Redware

I have a couple of prefired lovelies to show today.

These are pre-fire and pre-glaze. I am hoping for a close to terra cotta look once they pop out of the kiln.

I have discovered that red clay is very difficult to work with on the wheel. It makes porcelain seem like working with a cloud. It took me a while just to get the clay centered.

The thing I hate most about it is that it's MESSY! At least with stoneware I can brush off the dried bits and run to the store afterwards, with red clay, it has me rethinking the whole "apron" thing.

Big news!!! How could I forget to mention this! THE NEW KILN WORKS! I tested it with a very low firing cone, but it shut off great, so YAY!

With the new kiln working means that the

Houston House is prepping for classes! We hope to have more info posted after the new year!

With the new kiln came some extremely old glazes, and I mean OLD... like... glass-jars-and-crumbly-yellow-labels-old. Also, they are toxic, so no chip and dip bowl decorating with them. So I've dusted off the cobwebs, squished the black widows, and added some water to them... hopefully to bring them back to life.

Sorry--- no pictures. It's hard to take pictures when you're jumping and screaming about spiders.

With new-old glazes comes testing, so I spent a short part of my evening making small testing tiles.

I am thankful for Thanks-Giving, which gives me time off from day work to immerse myself in the studio!

Tips

I'm no stranger to Ceramic Arts Daily's site, and I post a bit on their forum, because many professional potters seem to lurk there, including the Potter's Guild President, Chris Campbell, whom I wrote a short entry on a few pages back.

I'm a humble beginner to many on there who have decided a full time career of potting, and many have degrees up to their masters for ceramics.

I savor each and every little tip from business ideas, tax codes, potting techniques, which tools they like, and one tip that was given to me by an advanced potter. Potter's need to take a photography lesson.

In Today's market they're simply not just potters anymore. They also take on the role of book-keeper, accountant, advertising agent, market analyst, promoter, and to make sales anymore you need to have an online store, which includes photos. That is something that potters of the past never worried about aside of having their work published in a paper, or in a book, but it was a great tip I never would have thought of.

Etsy, and personal shops require excellent photography to help seal the deal for many folks. Who would want to buy a tea-cup that's lit too dark to see, or is too blurry to see the details? Not many, that's who.

Potters, ceramic artists, and other arts and craft entrepreneurs have taken on their own photographic challenges, and in that challenge, someone smart came up with the idea of a Photo box/tent. A small fabric box, with a few holes cut in it for lighting.

These sale for $50 and up depending on what size you want.

Well, this is where it gets exciting. After surfing around today I discovered someone was thinking that same frugal way that I was, a made a tutorial on creating your own photography box.

You can find that tutorial HERE.

So, while my dreams of a Nuwave oven will be put on hold for a few more weeks, I'm thinking that a new DSLR camera may be in my future very soon.

Art Crawl

Art Crawl was good to me last night, and I sold some of my original day of the dead pieces that showed in the exhibit. So, it looks like I'll be back in the studio keeping busy!

Time flies when you're throwing on the wheel! I finished up a couple of pieces on Friday!

If you happened to have stumbled upon my blog from a business card, then please 'Like' my official page on Facebook, so you can keep up with updates, my blog postings, and any information on sales, or exhibits! I don't post ALL the time, so don't worry about me spamming up your front page with useless crap. :)

Check it out ...... HERE!

I'm working on getting my photos back from my photographer to get my ETSY store posted soon. Keep an eye peeled for my store launch! I'll have plenty of pieces to sale!

I hope everyone is enjoying, or enjoyed their weekend!

Thanks for stopping by!

Can ye fathom the ocean, dark and deep...

....where the mighty waves and the grandeur sweep?

And where squids and whales sleep.

I've finished another series. and they're now nestling in a nice warm kiln... unscathed and not cracked.... hopefully.

Did you know, that I am uneasy about squids and octopus, and I get satisfaction in conquering the beasts of the sea when I bite into some fried calamari on an Asian buffet?

Octopus and squids are weird. I was traumatized after watching something on the history channel about how they have these giant beaks, and can literally snap through a thick metal cable, which they then compared to a human bone.

Still not creeped out?

They're smart... REALLY smart, from the way they attack their prey, and plan their dinner. Screw Moby Dick. I am afraid of squids and other tentacle beasts of the ocean deep.

Why do I paint them and draw them? I don't know. I don't have a phobia, but rather a genuine uneasiness about them. Either way, I am excited to see how these turn out.

Also, here's another shot including two other pieces that are prepped to be refired after testing some glaze out. I'm pretty excited about them as well.

Blue period

Picasso had his blue period, so it should only be befitting that my pottery came out blue. However, my intentions were not to convey sadness, despair, or poverty behind my work. In fact, it was pure accident.

Hallelujah, the kiln I operate out of is fixed! After some test runs I decided to load it up with all of my porcelain casted greenware pieces that I painted an underglaze on, and give it a whirl. I had also forgotten that I had mixed some stain into a couple of the pieces when I was slip casting.

Well, to make a long story short, everything has a blue tint to it. I like it, because it mimics a rustic speckled look.

Since this was pure accident, then I'm certain I'll never be able to recreate it.

Ohio bowl.

I also have a suspicion that the kiln is firing a little bit hotter than expected, or it's ramping up too quickly, because I noticed on this load that a vase I had made for my Grandmother completely slumped over.

Also, I noticed that all my pieces were so smooth like they had a small hint of a gloss to them, but I had not added a clear coat to any of them. This to me is a sign that the kiln might to firing too hot, too quickly, so I'm going to venture out this evening, and by Cone 4 pyrometric cones to see if firing it to a lower heat will cure my problem.

I've been firing all of my pieces to Cone 6, which is considered high firing, which is more common for Stoneware, than porcelain, but I was assured that the porcelain slip I was using could go up to cone 6. Anyways, these pieces will all get a nice clear coat, and then be fired to a low temp, and then they should be good to go! HORRAY, finally some completed pieces!

Fur Sho'-

I have a lot of deadlines coming up soon. I have to get some pieces completed for the Member's Show at the Houston House Arts Center, and then I have a deadline at the beginning on September for an alternative craft show that will happen during the winter holiday season.

Pinup bowl-bisque fired.

Maybe it's a good thing I wasn't able to finish for the deadline for Crafting Outlaws, because I found out over 190 people applied to be a vendor, and they're only picking 50 people to represent. A lot of those people will most likely be vendors who were grandfathered in from previous years, and who have sponsored the event.

Birds on a wire.

OH YEAH---- I almost forgot! If you have a Facebook the you can 'LIKE' Little Black Dog Pottery now! Cool, right?

Click HERE for Facebook.

I have FINALLY, set up an Etsy store for purchases!

Click HERE for my Etsy Store!

PROGRESS!!!

What happens when an electric kiln does not shut off

Lets just go ahead and file this past week under the folder titled “Week from Hell”, because it was. Besides a lot of personal conflicts going on with cars, houses, repairs, and finances, I walked in on Saturday opened the kiln, which hadn’t been unloaded all week, and saw that my pieces had completely melted down into stone pancakes.

So after some chiseling, slicing my finger, and a mental breakdown, it was labeled a loss, and the kiln shelf was placed in the basement until I can configure a better way to pry my pieces off without breaking the shelf. I was successful on one of the smaller half shelves in getting it cleared, but the plates are proving tricky, and time consuming.

Yes, I am greatly disappointed, for the financial fact that I am out two gallons of slip. However, I am thank-ful that these were not hand built pieces, which took a lot of time for me to construct. These were just some cast molded pieces, but either way it’s sad to see your work go to the garbage.

Not everything melted down. One of my wheel thrown creamers made it, Paul’s sculpted head bust made it, and another stoneware piece survived. I did however, have two pieces that exploded on the bottom level. This kiln firing could be seen as absolutely disastrous.

What caused this mess?

The small electric box on the side of the kiln, which holds the mechanisms for the kiln sitter had fallen out of place after the screws rusted off the side of the kiln, which caused the lever that sits on top of the pyrometric cone to not fall, thus it had no way of cutting off the electric to the kiln.
I am only thankful that there was a class the next day, and they turned off the kiln after complaining about the heat… otherwise, this could have turned into something much more than just some melted pottery.

Another day, another lesson and -$20 in the bank.

Guessing Game.

I'm hosting a guessing game for the next pieces I'm going to show. These pieces have been glazed in a couple of glazes, and are waiting to be fired in the kiln. Take a look at them, and decide what color they're going to turn out, and you'll see the finished product most likely within next week sometime.

I think most of you will be surprised at the outcome.

These next pieces have a concoction of ceramic slip and black pigment, or stain as it's called in the ceramic world.

And finally, a new piece called "The Heartstrings that bind us together."