Yesterday I looked up and saw this tree had changed color completely without my noticing. I'm sure it's
Nyssa sylvatica, or black gum. When I saw the tree I immediately thought of the
botanical name as I learned it when I studied horticulture at
American River College in Sacramento. My teacher at the time would take us on field trips to see all the trees in their mature state and I remember her saying the tree had brilliant fall color.
The fruit is prized by many North American birds. My photograph doesn't do the color justice since I took the photo in bright sunlight from a distance. The hill behind our house is very steep and I don't go up there.
Last week I was preparing for a bisque load and was sanding the rim of a large leaf bowl. Guess I pressed the edge too close to my body and I broke it. I was really looking forward to seeing how all the overlapping different colored leaves were going to look. I'll have to make another one. The bowl doesn't look like much when it's broken does it.
I'm working on tweaking my bisque firings. Here are the bisque cones from three firings. Two on left are medium 04 firing, a little too hot. The one on right is medium 05. I'll have to check my manual and see if I can fire a 055. A little braver now; I'm firing my bisque on medium instead of slow like I used to, so far so good. I hold it at 200 for 10 minutes just to be safe since it's so humid here. Coming up an easy and delicious recipe for crunchy baked okra, another basket with a driftwood handle, a gallery exhibit, and a new gallery carrying my work. Thanks for reading and for all your comments and suggestions.
You have the first full tree of fall foliage. You win some kind of prize!
ReplyDeleteHi Barb, thanks, oh the dogwoods have been changing too but they aren't as vibrant as the black gum.
ReplyDeleteI just posted about bisque firing and then came to your blog to read a post about bisque!
ReplyDeleteWe have an old manual kiln and bisque to 06. I used to bisque by temperature, not using cones, to about 1890 degrees. Last year Jeff put a kiln sitter in which is much more convenient. Especially if we forget to to check on the kiln!
We have sweet gum around here. I haven't been by one lately, to see the color, but in the spring they drop thousands of burry seed pods.
ReplyDeleteHi Michele, thanks, I have always heard that firing to 04 was better than 06 unless it's for raku, I am really surprised that you fire to 06. My kiln in California was a kiln sitter type, an old Skutt, some folks swear they fire better and more accurate. I am firing by temp in my kiln but I use the cones to see what the actual temperature reached is, big difference on 04 and 05 and 06.
ReplyDeleteHi Joanne, thanks, this is a black gum or tupelo or Nyssa sylvatica which is much different tree than a sweet gum hence the botanical name, sweet gum is Liquidambar styraciflua
ReplyDeleteI do find tree names (particularly the common ones) confusing. We only know sweet gum as liquid ambar here. And I love them. And 'gums' here are shorthand for eucalypts. All of them.
ReplyDeleteI winced when I saw your hours of work shattered. As I am sure you did.
Hi Elephant's Child, thanks, that's why the botanical names are so important to differentiate the various plants. There is so much loss with pottery I am actually not sure why I continue sometimes.
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