New Addition to the Etsy Store

I just listed this Mezuzah cover in my etsy store. If you click on the headline, you should arrive in my etys store. This is one of the first Mezuzah covers I made. It's my original design and made from low fire clay. I used a commercial glaze. 

It's A Wedging Table

Ready to add the cement 

Waiting for the cement to dry. 


This is our new wedging table that Jim built. At the moment, he's outside putting a wire on it so we can slice clay on the wire. 

More Mezuzah Covers

I'm working on getting these into the etsy store. 

Jim is building a wedging table

Today, he's working on the cement He's got a frame built for the top. I'm anxious to see how me makes the beveled top. Yes, there will be photos. 

My Raku 4-24-10

I'm using a new blogger gadget to get photos loaded, and I'm not sure I like it. Anyway, here are the pinch pots I did in raku yesterday. I love the blue with all the crackle. I've got some wild metallic going on here. 

Latest Reduction Firing

I fired the gas kiln on Saturday and photos of the work are below. I did a couple things differently this time. I bought Mel Jacobson's book: 21st Century Kilns and decided to try his suggestion for firing faster but cooling slower. I did fire this load faster and noticed that the outside of the kiln stayed cool. I fired until movement on ^6 and then turned off the inner burners and turned the outer burners down to about 1/2. I left the kiln like this for one hour. I like what the glazes did with that very slow start to the cool at the end. I fired in reduction from ^08 through ^1, then opened the damper and fired in oxidation until movement on ^6. I hope you enjoy the results as much as we did. 

Jim's Extrusions

These were glazes with MC6 Glaze Raspberry and fired in reduction. Light pink, green - really a great glaze for reduction. 

Turtles

One of my colleagues loves turtles. We got to talking one day and he asked if I could make a turtle. Never having made a turtle before, I went to Google images and looked at photos of turtles. Next, I played with clay. Turtles are harder to make than I thought, but I learned a lot by making something I wouldn't have otherwise made. It was a great challenge. Hope my colleague likes them. 

Jewelry Pieces

These were great fun to make. I used a commercial stamp and cut out pieces for pendants. I deliberately put the holes off center in some. The bottom one is Oasis Blue and the rest are a shino recipe that Jim found. I like how the shino breaks over the texture. These will be in my etsy store in a few days. 

Tiles

I used Oasis Blue for 8 of the tiles and Sunset Shino for the other 8. These will be put into blocks of four for either wall hangings or hot pads. 

Anxiety Pockets

This one cracked in the bisque fire - I don't know why I didn't figure it would crack more when I glaze fired it. I think the crack came because I didn't cover it with plastic when I was done making it and it dried too quickly. 


This is another one with Panama Red and bronze. The Panama Red came out with more red this time.