Tuesday, September 6, 2011

Opening the Next Kiln

It is so hard waiting for that kiln to be cool enough to open!
I waited all day today, doing maintenance and business sort of things, but around 4:30 in the afternoon, had to see how those honey jars worked out. I handled the hot shelves and pots with kiln gloves on.
Some things made me very happy, some things...let's just say I am kept from getting too proud for good reasons; but the rest came closer to the happy side today.

Those red pieces!! Ooh la la! A really good bowl:

And this honey of a pot:

These two red pots were decorated in the raw state with shellac resist- you can read about it here.

But this sadly disastrous bowl! It wasn't so bad outside. But inside- Bleagh. It was an experiment that failed. Maybe more on that another day:

Still having to eat a slice of humble pie with most kiln loads, but I'll take a few bad ones if the rest are as good as those reds!

5 comments:

  1. i know you are disappointed, but Gavriel and I actually think it's beautiful!!!

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  2. That's a beautiful, shiny red. You've never really had a color like that before, and I'm glad you've found one that seems to work. The shellac-resist looks to have come out wonderfully as well.

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  3. Shana, I'm glad you and Gavriel liked it! I did put lots of work into this one. But when you think you know how something should come out, and then it doesn't, it's hard to readjust thinking.

    Gila, this red is a dream come true. I tested many before this one came down the 'pike. The shellac resist is labor intensive, but it comes out so nice under the right glazes that it is worth it.

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  4. The red (especially the bowl) is gorgeous but you know me, I like the imperfect pieces.

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  5. Pottery reminds me all the time that imperfection is part of the composition of a human being. To put it another way, a college classmate when I was 17, who has gone anonymously into my distant past, said that we are each perfect in our imperfection. If we have one leg, that is our particular perfection. We are perfect in our one-leggedness. It seemed then and still seems now like a kind view of the world. My pots each have their own character, and even if similar, will differ in some way. The bowl that didn't come out as expected will just go for less money, and may feel right to somebody else. Who knows?

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