’t quite make it into my last kiln!

Kiln Layer #2 – A large porcelain platter by my studio neighbor Karen Patinkin.
Without this layer, I would have had an extra 3-inches at the top. And you know how
I hate to leave extra space in my kilns! So I slipped in Karen’s platter to fill the space!

Kiln Layer #3 – With a collection of textured slab vases… with the newest, not-quite-dry-yet
ones upside down so the moisture doesn’t get trapped. Somehow it make me feel better
knowing that damp bottoms have space to breath! Plus, a few glazed terra cotta planters
from my cousin’s visit from Minnesota with his kids! They’ll be excited to finally get their
projects back so they can start growing their gardens!

Kiln Layer #4 – A couple more textured slab vases – but these were too tall to fit in.
So I laid them down sideways! Plus, a couple more terra cotta planters!

It’s all loaded tonight… but I felt it might be a good idea to let it sit overnight to give
some of the pieces a chance to dry a bit more. So I’ll turn it on tomorrow with a little
pre-heat time and fire it slowly.
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With my next soda kiln just a week away, I made one last batch of textured slab vases.
They’re perfect pieces to fit on the top shelf… hopefully fitting in perfectly along the
curve of the roof. Unfortunately, I only finished these yesterday, so they’re not quite dry!
But, I need to get them into my next bisque kiln if they’re going to make it into my
soda kiln next weekend. What to do?… well, I’m going to put them in, do a little
pre-heat, fire slowly and hope for the best!

Ovals done & drying. Only a few days left to make things for my upcoming soda kiln.
I need to check my calendar & work backwards from my loading date
to determine what else I can still make, trim, dry, bisque & glaze in time!

After finishing the slab vases with some colored slip accents,
it was time to make another “batch” of something. I was feeling a little less than inspired,
so I decided to make one of my favorites. No, not mugs… but ovals.

This time they’re slightly smaller – not so much a casserole, but more of a bud vase or
tchotchke keeper! I was pretty pleased with today’s “production” mode. Throwing them all,
stamping them all and ovaling them all in one afternoon! Okay, so I “pushed it” a bit.
The ovals were a little wetter than I would like them to be… in fact, I had one casualty while
stamping when the clay was to wet, stuck to the stamp & wouldn’t release! It ripped instead!

They’re wrapped up overnight and tomorrow I’ll add the bottoms, as well as some
colored slip accents! Finish these off… and then it’s another batch of… something?!

With my next soda kiln less than two weeks away, it’s time to start making some of the taller
pieces that will go on the top shelves… and follow the curve of the roof quite nicely. These
large slab vases are a lot of fun to make with different textures on each side of each vase.

Now that they’re all stamped and ready to start drying, I just need to add some colored
slip details on them. Good thing Flat Stanley stopped by to help!

Yep, my first grade niece Taylor read one of the “Flat Stanley” books and is now watching
Stanley travel around. I received Flat Stanley in the mail yesterday and have about a week
to capture his travels and exploits around the city. I thought it only fitting that Flat Stanley’s
first stop would have to be the studio where Taylor loves to play in the mud!
Apparently Flat Stanley like to play in the mud too!

So tonight while I was in the studio, I checked the bowls we threw last night
during my Beginning Wheel class demo. They were protected under plastic
and drying slowly. Luckily, with a little patience, they were ready to stamp a
few details into a couple of them. If you want to compare them to the original,
check the blog post from yesterday… you’ll the difference a little stamping can do!!!

Bowl #2 – Flanged… and now stamped!

Bowl #3 – Flanged, Fluted & Flopped… and now stamped!

Bowl #4 – Wide Flange… and now stamped!

Bowl #6 – Divided, Pinched, Squared… and now stamped!
Once this one gets trimmed, I’m also planning on adding some little “balls” on top
of the four pinch points. I’m not really a fan of the “pinch marks.” So I think they’ll
need some “creative camouflage.”