Friday, December 24, 2010

Christmas Eve Kiln Opening

His & Hers Stemmed Pinch Mugs
by Linda Starr

Boat Shaped Vase
by Linda Starr

Green Speckled Butter Dish
by Linda Starr

Blue Moon Pinch Bowl
by Linda Starr

Pinched Tabletop Planter
with Florida Clay Dots
by Linda Starr

Combed Dots Pinch Bowls
by Linda Starr

Pool of Desire
glass melted in a tiny pinch pot
by Linda Starr

Sadly the second vase, which is about 8 x 10 inches, has a one inch vertical stress crack at the top one inch from the edge. I was inspired by rough terrain in the mountains for this one. And the colors were so Christmassy, what a big disapointment. The boat shapes have a lot of stress at the sides, but I keep on making them.

The Florida clay on the tabletop pinched planter turned a really dark brown and has a rough texture, rather nice looking. Would be good for texture on the outside of pots. I did screen it, but maybe not well enough.

A few pots not shown had rather putrid colors in the glaze. My volcanic ash experiments were a bust. I sprinkled the ash in little pinch pots and it just made a rough texture. Perhaps next time I'll mix it in with the glaze.

Sometimes I wonder if I am cut out to be a potter. I had a nine piece tile wall hanging that came out really nice. Then I dropped one of the tiles and it got a small chip on the side. I take each and every disappointment so hard, no matter how many good ones I get. Which is how I felt last night. But the last little glass filled pinch pot is how I feel today, a pool of desire to keep going.

Merry Christmas.

13 comments:

  1. an article interesting and beautiful objects !
    I wish you a merry christmas !

    Bye :))

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  2. Hi Mahon, thanks, glad you like them, Merry Christmas to you and your family too, love the architecture photos you take.

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  3. Good Morning Linda
    Just keep on working, and eventually you will have more amazing pots, rather than the disappointing ones. Just remember to learn from every disappointment. I remember I had to write a goal for my professor (Tony Hepburn), then at the end of the semester we had to talk about if we achived our goal. I told I had failed. He said that's great, now tell me what you learned. He told me that I learned more from my failure that year, than from him.

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  4. Hi Connie, thanks so much for your words of encouragement. I think at the new year I will write down some concrete goals for myself and work on each one for each firing load, then I can progress to where I want to be with each set of experimental pots I make. I do have some good pots, just not all of them, but maybe that is too unrealistic, too much to expect of myself getting all of them to be what I want, esepcially since I have so many experiments with each piece I am making. I do learn from each pot failure and at least I know why they fail. Onward and upward for the future. Thanks again and Merry Christmas to you and your family.

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  5. love the little dot bowls and the pool of desire... i have contemplated using glass for many years. perhaps i will put it in my "to do" list for 2011.
    i think that most firings have a couple of disappointments in them... i had an icky pink bowl in the last one, along with a platter that bloated and a cracked rim on an oval.
    as for your volcanic ash experiment... i think it needs to fire to ^10 when sifted on pots. i do it a lot on shino. jeff thinks you are right about mixing it in the glaze.
    some years back when i broke a pot and was very mad at myself (to the point of tears) john said to me "it's only clay, we can make more". i try hard to remember that when things don't turn out as i planned.
    wishing you and gary a very merry christmas!

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  6. What is the saying about breaking eggs to make an omlet?
    Merry Christmas to you and Gary. Enjoy your warmish, snowless, Florida Holiday.

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  7. Linda,May your Christmas be filled with joy and happiness. Best wishes for now and the coming year! Hugs, A.

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  8. Love the Blue Moon pinch bowl!

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  9. Keep on, keeping on, Linda...:)..you are doing great creative work! I have tried the glass in a dish too. I will post a pic after Christmas..
    I love the boat shaped vase..
    Have a wonderful Christmas.
    Cheers, Trish

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  10. If clay was an easy medium Linda, we'd all be doing it! Yes, you are meant to work in clay we see way too much heart in your work AND you cannot stop thinking of clay :o) Love the pool of desire!! Did you use glass frit?

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  11. Hi Michele, thanks, that Florida clay is a real surprise. I am not sure if it turned dark because it was under a creamy translucent glaze or because it just fires that way, but it is a very rich color. I've heard that saying about it's just clay, but to me it's just clay when it's wet, after I work it, dry it, fire it, glaze it for sometimes one hour hand painted for one piece and then fire it again, it's turned into a labor of love and love lost if it doesn't turn out - that's the hard part. Hey I was scared to death I'd ruin my kiln shelves with my experiments, but I didn't. I did read that the glass can overrun very easily or crack a pot and then run, so I think a sloped sided pinch pot was a good choice to put the glass in, the luck does run with me much of the time. when the glaze turns out so beautiful like on that second pot, it's particularly hard to take, I was hoping to have that one for the show in Dunedin, oh well.

    Hi Patti, thanks, we went to the gulf two days in a row and saw some fun stuff, I'll post about soon. Merry Christmas to you, do you have snow?

    Hi Acacia, thanks, I am following in your footsteps with the ash, maybe better luck next time, eh, best wishes to you too.

    Hi Helen, thanks, I was inspired to make that pinch pot for the once in a blue moon, second full moon last month. the star was yellow, but the glaze turned it red, still ok though as if the moon caused the star to glow red.

    Hi Trish, thanks, I'll still keep going I can't help myself, love the clay too much, that's the pot that has the crack at the top. Ugh. Happy holidays to you.

    Hi Cindy, thanks, yeah I know what you mean about clay, I do need a challenge in life and this definitely gives it to me with a whollop. I just used some glass chip pieces I have that are turquoise. They seem to make more volumn when they are melted than when they were dry, I have to be careful if I use them again not put too much. I was lucky this time and here I am feeling bad. Ha.

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  12. pinch mugs! cool. I like those two words together for some reason. like the colors too

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  13. Hi Ben, thanks, kind of like pinching somebody's mug. Ha! Happy holidays to you.

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