Sometimes the look of freshly glazed pottery appeals to me; I wonder if there's a glaze which has this soft chalky look? Hope I haven't gone off the deep end. I fired glazed pieces along with once fires. This all came about because I had four small slab bowls with one inch S cracks and one leaf platter with an S crack in the bottom centers. I wanted to fill up the kiln to maximize the firing with as full a load as possible. I thought only thrown pieces got S cracks. The centers of the ones with cracks were fairly thin due to the leaf impressions so that may have had something to do with the small cracks in the middle of the bottom.
The kiln would have had an empty shelf so I decided to fill it up with some once fire pieces, two wall hangings and a personal shrine. We shall see. I combined my once fire program and my slow cool glaze fire program and fired away. I decided to glaze and fire a leaf platter with a partial crack anyway to see how the glaze turned out. Hope it doesn't run over the shelf.
This squirrel is outside the kitchen window teasing my cat Betty. The photos was taken through the window so it's not very clear. With the colder weather the squirrels are very active looking for places to keep warm. One of our neighbors had his car wiring eaten by a family of squirrels. Squirrels chew on things to sharpen, clean, and trim their fast growing teeth. Gary has some spray called critter ridder he uses, I think it's a type of pepper spray. He sprays it on the wheels and engine compartment to repel the squirrels since we can little afford an expensive fix much less the lost use of the car.
The kiln is cooling down now and I'm off to the gallery to bring more pieces for the Heritage and Florida Folk Life Days in Floral City this weekend. Thanks for reading and for all your comments.
what beauties in the kiln, I have a good friend who does pinch and slab pottery, thankyou so much for visiting, I never heard of this spray you spoke of to deter squirrels, thats really interesting,
ReplyDeletecritter ridder, where can i get some? we are battling the squirrels around here constantly. last year they got into the studio ceiling and chewed through an electrical wire.
ReplyDeletegood luck with the firing, i have glazed and fired some items with cracks. the right glaze will fill it in.
Hi Laurie, thanks so much, does your friend have a blog or website, would love to see her work.
ReplyDeleteHi Michele, thanks, well I'll unload very shortly and see what happened. We got the critter ridder at Lowe's.
Gosh, I knew mice liked wiring but why not their rodent cousins also? I used oil of peppermint to deter my little field mice and had a car easy to find in the parking lot. I just followed my nose.
ReplyDeleteGary is smart to be aggressive.
I agree with you about the freshly glazed pieces, it's like they are colored with pastel chalks.
ReplyDeleteI need some critter ritter too, I discovered someone had gnawed on one of my display shelves that is stored in the kiln room.
I didn't know they made stuff like critter ridder. Last year the mechanic found a dead rat in my car and he explained they crawl up in there to get warm and chew through the wires. A costly affair.
ReplyDeleteHi Lori, thanks, yes, somehow that chalky look is soothing, I must try the pastels I purchased one of these days to get a fix of that color. Ha.
ReplyDeleteHi Patti, thanks, I didn't realize about the squirrels teeth growing till I read the website, but several neighbors around here had warned us about the squirrels and electrical work on cars is one of the most expensive things; since we're down to one car we'd be in a pickle if it went down.
Hi Rubye, thanks, yeah I kind of feel sorry for animals during the coldest days of winter, but then again we've got to try and keep our car in good running order too.