Catastrophic Failure

Just a quick post to show you what I found in the kiln this past Sunday.

I ran a bisque load last week and, after a long Thanksgiving weekend, unloaded right away Sunday morning.  This is what I found on the bottom shelf.  What that used to be was a 16 inch platter that I spent quite a while decorating.  Disappointing.  Not entirely sure what caused this platter to explode.  I have a few more to decorate still, so we will see what happens with those.

I am getting ready for a big-ish craft fair this weekend at SIU.  If anyone is in the area come check it out.  There is usually some pretty good stuff there.  Next week: how to butcher your own meat.

Episode 423

MST3K 423 - Bride of the Monster: Mad scientist Dr. Eric Vornoff (Bela Lugosi) lives in a remote swampy area attempting to create an army of atomic supermen in his lab with the help of his mutant assistant Lobo (Tor Johnson). He performs Frankenstein experiments on intruders, takes revenge on his critic, and feeds his enemies to a pond-dwelling octopus.

This past week has been a decorating week.  That is by far the longest part of my making cycle.  Finding the right image for the piece, transferring the design then carving everything.  Sgraffito is a very laborious process.   It is also very gratifying though, finally seeing what you had in mind realized. 

Here are a few quick shots of the work in progress.  I am working toward a bisque firing next Wednesday, right before Thanksgiving.  I have a show at SIU coming up the first weekend in December.  I should be able to get one, maybe two glaze loads through before then.

Some I liked pretty well; some were just ok and some were duds.  I suppose that is how it goes, though.  I never really have a clear picture of what a design is ultimately going to look like until I see it on a piece.  Thus some designs I try and they just don't work.  Oh well.

Still quite a bit to decorate in the next couple days, starting with these wine sets.

And finally, a handful of platters that I was working on before.  I have come to find that platters take quite a while to dry.  They finally got there though, so I could trim and finish them.  I am by no means an expert platter maker, but I think these turned out pretty well.  We'll see how they look with some decoration on them.  Until then.

-Rob

Episode 619

MST3K 619 - Red Zone Cuba:  Follow the meandering adventures of an escaped convict and two ex-convicts he recruits along the way as they become involved in the 1961 Bay of Pigs Invasion, and a quest to find a hidden treasure in a tungsten mine.

Here are a few of the things I have been working on this week.

Some ice buckets that will be part of wine sets.  I am still working on the handles.  Next time I want to try moving them down the side a bit or perhaps altering the rim a bit to create a little more room under the handles.  Maybe a handle that goes over the top of the bucket; that was actually the original idea.  There's a lot to play around with on these.

I'm really diggin this new vase shape.   It makes for an interesting shape to decorate.  It holds flowers pretty well too!

These will be turned into spoon rests.  Although I suppose I could just leave them as is.  They wouldn't work bad as dessert plates.

Finally a few plates/platter.  Not really sure what you would classify these as.  They are about 13 - 15 inches across; a bit large for a plate, but a bit small for a platter.  These are actually the biggest ones I have made.  I am happy with them so far but they have a ways to go yet.

Craft Fair Quote of the Day

Says an older woman (50-60ish) to her younger relative:

"Did you see the priiiiice?!  I love coffee but I don't love it enough to pay $18 for a coffee cup!"

Then they both walk away with the $3 whole sale "crafts" they bought earlier.