I had some fun tonight with my clay. I once again got pissed off at the earthenware because it is just simply stiff if you dont have 2 hours to spend working it over, so I did 1 earthenware piece followed by a terra cotta piece. I was impressed with how well the terra cotta […]

Here it is, my first non-pregnant lipped pot, fresh from its glaze firing in the kiln. All of my other pots of a similar shape have a “bulge” that makes them look kind of strange, this is the first one that has been perfectly centered and avoided such an occurance.

I don’t know that I have ever been as nervous in my time with ceramics as I was on Friday. It was finally time to do some glazing, something which sounds as simple as a trip to Krispy Kreme, but in reality for me was much more strenuous. I think I was more nervous for […]

Tonight I was spinning away at the wheel when after completing my 3rd piece I realized something: I don’t have nearly enough bats. Why is it that I have my bats in such short supply? I guess I should find an additional method for temporary storage of wet pieces (or finally give in to what […]

Here are three of my latest terra cotta clay works. I started from a single large ball of terra cotta (about 8 pounds), started working it, then realized it was a bit clumbsy and broke it in half. The first half became the bowl. During the creation of it I removed quite a bit of […]

Yesterday’s firing went great. The kiln declared Cone 04 at 1947° F after firing for 6 hours, 48 minutes. I opened the kiln about 2 hours ago, and unloaded it, nothing broke and I have verified that the pieces will hold water. Has anyone noticed that the last few blog entries have sounded like scientific […]

The first firing of the kiln was concluded at around 7:00am this morning after the kiln reached a holding temprature of 1944 degrees farenheight. That is about 4 degrees above the normal specification for Cone 04, but I guess thats what the kiln’s “intelligent” controller decided was required for reaching the proper saturation in the […]

The kiln is up to over 1700° F and rising. There is now an orange glow coming from beneath the lid. I have never really had the whole pyro spirit until now, this is so awesome! Maybe if im lucky I can get this bitch up to Cone 6 fully and go to a white […]

Cone 022 reached! This is the first formal cone level, from 022 we count backward to 01, then we start and 1 and go to 10. That is assuming that the goal is a Cone 10 firing. My goal currently is Cone 04.

My new kiln has arrived and is already up and running. I took a few pics during the early stages of firing (before any formal cone level has been reached). As you can read from the electornic display, the kiln was at 353° F when I took these pics. For the first firing i’m only […]