Another LONG day at the studio today!
Summer Camp this morning with 5-8 years olds.
Summer Camp this afternoon with 8-12 year olds.
And my Beginning Wheelthrowing Class this evening with adults.
Full spectrum of classes & ages.

Oh yeah, and I trimmed all forty mug cylinders too!!!

This evening was a very productive night in the studio. Wedging & throwing!
Already putting my new reclaimed clay to good use…

And since I’m just now beginning to build a whole new kiln’s worth of pots, you know I’ve got to start with my favorite… MUGS!!! So tonight I started by throwing the basic cylinders out of the new clay I just finished reclaiming. And I must admit… the clay was pretty darn sweet.  It threw very well. A good mix of who-knows-what???

After a week on the plaster bat, it turns out that my latest batch of reclaim clay gave me 129 pounds of FREE clay! Okay, so sure there was a lot of slicing, layering, pounding, layering, slicing, wedging, bagging and sweating… so I guess it wasn’t quite “free” after all. But you still gotta love reclaim!!!

Yesterday, as I was starting up the kiln, I took some time to clean up my studio and turn out some more reclaim clay. Right now it’s just kinda a pile of goo. But soon enough, after a little drying & wedging, I will soon have a bunch of “free” clay!!!

The kiln is loaded. My glazing is done. The kiln has been started.
Sadly, not everything fit in…

As I was cleaning my studio this morning, I “created” a couple stacks of bisque that didn’t quite make it into the glaze kiln. Looks like I’ve got a good head-start on my next kiln, huh?!

I’ve already waxed the bottoms… and therefore stacked them with newspaper in between just in case. I don’t want to risk any transfer of the wax resist while they wait for my next firing!

Did my own pseudo-triathlon today.
Rode my bike 35 miles.
Then ran another 5 miles.
Followed by an evening marathon of glazing in the studio!!!

Okay, so I’m not sure that last one counts…
as I also finished off 1/2 a bag of Oreo’s!!!

As much as I hate glazing, you’ve got to start somewhere. So I’m getting ready to pull out the buckets, stir ’em up and start the dipping! Let the glazing begin…

So there’s been a lot of “stray” bisque piling up in my studio. Lots of leftover pieces that didn’t fit into my last firing. So I’ve decided to share a cone 10 glaze kiln this coming week. Now I’ve got a lot of glazing to do… and most people know how much I hate glazing!!!

Last night, after my IRS audit and incredibly yummy “lunch”…
I wedged up a bunch of small balls of clay. Each of them 3/4 of a pound.
And then started throwing them all. On the wheel that is… not against the wall…

They all kind of look like cupcakes at this point?! But I’m hoping that after some stamping, detailing & trimming, these might become even cooler. Maybe even cool enough to become salt & pepper shakers?!

Okay, so I’ve mixed up a few. Dipped a few.
And now the results are starting to come back from the kiln. These were the first four tests… which were designed to be cone 6 glazes, but I thought I would try them in a cone 10 kiln as well. You never know when it might work in both, right!? You can always dream…

So here’s the deal… I’m looking fro some glazes that cover well, accentuate my stamping and maybe even do some really cool breaking or color variation along the way?! So I’ve decided to try a few new glazes. And if I need to start a little cone 6 firing for an added pop of color in my inventory, then so be it.

Like I said, these are cone 6 glazes fired in a cone 10 reduction kiln. I’m pretty pleased by the results. Encouraged by these results. And hopefully that the cone 6 tests will look even better – after being fired in the kiln they were intended for! I’m hoping to get the cone 6 samples back later this week!

In the meantime, if anyone out there has some good cone 6 glaze recipes that you would be willing to share, send ’em my way! Again, I’m looking for good colors that break well on stamped textures.