Pickles, ruination and a dog...

 

According to this page, that may or may not be reputable,  the world record for the largest potato is 8 pounds, but an unconfirmed contender may have topped it with a 25 pound behemoth that looks like Slimer,

Now, pots and such.  Actually we are going to start off this week with a bit of putting by.

What are these?  Why pickles, of course.  I planted some cucumbers in the garden this year for the specific purpose of making pickles.  This is only the second batch as I only put in four plants and it has been pretty dry, so not many cucumbers.  These are freaking delicious though, and ridiculously easy to make.  I heard about it on the Survival Podcast, or you can check out the recipe here.

In studios news, I got a load of stuff glazed and fired.  Here are some before and after pictures of the top shelf.  I am really digging the tall oval vase forms.  They are fun to make and create a very nice "canvas" for decoration.  Now I just hope they sell so I can make more.

There were also a couple other new forms in this load...small planters, small lidded jars and garlic keepers.  The small jars are possibly one of my favorite forms thus far.

And the culmination of the red clay (again with these references to stuff I put on Facebook!)...

Before...

After.

This teapot and all the other red ware got a nice coat of white slip before decoration.  It worked out much better for some pieces than it did for others.

Alas!  I shall be resting no spoons!

This spoon rest, for example, I tried to move too soon after dipping it in the slip.  Did you know that if you dip a leather hard pot in slip it will rehydrate and become soft again?  Good, because that is just plain common sense!  Only a foolish individual like myself would forget this and ruin a good pot because of it.

 But wait...there's more...

One of these things is not like the other one... some on, sing!

These mugs looked great after I dipped them, all slippy and just waiting for some sgraffito.  When I came back to check on them though, the handle had broken off every single one.  Not sure why. 

Not all of the red ware broke though; and I really dig how the survivors turned out...more folky than my usual stuff.  I definitely want to give this stuff another shot, but without all the ruination.  If anyone out there has any experience with this sort of work and knows what I may have done wrong, or even if you just have any tips in this area, please give me a shout.

As for the stuff that did make it...

The aforementioned small lidded jars and a couple of spoon rests immediately post dipping.

Jars and teapot after being decorated.

Large (16-17 inch) platter with a crane.

The larger pieces (platter and teapot) were sprayed with slip as they would not fit in the bucket, and that seemed to help the breakage problem, but the handle of the teapot still cracked at the bottom.  Knackers.  

These are all in a bisque firing right now.  I am quite anxious to get them glazed and see what they will look like all finished up.  

Actually I would really like to go to it on these things with an underglaze pencil since the experiments and the stuff in the last kiln load came out so well.  Unfortunately my underglaze pencil is almost used up.  And even if it wasn't, my electric pencils sharpener (which is apparently the only way this pencil likes to be sharpened) is jammed, so I cannot even sharpen what is left of it sufficiently.  Oh well, next time.

Speaking of platters, (We weren't really speaking of platters.  That was just a nice way to switch to a different subject.  It's called a transition; I learned about those in English class.  And even though that was a pretty poor transition, we are going to roll with it.) the platters I have been working on are all scratched up (decorated, that is) and in the kiln.  No pictures yet, other than this one.

The platters were too large to fit in the make-shift spray booth that I normally use, so I had to move operations outside.  Luckily it was not windy at all, so the spraying of slips went off without a hitch...the dog helped.  I enjoyed it so much in fact that I may (weather permitting) continue spraying work out of doors.

And last but not least...Saint Vitus!
Old school doom metal band ala Black Sabbath. 

Up next...Timmy Tabasco!

Post Script:  I have a show coming up this weekend in Belleville, IL.  Midwest salute to the Arts.  It kind of sneaked up on me, so I have been rushing to get some stuff done this week.  If you happen to be in the area feel free to stop by and say hi!

Squirrels, platters and how to store your butter...

 

As many of you may be aware, the world did not end in 1954.  The planet Clarion did not come to call but Dorothy was undeterred, even though the doctors were watching.

I was actually going to write this up last night, but firefighter duties put a stop to that.  Which brings us to the PSA portion of the blog post.

Fire Prevention Tip #089:  Do not allow squirrels to store their acorns and such in your electrical fuse box.

Oh well; so it goes.

I am firing a bisque today, so I don't really want to be out in the studio anyway.  Air conditioned blogging sounds like a much better option.  I did get a large platter trimmed before the studio got too hot, though.

Here is the platter in question right after being thrown.  I say it is large, but when it is all said and done it will only be around 14 inches or so across.  That is pretty weak considering I used about 18 pounds of clay to make it.  I have not made very many large platters, so it still a bit difficult to stretch the clay to where I really want it. 

Here is the platter in question after a lot of trimming.  I may not be great at throwing platters yet, but I think I got it trimmed up pretty nice. 
I did not take a picture of it, but the foot is undercut on the inside to allow for easy hanging on the wall.  I have tried making holes for a wire, but that just seems like and extra, unnecessary step when this works just as well.  And this way I do not have to worry about orienting my decoration to the wire.  I'm not saying I have failed to do that in the past...I meant for those pieces to look crooked. 
I am going to be making quite a few more of these, both because I need the practice and because that large surface area presents some very enticing decoration opportunities.

Speaking of decoration...

I am totally digging how this one turned out.  This fancy little french butter keeper thing is in the kiln right now.  I have made regular butter dishes in the past and liked the end result, but they are pretty laborious to make.  These are not as complicated (less components to put together) and are probably more practical.

And finally, Mitchmatic: Why Don't You Know?
Hip-hop-ish music, but not really.  Fun stuff.

Up next...ligers!

Bats, bags and seeing red...

 

I told my wife that 2013 was going to be the year of the beard.  She scoffed at the idea, citing the fact that thus far in my 30 years of life the extent of my facial hair growth has stopped at scraggly chin hairs.  We shall see...

Ok, I have a shit ton of pictures to put up, so words will be minimal.  First up, making a new bast system.  I never seem to have enough bats when making jars and such so I worked up this rig.  Now I will have a copious amount of cheap bats that will store easily and such.

Tools of the trade: 6.5 inch square cut out of one sheet of masonite, glued to a second sheet of masonite, 6.5 inch squares cut for bats.

Holes drilled for bat pins and notch cut for easy removal of bats.

Edges of bat trimmed down to fit inside splash pan.

New bat system on the wheel with bat in place.

In use.

Jar and lid successfully thrown on new bats and taking up very little space.

I think I may need to put a couple coats of shellac on everything to keep it from warping, but all in all I think it will work quite well.

Last week I went up to Krueger Pottery to grab some supplies I desperately needed to finish up some custom orders and such.  I got a bunch of glaze/slip materials, mostly in 50lb bags as they are much cheaper that way.  The only problem now is that I am not sure where I am going to store everything.  Oh well, small problems.

I also got a Talisman hand sieve to work up my slips and glazes.  I had been having a slight problem with clumps and bits of muck in some of the slips. 

The sieve works fine, but it is a bit smaller than I expected.  The description said it would fit on a "normal size" bucket, which I naturally assume means a 5 gallon bucket, but not so...falls right in.  I guess I will have to make an adapter ring so the sieve can sit on the buckets without having to muck about with it.

I also got a couple bags of plaster so I can finally finish up my reclaim bin.  Now I can recycle the many many pounds of slop clay that have been sitting around the studio.

It does, however, weight just slightly less than an elephant, so I will have to find a good, mostly permanent place for it in the studio.

Yesterday I loaded and fired a glaze load, which is currently cooling.  It is probably cool enough to take a peek now, but I am going to wait a little while yet.  Pictures of finished work next post.  For now here are some pictures pre-firing.

Bisque-ware pre-glazing.

Figures for surprise mugs.  Freaking great and much fun to make.

At ye olde pottery shop I also picked up a underglaze pencil to play around with.  I have tried underglaze sticks before with not very good results.  They were difficult to sharpen and almost impossible to get any detail with.  This new one, though, is cased in wood making it very easy to sharpen.  It also seems to be a bit harder than the last ones I tried, so it holds a tip longer and gets better detail.  My only complaint so far is that they smudge a bit, so I have to be pretty careful while working on pieces.  This, of course, is a pretty minor problem and should be an easy fix.

Underglaze pencil experiments.

I really enjoyed drawing on the pots and was very happy with how the illustrations came out.  We will see how they look after being glazed and fired.

And last but not least, a chance to Philbeck it up.

I got a bucket of terra cotta clay from who knows where and it has been sitting around for quite a while.  The other day I finally wedged it up and ended up with about 35 pounds or so of nice red clay.  Not enough to do much with, but plenty to play around with.

Up next...yoga?

Pictures of present...if I had pictures.

I am running one more load through the kiln this week trying to get some Christmas presents done.  I don't want to put any pictures up here, even though I am sure the people they are intended for will never read this.  That and I do not have any pictures of them so...you know. 

In getting enough stuff to fill the kiln I was carving a few things this week.

Rooster crock & large mug.  Both for an order...sort of.

Medium-ish plate with branch/vine thing.

  I ran a bisque load yesterday and unloaded this morning.  I had two plates in there again, loaded on top this time, and there were no fatalities.  Yay.  Everything is waiting to to be glazed and fired as I type.  It should get run through tonight, so pictures next week.

And here is a picture of my recent studio visitor.

I saw him running around the garage (aka my studio) on Monday.  He got pretty bold, sneaking out from under my work table and coming up right behind my dog before running away.  I haven't seen him in a couple days, though, so I don't know if the dogs scared him off or what.

And finally, some not very exciting news, but still kind of cool.  I got my first sale on Etsy last week.  Payment received, cup delivered, everything went smoothly.  So...there's that.  Ok, Christmas present and other pictures next week.  Until then.

-Rob, Simple Circle Studios

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.

The Past Three Days...

I have been trying to post this for a while, but have not found the time.  Now I am finally getting around to it, so here is what has happened in the past three days since I started writing this post.

Friday I cleaned up the bisque ware and got everything waxed and ready to glaze.  It is a pretty good load of stuff; a lot of tumblers and whiskey cups, some bowls, some mugs and a few new vases. 

I also had a couple of test ornaments in there.  I used to pit/barrel fire my ornaments but have not been able to get very good color on them.  Thus I made some ornament hangers to fire them with low fire glazes.  The hangers were basically cylinders with kanthal wire strung between the sides.

 

Unfortunately they will both need to be re-fired (or something) since the wire sagged quite a bit and the bottom of the ornaments stuck to the cylinders.  As a result I constructed ornament hangers 2.0. 

This should take care of the sagging wire problem at least.  These will get tested in the next bisque firing. 

Saturday was spent in Halloween endeavors.  I was going to write a bit about all that here, but I think I will save that for a different post later tonight or tomorrow. 

Sunday (after sleeping in for a good spell) I glazed everything and got the kiln loaded and firing.  I have a couple glaze tests in there; just some different clears and a satin to play around with.   I am trying not to be too anxious to pop it open.  It is currently at 650 or so, so I should be able to unload this evening some time. 

Now I have to get stuff ready for a show this weekend.  It is at a smaller college (Southern Illinois College) in Harrisburg, IL.  The spaces (if I remember correctly) are only 5.5 by 10, so I am imagining a big room, foyer, etc just lined with a bunch of tables.   I am going to have to rework my display to fit the space but keep it looking professional.  It bothers me when I go to craft fairs and it looks like vendors just set up a table and threw their wares out there.

Today I am working on a set of shelves that will sit on top of the table.  I will probably take a couple of pedestals as well.  If I have time I will tackle the problem of proper table cloths and a better looking sign.  Of course that will be between unloading and cleaning the new work, taking pictures, inventory and pricing, etc, etc.  I will try to take more pictures of everything and get them up here.  Until then.

-Rob

I was all by myself...

It is Friday night, the wife is out of town...what to do?  Well, if you are a potter with a bisque kiln firing and a child sleeping in the other room, you sit around drinking hard cider and watching Louis Black.  This guy is freaking hilarious.  He is mostly a political satirist and as far as I can tell he is spot on.  Great stuff.

This past Tuesday I once again attempted a continuing education class at the local community college.  It fekin' sucked.  I had three people pre-register and only two people actually showed up for class.  That is exactly nine people shy of a full class.  It is extremely disheartening to have a class canceled.  As previously stated, it fekin' sucks.

On a lighter note, the bisque kiln is chugging away.  I am really happy with a lot of the stuff that I have in there this go around.  I am anxious to get it glazed and finished up.  I am going to go ahead and use the regular clear glaze that I have been using on this load, I think.  I am, however, planning on testing a few different clear and satin glazes.  I would really like to go in the satin direction if I can find something that works.  I don't know that I really like the super glossy finish that I have now.  The satin finish (I am hoping, anyway) seems more natural; softer, not as harsh.  We will see.  Until then.

-Rob

One Step Closer to Dinnerware Independence

So lately I have been working on some place settings for my sweet wife. Here is the progress so far. They just came out of the bisque firing earlier this week along with some other fetching items. Ten plates made it through so far. I originally started with twelve, but two of them bit the bullet during trimming. They are not entirely consistent in their shape, but they are pretty close; just a couple that are a little off. I haven't thrown many sets this large, so I am not great at it just yet. I sprayed them with a couple layers of colored slip with a newspaper resist. They will get a coat of clear glaze and will hopefully look like the second picture when they are finished.


These are some vases that I threw a while back but just now got around to firing. They also have slips and glazes sprayed on with some abstract sgraffito work. Like the plates, these will get a coat of clear glaze before heading back to the kiln. And yes, the one on the right is broken. Apparently it did not clear the kiln lid like I thought it had.


And this is one of my favorites out of the batch.
My wife thought the the skunk was kind of foolish, but I liked the idea of pairing somethig that smells bad with something that smells good. I think there will be more skunk vases in the future.

Sleepy Sunday Morning

So this morning I get up kind of late because I had a fire call at 2am (I am a volunteer fire fighter, by the way) and didn’t get back to bed until 3:30 or so. As I stumble around groggily I says to myself, I says, “I know! I’ll start some coffee and when I get done unloading the kiln it will be piping hot and ready to go!” How’d that one work out? Not too good! I came in from unloading the kiln to find my counter tops covered with freshly brewed coffee. Apparently the filter broke, and the pot got clogged with grounds sending the brew everywhere but in the coffee pot. Since then I have been sitting around smelling coffee but not being able to drink any because I am too stubborn to make more.
Anyway, another fairly productive week this week. Aside from teaching a couple times and helping my neighbor tear of his roof, I was in the studio most of the time. I was able to run a couple bisque loads through this week, which was cool, but I still do not know what is going on with my kiln. The firings went off without a hitch, which is a good thing; but I don’t know what will happen when I try another glaze firing. I guess I’ll just have to wait and see.

Bisque load #1, featuring glaze testers, larger bowls, Christmas ornaments and failed canisters...

...and bisque load #2, featuring the beginning of the 100 mug challenge, more Christmas ornaments and low fire glaze tests. I don't usually do low fire work, but I had some glazes laying around from a few years ago and I was just given a box of 50 or so more, so I figured I'd test some and maybe use them on ornaments or sculptures or something. The vases in the back are not mine. They were made by my wife's cousin about ten years ago and have been sitting around unfired ever since. Now they are fired and ready to be glazed!

The mugs are rolling pretty good. I have 30 in either green or bisque ware. Now I have to start worrying about glazing…Ugh. It would be easier if I had some test tiles to go by, but if you read my last post you know how that went. Well, I have lids to work on, mugs to glaze and I guess more coffee to make, so I probably ought to get to it.