More cylinders. More mugs. More FUN!!!

And then today after Summer Camp, I decided to re-fill my “recently-emptied” reclaim bucket. So I washed it down and started filling it with porcelain scraps. A potter friend in Minneapolis gives me ALL of her reclaim scraps… so I have a lot of dried porcelain to process. This afternoon I started pulverizing, filling my bin and then adding water to help slake it down. A little bit of work to get a whole lot of FREE clay!!!

Yesterday, after summer camp, I turned out a huge pile of reclaimed clay. These are all of my scraps & trimmings from my weeks of art fair production. I broke down the scraps and soaked them in water for a few weeks. The trimmings are nice & gooey. So I mixed it up and turned it out onto a large plaster bat to help absorb the excess moisture. When it stiffens up a bit, I’ve going to have a LOT of wedging to do!!!

Here’s the back stack of the kiln… loaded piece by piece, shelf by shelf, post by post.

And a quick bird’s-eye-view of some wall pocket vases & ornaments mixed together.

So after a couple hours of focused kiln loading, my kiln was finally full. Pretty much everything fit in… just a few “strays” that will hopefully sneak into the next firing. Pretty pleased with my loading… it took quite awhile, but there’s not any spare space unused in this kiln Hopefully it’s not packed too tight for the soda mixture to fly around inside and hit all of the pots. I guess we’ll find out Monday when I unload?!

Time to close it up, brink up the door… then add a little heat to dry things out.
I’ll be back early tomorrow morning to get it all started.

Had to start somewhere… so first up were these simple ikebana vase disks.

Another fresh batch of mugs with new handles.
The perfect way to finish off another Mugshot Monday!

It all started with some stamped cylinders and some freshly pulled handles.

And ended with another batch of mugs… stamped, handled and ready to start drying!

Well, it’s been a busy day of making more mugs! You know they’re my favorite!
Half of them are stoneware with iron – destined for cone 10 reduction glazes.
And the other half are B-clay reclaim – destined for cone 6 oxidation glazes.

And here’s a closer look… details, patterns,  and stamped textures!

Wedged clay cut into little carrot shapes. Pulled with a little wet friction.
When I get them to a desired width & thickness, I flip them over and set them up so they can stiffen up a bit. In about 15 minutes, I’ll start attaching them to the mug cylinders.

Finally got all the parts of my class demo teapot assembled…
and then did a little detailing with some colored flashing slip.

Just fanning through some slick pages in the mystery box. Good to see it all came together nicely. I’ve very excited, and very pleased. I love it. Can’t wait for everyone to see!!! Oh wait… maybe you’ve already seen it by now???