A New Hat

I struggled with crochet thread and beads until I saw the buttons that came out of the kiln. Seed beads and swarovski crystals along with feathers. 

My Latest ^05 Firing 11-23-11

 Shabbot candlesticks. I used masking tape to mask off the white areas. Alas, I discovered too late that the masking tape should be removed before bisque firing. 

 This time, I removed the masking tape before bisque firing. I like the effect far better. 

I wanted a box to hold the Shabbot candles as well as be a candlestick. Here's the result. 

I wanted to try out a glaze experiment on the inside of the candle box. The glaze is a clear with crystals. So, I used a bright green underglaze to see what would happen. I'm not sure what happened here, but I do like what I got. 

 More Shabbot candlesticks. The drip cups are not going to be glued on. I want them to be removable for easy clean up. 

 This is the inside of the lid for the covered bread baker along with some of the buttons I made. I was playing with glazes. Buttons are great test tiles... .but not when I forget to label them. 

Jim can't remember where he put the handle for the teapots. And so here's the handleless tea pot. It's made from mica clay and I'm thinking it will make a really nice cup of tea. 

 The bottom half of he lidded bread baker. 

 I've found when bread is baked in a lidded container, the bread rises better. I'm looking forward to the first loaf of bread baked in this. 

The pot on the right has the same glaze on the outside as I put inside the candle box. 

 Bowl from my tribe. The Hebrew letters spell out the Hebrew word for bowl. 

 I wanted to play with the idea of surprise bowls. An underglaze on the inside and a funky glaze on the outside. 

Jim's First Fully Manual Gas Firing ^6 Reduction

Jim played with old stuff from the pantry, oat flakes, odds and ends of clay.... and made really fun masks. 

Jim one-fired this piece - done in ^6 reduction. 

Many of the textured masks came out with just texture. The second from the left on the bottom isn't colored or stained in any way. The oat flakes burnt off leaving what looks like oat flakes behind. 

The extrusions will be a sculpture installation somewhere in the yard. We've got lots of yard art. That's part of the fun of living in the desert where you can leave sculpture out all year long. 


Jim had never fired the fully manual gas kiln before. I gave him instruction, he went and fired by himself. When the kiln stalled during reduction, he took Mel's advice (thanks, Mel) and backed off on the gas. Solved the stalling problem. The cone packs, both top and bottom, showed extremely even firing. The kiln wasn't packed full - and that may be the reason for the really good results he got. 

From The Clay Studio 11-20-11

Jim rolled out clay, added assorted seeds, oat flakes, whatever was old in the pantry, and then put the clay seed side down in a mold. Alas, where the slab overlapped a bit, the seeds created an air pocket and parts of the faces blew off in bisque. He still got some great texture. 

I've been working on come mica bowls and making them extra large. 

These are pots inspired by photos of poppy seed pods. I'll cut into them in a couple days and make them lidded pots. 

Hanukkah bowl.

All of my pots are coil built and are made with ^04 clay. I'll be doing a firing later this week.