Down to cool off and glaze!

Sorry to be so incommunicado the last few weeks. Been working but "life" has gotten between me and my blog...

It is blistering hot here in central New York state!!! We do not have central air conditioning, and could not if we wanted it. Our house was built in 1840 and it just won't have it. So once again I realize how "green" my business is as I will be heading down to my basement studio as soon as I sign off here to happily glaze in a much cooler area. If you remember, glazing is not my favorite part of the process, but today I can't wait!

I have tested the green glaze in a couple of loads and today I'm making the plunge to apply it to the mugs. It's been turning out beautifully. The picture shows one of the dinner plates as well as a cup from another order that is a preview of coming attractions. On this hot summer day I also have a bisque load going (which includes the salad plates) but it does not heat up the basement, in case you were wondering. I have lots of orders and of course this big project to finish off so I will be loading and glaze firing later this week. Stay tuned!

The long awaited glaze...

is finally in! It was on backorder for over a month, but I will drive into the "big city" later this week to pick it up along with some cones necessary while firing the kiln. I am anxious to get it applied to some testing bisqueware, hopefully this weekend. The glaze comes in dry form so I have to add water and I need to run tests to be sure it is the right consistency before I use any on my customer's bisqueware. I certainly don't want the glaze to run like crazy down my pots and onto the kiln shelves, which makes a huge mess.

Right now I have a full bisque fire about to turn off. It is loaded to the top with miscellaneous pieces but I also squeezed in a few dry salad plates. All of them are thrown now but I have a few to trim in the morning and the rest are drying. It will be fun to start glazing those.

As soon as I get the green glaze mixed I'll let you know how it applied. Thanks for checking in!

So far, so good!

I have gratefully received the news that after using their new pieces for a week, my buyer and spouse are delighted with their new pottery! PHEW!! I always get nervous with custom orders since they are buying "sight-unseen." Can't wait to get the next batch done and sent their way...

As I continue to throw and trim the smaller plates, I think about what I have left out in this blog information. I realized I assumed you knew what wedging clay is all about. Now that I am throwing the smaller plates, it seems appropriate to tell you that wedging clay is like kneading bread. It is done to get the clay ready to throw: to align the clay molecules and to remove air bubbles which could cause major problems in throwing, as well as cause a blowup when the pot is fired. When the clay comes from the manufacturer, as the 500# I show in my first post, the clay only needs a touch of wedging to get it ready for centering on the wheel. That's the easy-to-use clay.

The picture shows buckets of "reclaimed" clay. All those bits and pieces that are trimmed off the leather hard pots and all the wet, messy stuff that's in the water bucket and any other clay that needs to get rewedged, all get thrown into large buckets with water and mixed together. From time to time I poke my hand in there to make sure it is all becoming evenly consistent. When that is the case, I allow it to slowly dry 'til it becomes workable and can be wedged again and thrown. I always have several buckets going in various stages of wetness. Many potters have a wonderful machine called a pugger that wedges reclaimed clay and is much faster and easier on the hands. I consider this a necessary tool for serious production potters, but for me, I can get by without it and besides, without one I'm even "greener."

Sometimes it's a waiting game...

Now I have to be patient:

I am waiting to hear how my customer likes the first finished pieces. Keeping my fingers crossed that they are a success and that UPS treated them kindly enroute.

I am waiting for my kiln to cool from a glaze fire which has several pieces from other orders. I am trying so very hard not to peek.

And I am STILL waiting for that darn glaze to arrive. Don't the shippers know it really is summer in central NY now and I can almost promise there will be no snow?

So I'll hop back on my tractor seat and start throwing salad plates... 12 wedged lumps of clay await.

Time to begin shipping!!

Yippee! It's time to start packing and shipping the first installment of finished pieces! These pictures show 6 tan mugs, 6 tan bowls and 7 tan dinner plates (an extra for my buyer.) This weekend I'll start packing them up, very carefully, to send on to their new home. Hopefully they will be well received.

A very important part of this entire process, and one you probably would not consider, is securing good packing materials. I have never bought bubblewrap to ship anything which means I scamper all about my little town collecting from businesses. This isn't merely because I am frugal-- which certainly is a huge consideration when you have a small business like mine-- but also because I am THE GREEN THROWER! Remember?! I try my darndest to keep bubblewrap, packing peanuts and boxes out of the landfill. So that means I have quite a nice working relationship with area businesses and my friendly UPS driver, who is always on the lookout for good "stuff." Yesterday I was elated to receive a call from a gift shop that had good materials and boy, did I make a superior haul. The only problem is that my basement makes me look like a hoarder...

So while I am very excited about this part of the project being completed, I continue to wait for my other glaze which is coming from California and here I am in NY state. When that finally arrives, I'll be able to crank out the other half of what you see here. Moving forward next week, I will begin to throw all of the 24 smaller plates. My studio space is a bit limited (though not because of my packing materials) so I did not want to get started on these plates 'til I had moved inventory out. The count is now 18 done, 42 more to go... off to the studio I march to adjust my kiln which has a load bisquing and then I will plunk down on the old tractor seat to contemplate my good fortune to be a potter.

Thanks for continuing to read my blog!

Moving along...

I DID throw the next day! I finished making all the large dinner plates and bowls that I need for my wonderful order. That was a week ago and since then they have dried to "leather hard" and were trimmed. They now sit on a shelf continuing to dry and will go into the next bisque.

In the meantime, my kiln has been going... previously thrown and dried pieces have been bisqued. Today my first order of business is to glaze those pieces which include the bowls and some more plates and start loading up my kiln for a glaze fire later this week.

I also snuck a glaze fire in while you weren't watching and all 6 of the tan mugs are completed! I'm very anxious to get the green glaze (which I had to order) needed for the other half of this project. The next post will show quite a bit of finished product-- stay tuned! And now, to the studio I go...

A new name for me?

Today wasn't quite the day I envisioned when I got up this morning, but that often happens... I had high hopes for throwing the extra plates and bowls I still need, but it wasn't meant to be. Too much other work: taking care of other orders, photographing pots, driving into the "big"city (Syracuse, NY) for more glaze, a replacement tool for an overworked one, and another kiln shelf. After many, many firings, the shelves can develop cracks and the last thing you want is to use a cracked shelf one too many times and lose everything and create a mess.

~~~~~~shuddering

What I DID do today was first, take this picture of the bowls as greenware (simply dried and very fragile) as I promised. Secondly, I started my kiln early for another glaze fire. In addition to some other pieces I needed to get done, I have some of the mugs and a couple of plates in there. As I mentioned before, it will be firing for approximately 14 hours. A few words about kilns: there are several types used in the making of pottery and they can create very different looks. I would love to have a walk-in gas reduction kiln in my backyard but I know the village inspector would frown on it. Another type of firing method is raku firing which produces very cool and unpredictable results. But practicality entered into the equation in order that I could work independently and so I have my own electric oxidation kiln. Now you might think 14 hour firing cycles must be awfully expensive, but for me it is very, very affordable. I live in a small village at the north end of the deepest of the beautiful NY Fingerlakes and Skaneateles Lake is one of the 6 cleanest lakes in the country. The city of Syracuse draws the drinking water directly out of the lake for the entire metropolitan area. (Until last year the only chemical added was flouride.) So as a "gift" to Skaneateles residents, our electricity is very inexpensive, which makes my electric kiln a no brainer.

Another "electrical" fact: I use an old kickwheel, rather than a compact electric wheel, that my dad found for $200 one summer during the college years. He bought it to encourage an entrepreneurial spirit in me and for several summers I used it to make and sell pots. My dad was quite a guy and it makes me feel good to think of him when I hop on the tractor seat to throw. I know he's looking down with a grin on his face. I'm grinning too because it just occurred to me today that since I only use leg power (and I wear a knee brace to show for it), perhaps I could promote myself as the "Green" Thrower!

Tomorrow: I throw...