Raku Pots for Encaustics

Here are a couple of pots I fired earlier in the week.  The top pic is the 'front' and the bottom is the 'back'.  They are part of the 1# series of pots I made as tests and are about 5" tall.  The glaze is Jerengan's Lithium with a commercial metallic patina brush stroke.  I like the matteness of the glaze and the contrast between that and the luster.  I'm not sure what "mood"  I feel is inherent in these pieces but will start the encaustic work with several layers of the basic medium - going for translucency and depth.  Then I will begin to add colors to bring out the underlying raku effects.

Cone 6 vs Raku, what should I do, what should I do?

This is the Blue Satin Raku with Seth's Luster over the shoulder.  Looks pretty garish!  I plan to get it into another firing soon and into post-reduction to tone it down.  Then encaustics over the body.

Today was a Cone 6 glaze class at the guild and I worked on sorting out my ^6 glazes to try to get some tests into the kiln with the class since they are planning to do 3 types of firings.  At the end of the day, I found out that there will probably be enought test pieces to fill the kiln so mine won't get in.  Oh, Ah.  Now I wish I'd spent the time putting raku glazes on the 2 dozen test vessels I have made.  Guess that is the project for tomorrow.

New Pots - Bisque Pots

This afternoon I was able to get into the studio and throw a few more pots out of Soldate - thankfully the last  of the Soldate.  I did not like the stiffness of it, even though I wrapped it in wet towels and left it overnight, it was still too stiff for me to throw without a fair amount of pain in my wrists.  But the pots look good.  A couple of them had BIG air bubbles near the rim so I sliced through the pot and altered them...thought I had pics but not so.
I also glazed an old bisqued pot made of Jiki clay with the Lithium Blue Satin raku glaze and put Seth's Luster on the rim.  I brushed on Sybils's Black Stain on the inside then loaded the pot along with all of the 1# vessels into a bisque firing.  We'll see what the greenware does to the glaze.  I will fire the glazed piece later next week and do a post-firing reduction in newspaper.  These are the first steps to getting vessels that I can paint with encaustics!

A Few More Pots

Into the studio today to check out how pots are drying out and to throw a few more pots.  The Soldate clay is still tooo hard, I've tried to soften it by wrapping it in damp towels (which usually works well for other clays) but to no noticable effect.  I threw two 3# pots.  The clay was so hard it was painful.  I've wrapped it up again in wet towels in hopes that tomorrow I can actually work with it.  I have also turned on the heat in the tub of Jiki clay to warm it up for tomorrow in hopes of throwing some tea cups for the "Mad Hatter Tea Show"  later in March.
I have so many irons in the fire that it is hard to figure out what to do when I get into the studio.  I'm not sure how to get more clarity.  I am thinking about signing up for Alyson B. Stanfield's ebook "Relatively Pain-Free Aritst's Statement" in hopes it will clear a path for me to move forward.

A Dozen Pots

Just a few quick notes on today's work. I was able to get twelve more small vessels thrown. All 24 are basically the same shape, narrow foot rising up with the maximum width two thirds of the way up and a wider rim than base. Sorry, still no pictures - I just don't think to take them. All 24 wil go into the bisque kiln early next week, at which time I will test a glaze piece with them. According to the guild glaze guru the problem might be with the moisture from the greenware effecting the glaze, bubbling or crawling.
I also want to do some testing of naked raku. I found some recipes today, one called for fireclay and we have some Lincoln fireclay someone gave us so I'm set!
The clay I threw (Soldate) was still too hard and now my hands are aching. Lots of Advil and heat later. The first set of vessels is thrown with Raku K from Laguna Clay. It's pretty sweet.

Trimmings

The studio work today was trimming - lids for the vessels and twelve cups to test raku glazes. I am wondering if I can bisque fire greenware and glaze fire pots in the same kiln load. One of the guild members mentioned the possibility of fuming from the glazed pots onto the bisque ware but I don't think I would mind that. I don't have specific results I'm looking for, these are tests after all and I do plan to paint over them with encaustics in a very abstract way. Sounds like a nice challenge and a chance for some interesting spontaneous results. Raku is pretty spontaneous anyway.
I had a few moments of confusion before I headed out...I thought to throw 3# vessels of a different clay to continue to work out the vessel form but I also think I should test fire some pieces in the second clay too. I ended up wrapping up the clay balls in a wet towel to soften them and will throw them tomorrow. AND I think I'll make another set of 1# vessels for the tests. Who know what I will decide tomorrow!
I continue to drink lots of tea and save the bags for the "insomnia encaustic" piece...well and to get to sleep at night. I drink a big cup of Extra Sleepy Time Tea every night and sleep like a baby. (Keeping in mind that most of the babies I've been around lately don't sleep all that well.)

Encaustics on Ceramics...Here I come!

I found out today that I DID get the post-conference I wanted, three days of working with encaustics and ceramics with Kim Bernard! I have lots of work to do to be ready to take advantage of this opportunity.
I have been throwing small vessels (1# of clay) to begin testing raku glazes. I have a dozen ready to bisque so testing will start soon. The small vessels are maquettes of the vessel I want to make for the juried show, so I am beginning to work out the details of the shape.
I continue to think about all of the details I need to take care of to be ready to submit my entry for that show. Scary and exciting at the same time. I need to update my artist's statement, get new business cards, update the web site, oh, and make work!
To make things more interesting my delightful grand-daughter has gifted me with her cold.

Lids...oops!

After throwing the lids for the vessels, I set them out to begin drying...and forgot them! I did remember later - 11pm - and went back to the studio and covered them up. Whew. I doubt I'll get to them today but tomorrow I'll get them finished. Pics then hopefully. Today I get to be grandma.

More details about Goals

Now that I have listed my major goals, I find that I need to break them down into smaller pieces - well, that is what the experts tell you to do anyway. And don't forget to celebrate!

Mad Hatter Tea Party:

• save enough tea bags to use in the work I envision
• look up quotes about insomnia
• look for images about or referencing insomnia (could I use a pic of me at 3am not sleeping?)
• choose a size and support
• Then melt and start applying wax

The teapot and cups are a whole 'nother ball of wax, pun intended

The Juried show due in April has many more layers of goals. I feel I need a presence on the web, need to clean up my artist's statement, obviously need high quality work and high quality photos of that work. This blog is an important piece.

Today I'm finishing up some thrown ceramic pieces on which I'll paint w/encaustics. The throwing I need to do today is to make lids for a couple of vessels. I envision gear shapes. I've marked the rim of the vessel with radial lines so it looks a bit gear-like, gears = control, in my mind. ( pics to follow) While I tossed and turned last night I tried to figure out how to shape the lids, imagining throwing them upside down, off the hump. (pic of that too)

They then need bisque firing and glaze firing, most likely raku with a blue/luster combination. That combination of glazes has not been tested on my clay so that needs to be done. I did mix up the two glazes yesterday and have some pieces on which to test them. Could happen on Sunday.

The images for the April show need to be ready by the first of March so that work needs to be made this month too. Hopefully, some of the images for the other two projects can be used for this.

More and BIGGER Goals

I am so bad about goals - I can set them kind of with my fingers crossed - knowing that only I will know that I haven't met them. So here I am setting important goals for any and all to read and keep me accountable. (Even though I know there are few of you out there reading and keeping account.) I'm hoping that it will work on some level in my brain.
What I want to do is list the goals and timeline in the sidebar and check them off as I achieve them. Two things happen there; one, I learn more about this blogging stuff and two, I set and meet my goals! Both good things.