Turn down the lights...

Turn down the lights and lock the door... I've got some sexy pictures I want you to see.

We unloaded a very fine looking kiln yesterday. I fired it in 12 hours after an overnight of candling. Nancy came and helped me introduce about a 6.5-7 pound mixture of soda/soda ash and salt into the kiln on thin wooden planks. Honestly, that's all we could get in before cone 11 was bending... but I'm glad we stopped there, it looks like the perfect amount especially after a fairly heavy reduction.

It has felt very satisfying to be making strictly utilitarian pieces lately. I made my pieces from 3 different clay bodies...you can see the difference in most of the images...porcelain(where the glazes are bright and body white), a darker stoneware(dark body,iron spots, slight orange peel on surface), and a sandy stoneware that responds really well in atmospheric kilns(highly pebbled surface). Each clay body yields a specific look in the soda/salt ...hey, there's something for everybody here. And as nice as these clay bodies look, I will be making new work from a very white stoneware for our upcoming wood kiln firing. But that's enough of the chit chat...lets get down to looking at some of the highlights. The images that follow are from us unloading...tumbler set by Nancy Smeltzer...slip cast porcelain tumblers by undergrad art student Talon Smith...and heads by my friend Sarah(the one who came and helped us raku) and the rest of mine I shot at home. Light some candles, put on something more comfortable and look it over.