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. 

Bowls

Oh, look! Brush strokes. I absolutely HAVE to learn how to use the spray booth. 

Yes, the shino crawled .... but this is on a white clay so it's an interesting crawl and the bowl is still useful. 
If you look closely, you can see subtle white lines on the rim. 

More Bowls

This one needs strawberry shortcake. Coyote Clay's Really Red done in reduction on Laguna Cashmire. 

Logan's Aqua. I only had one piece with this glaze, and I still got some wild reduction. Actually, I'd like a whole set of dishes like this..... but I'm nowhere near skilled enough at firing to get any kind of control over this color in reduction. 


Oasis blue with alabaster white little lines around the rim. I was curious to see what the alabaster would do with the different glazes. Some glazes gave me great contrast, some gave me subtle contrast, some did wild things. This is one of the wild results. This bowl also shows that it's time for me to learn how to use the spray booth. 

Mezuzah Covers

I made a series of smooth covers and used some white glaze to do subtle decoration on the glaze. I like how the subtle came out. These will be on my etsy site in a few days. 

Jim's Surprises

These are two of Jim's extrusions. He glazed both with Coyote Clay Oasis Blue. One piece turned out black. One piece had blue on two sides and black on two sides. Reduction firing is not for the anal-retentive. If you can move yourself away from expecting certain things from the glazes, you can have a ton of fun getting surprises like these two pieces.