It Snowed, White Rabbit, Sunflower Painting

White rabbit to you all. I am greeted this morning with snow. Just a lite dusting so far. We stocked up on supplies so we'll stay home till it melts. I have plenty to do around here.

Everything in the bisque turned out fine, so I'll be glazing the next few days. I can't believe the thin strips of clay on the tall cat sculpture didn't fall off. I'd like to spray glaze the cat since I don't have enough glaze to dip the whole piece and I don't want to hand brush all those crevices. I didn't sand the rooster bank before the bisque because I was afraid I'd break it. What do you use to sand greenware, a dremmel tool? I also have the rooster and dog headed jars I fired separately and am wondering again the best way to deal with those.

Rather than pen and ink, I decided to work with the acrylic paints I already have. A bit incongruous to see a sunflower this time of year but the bright colors do cheer up ones attitude. I'm practicing on something called canvas paper in an eight by ten inch size. The colors are flat but I'm reading about painting with acrylic paint in several books I've checked out of the library. This morning I can see I have more shading to do to bring out more details. Thanks for reading and for all your comments.

Leftover Test Tiles

I finally made it back to my pottery class yesterday. One week I couldn't go because I had to finalize the motorhome sale. Another day I couldn't go because we had a friend come to help Gary unload more of the storage unit and I had to feed the two hard workers some home made vittles. One day in pottery class several weeks ago I had leftover clay so I made these small head sculptures. I thought I'd use them as test tiles for the community glazes to see how they respond.

These two tall textured vases were made a couple of weeks ago and they went into the bisque firing yesterday. I'm trying to think of how to glaze them and still have the texture show up.

I glazed these three pieces yesterday to be fired next week; two pinch pots and a philodendron leaf plate. I used a matt green on the leaf and one pinch pot and an overlapped turquoise glaze on the larger pinch pot, we shall see how out of practice I am with making and glazing.

Here's a shot of our teacher, Hilton Hill, explaining glazing techniques to some our clay class. Hilton was an art teacher for 30 years in Florida and now continues his teaching career in our community clay classes. You can see I've actually made a few pieces in my pottery class between all my home projects and such. I'm slowly getting back into the groove of making. Hopefully I can set up a schedule for myself and get more work made. Thanks for reading and for all your comments.

Broccoli as Inspiration

 These are the trays after the bisque. I like the top fish tray better than the bottom one. I'm busy glazing and will probably fire late to night.

 Here are the two rabbit trays. Someone mentioned that the rabbits looked like I had colored them with crayon. I used a very thin brush and randomly brushed the brown underglaze. They look like happy rabbits which was what I was after.

You're going to think I am crazy but this stalk of broccoli inspired me. I never lack for ideas of what to make in clay; inspiration is every where I look. I'd like to make a tower with this shape, a thick trunk bottom and a rounded head. It looks like a strange tree structure. I'm busy gathering the photos for the clay bloopers post. Hopefully tomorrow I'll have them together, so stay tuned. Thanks for reading and for all your comments.

Sleepy Sunday

Many times when I'm working in the studio my cat, Butter, (click link for a story on how Butter adopted us) is lying on the daybed across the room taking a snooze. How can a cat sleep like this with their arms up in the air? Some day I should roll a slab of clay, let my cats walk across it, and then make a pot. Just thought of that, might be kind of cool.

Got the kiln loaded because I planned on firing a bisque over night since it's still hot during the day. I didn't have as much work as I thought but enough to make it worth while to fire. While I was sanding the bottom, I broke the handle off a bird basket, gave a little sanding at the attachments, we'll see. Broke one curl off the random curls pot, vinegar slip attached it, we'll see. I turned the kiln on and five minutes later a lightening storm blew in. So I quickly turned the kiln off and unplugged it. Had to wait several hours to turn it back on. Coming up is a post on a salmon patty recipe and one on clay bloopers so please stay tuned. Thanks for reading and for all your comments.

Foresthill Landscaping & Bisque

Twenty-two years ago I got my Landscape Contractor's license in California; can't believe it's been so long. I worked as a landscaper before that but decided I should become a licensed contractor. To assure my success I went back to college for a two year degree, nights and weekends, to get a Landscape Practices and Nursery (plants) Practices certificate. Since I already had a degree I only had to take horticulture, landscape, and design classes. Right before I took the test I went to a special intensive workshop. Thankfully I passed the test and I was officially a licensed Landscape Contractor in 1988.


Gary and I ran a landscaping business when we lived in Foresthill California for ten years. I did the landscape design and Gary ran the dump truck and tractor. We both did installation. Our company logo was a leaf and acorn of a black oak. The black oak is a native tree in the Sierra Nevada mountains where we lived. The T-shirt above is the last one we have, and the sketch of the leaf and acorn is my original sketch for our company logo. I came across these today and some clippings of the landscape articles I wrote for the local newspaper in Foresthill.

I've paid to keep my license on inactive status for some time now. My license expires in December this year and I won't be renewing it. A little sad, but the T-shirt, sketch, and newspaper clippings are happy memories of the past.


In other news, I finally got a bisque loaded and I'll call the electric company in the morning to see if they are going to turn off the electric, if they're not, I'm firing. I got the last of the shelves painted and, no matter what, I am setting them up today to see how they turned out. I guess that crow scolding (I mentioned in the last post) did me some good. Ha!

Almost Perfect

The bisque was almost perfect like this butterfly on lantana. One of his wings was half gone, but it didn't seem to matter he just kept flying around sipping nectar. There were no cracks, no blow-ups, and no sprigs fell off in the whole load.



Cone 06 melted down completely, but cone 05 and 04 are upright. Next bisque I will try 05 with a hold at the top for 10 minutes, if that doesn't do it then 20 minutes, then 04 with no hold. We shall see, every kiln is different.

The only problem was the kanthal wire handles on the basket and the tall vase. The wire leaned probably due to the beads I placed on top of the handles. The beads weighed down the handles. Not sure if I want to try bending the wire back into place. Should I try it or leave the wire wonky? Maybe I'll put these two into a barrel firing and leave the wire as is.



This lid with a topper and a short length of kanthal wire did just fine. I'll have to experiment more with this technique.

For efficiency I could fire another bisque load and while it's firing I could be glazing these. It takes two days for a bisque, for the load, the fire, the cool down, and the unload. Then while the next glaze is firing I could be glazing the second bisque and so on. Thanks everyone for all the great comments on my last post, I learned some valuable information. Comments and suggestions are welcome.

Giant Grasshopper

Been getting my firing done in big bites, like a grasshopper does to a leaf. This Eastern Lubber Grasshopper, Romalea guttata, is almost 4 inches long and quite colorful. I thought about chocolate covered grasshoppers; when I saw the armor-like skin, I said to myself, no thanks.


The test fire for my new kiln was a fast 04 as recommended, completed in 7.5 hours, with one coat of kiln wash. It was rather smelly, the oils on the elements burning off. The cones showed the bottom shelf went beyond 04 target. If there's no clay pieces in the load does it fire hotter or cooler? I might get a few more cones like 03 and 05.5 if there is such a cone. Ideally I'd like to shoot for firing my bisque just tiny bit under 04.


I know if the kiln is fired faster it's programmed for a hotter fire from the factory. Perhaps a slow fire wouldn't be as hot. So I programmed in 05 for the bisque because I don't want to go over 04. I think higher than 04 will adversely affect glaze penetration and adhesion. I figure a little under is better than over 04 cone. I've adapted a firing log that Gay, from Sister Creek Pottery, sent me to keep notes about my firings. The notes will be invaluable as I go along, thanks Gay.


I had so many tall vases I had to use one side of the kiln for those. Remember the tall vase I wondered about, well it is too tall to fit in the kiln, unless I use a half inch post on the bottom. I'll check it out when I unload the kiln. I may have to take that one somewhere else to be fired. For a half shelf that's 26 inches across, I've used four posts, do you think I should only use three? If so that would give me more room.


I wanted to make a more even load, but I couldn't figure out any other way to load this one. Let's see, I've got 17 vases, 6 lided boxes, 4 pinch bowls, 2 fern trays, a magic umbrella (ha) covered dish, and a wall vase in this load. I really packed those vases, are they too close? I probably could have squeezed lots of small items on the right side of the kiln, but I didn't have any made. I'll have to remedy that for the future. I'm half an inch from the top on the right hand side, hope that's not too close.


I didn't get any of my plates or platters in this load, I figured if I got all the vases out of the way, then I could do a load of smaller pieces and plates. Actually I have a few more vases and some odd shaped sculptures for another load too. I probably could have put a shelf on the bottom right below the vases for plates, but I don't want plates on the bottom, so I left a bit of room at the top on that side.


Various circumstances beyond my control prevented me from firing my new kiln much till recently, so now I am getting caught up. My plans are for back to back firings for the next week or so. The bisque load was fired yesterday and is almost cool enough to open, firing was 11.57 hours, final temp 1881. Please check back for results, only the cones know for sure. I'll be doing a glaze fire in a jiffy. Comments and suggestions are welcome.