Well Underway

Yay!  I got the last pieces for my show built this past week!  Now, they are drying and will hopefully be ready for bisquing by Thursday or Friday.  My hope is to have the pieces glazed before Spring Break-wish me luck!  I will be working on flyers and other logistics in the meantime.

The retest of my ^6 glaze experiment is complete and like I said before-kiln 3 at school really needs to be retired.  No complications came out of the redo in kiln 1.J  I will be analyzing the results further this week and will determine second stage testing for ^6.

My second stage testing for ^10 should be ready by Tuesday and I am excited to see the results!  I wonder if my calculations will have the desired effect on the experiments’ results?  We shall see J

I have also begun again on my train kiln slab pieces.  However, I am dismayed at the fact that I missed an opportunity to work on the kiln this past Friday L  I would have enjoyed building on it more. L  This week calls for really beautiful weather, so I hope that we will get even more opportunity to make the train kiln as awesome as it can be!

On a separate note, I was able to secure a venue and date for my Honors show this past week.  Very exciting, but I now feel the anxiety setting in.  It will be great!!

Just a few snapshots of the week to review (can’t show all pics because you have to come to the show!)

In Like a Lion

This week we found out that the train kiln is starting to sink in one corner L I took a measurement of the gap so far and we will measure it again next week to see if the gap has gotten any larger.  I hope it hasn’t, but I am a realist and I know that with the storms we have had just in the past few days and flash flooding too, there is a very good chance the gap will widen.  Here’s hoping that that will not be the case.

Nevertheless, we continued with the build.  We got the fire box finished and the chimney mostly finished.  We have begun the red brick layer too.  I hope Brian has plenty of gas money because it seems that it will take many loads of red brick to get this part done J No worries-I will spot him some gas money if need be!  I really can’t wait until this kiln is done and we start firing!

Cone 10 glaze results came in this week and for the most part and pretty happy with mason stain/clear glaze test.  There are a few of the mixes that I will perform a few more tests on to see if I can get the colors to come out a little more. I have one that has a very nice break pattern and tonal flashing-I would like to see if I can get this mix to perform the same over the entire surface.

I have continued building the last pieces for my show.  Now I just hope they will dry quickly (even too) enough to get another bisque going pretty soon!  I am bisquing first set of show pieces and some more glaze patties right now.  The latest show piece is a claw foot bathtub which I think has come out nicely so far.

Enjoy a few photos for this week!