More pottery pictures!

We got a bunch of great stuff out of the kilns today. Here's a picture of my little sales corner. The shelves are pretty much all packed full. The sale starts tomorrow--we'll see how it all goes.

The rest of the pictures are after the jump.









Here's the plate, all glazed up and everything. Four glazes, white, rutile, celadon, and temmoku. I had to put wax on top of the white and rutile glazes in the corners there to make it all come out the way I wanted it to. I've been thinking about doing more plates in a really art deco style, but I'm not sure how to do the glaze; this was an experiment.


A bowl, in temmoku.

A different bowl, in temmoku. Size and glaze quality have made this my most expensive bowl. One of the other potters already said she wants it if it doesn't sell this weekend.



Here are two more bowls. The folded bowl on the right there is white and... something, I think maybe off-white. It's pretty nice. The other bowl there is done with the same glaze combination as the purple vase from the earlier series of photos. Really thin rim on that, but I suspect it'll sell anyway.



How's for this little red bowl? I didn't like it before. Much like the purple vase, when I don't really like something I take risks with it. This is done entirely in our house barium red glaze. Barium reds can be very runny and drippy, but on this bowl it turned out great. (Side note: though technically this is a "barium red," the recipe we use actually replaces the barium with strontium, so it's safe to eat out of.)






Here's that pitcher I hate. I tried to do the purple glaze thing on it. It sort of worked, in places. I still hate it. I priced it at eight bucks, but another potter said it was nice and I could get 20 for it. I priced it at eight bucks. Some things, you just hate.












Here's a selection of items. The pitcher on the left got sort of messed up in the kiln, and the glaze on the interior--apple blossom again--never fully vitrified. I tested it today and the pitcher still holds water, so all is well. The pattern in the glaze is nice. In the middle is a smaller bowl of no particular distinction. On the right is a little wee jug, which sat on the floor of the kiln, and when we threw the salt in, a clump of it stuck to the bowl. You can see the damage there on the bottom, but it's still sort of a cute little thing so we'll see if it sells.



Here's a beautiful little jar that should have been even more beautiful had I not added too much water to the glaze. It's glazed with Apple Blossom, but darn it I just couldn't get the glaze thick enough on the pot. The manganese in the glaze spotted up real nice, though. Still, I can't but be a little disappointed.











Just so you have the right idea, this is what Apple Blossom is supposed to look like. I love this glaze, if I could just get it to work.













In the same vein, here's a closeup of one of the little cups I have, with the Nickel Blue glaze on the inside. This is gas fired. I do like this glaze but it needs tweaking.













And here's an example of the nickel blue glaze as it fired in the salt kiln. I actually like it better here, on the jar to the right. The jar to the left is that smooth lidded jar. It really looks nice; this is the most expensive piece on my shelves.









And here is another look at that lidded jar. The glaze inside is a nice plain clear glaze, but the outside's what I like about it. In reality, a folk potter wouldn't have bothered to make glaze and then glaze the insides of his jars and jugs; he'd just let the salt do all the work. Of course, he'd also fire the lid separate from the jar itself, so, we all make compromises.







Here's a selection of jugs right after they came out of the kiln. Check out that cool jug on the top left. It's amazingly dark, and the little white X's came out pretty cool.








A couple of those nicely glazed jugs. These are two different clay bodies, Orange Stone on the left and Toast on the right. Note that I gave them little corks. That's value added for you the consumer...








Two more jugs. I just love jugs. Check out the fat jug on the left, also made of Toast. (Well, it's made of clay, but the clay is called Toast.) The jug on the right is, again, glazed (top half only) with Apple Blossom, which once again is much too thin. But doesn't that thing look cool? I love it. It sat on the bottom shelf in the kiln, too, but nothing got stuck to it. Instead, the big spots there are where large grains of salt attached to the jug and melted, amongst the general salt air in the kiln (which is what makes the brown glaze). This didn't turn out at all like I expected, but I very much like it.


And here it is, the best dadgum thing to come out of this kiln. (Along with that cool dark jug in the background). That's high praise; I'm really happy with most of these pieces, even (especially?) the ones that surprised me. But this piece... well, I loved this piece to begin with. It came out of the kiln beautifully. But you know... well, it's really a shame, but a tiny little bit of wadding fell into the jar during the firing and fused with the glaze. It's just a tiny little bit, but... well, it's a blemish. I just can't sell a blemished jar, can I? No, absolutely not. And I have some great pickling cucumbers just waiting for a nice salt and vinegar bath...








So that's that. I repeat my offer that family can request any piece for free, and friends can request any piece at marked price. I'll remind folks that if you'd like to request one of these pieces you need to call me, oh, tomorrow morning.