Onward...

and upwards I guess...but more like onward to the studio and onward to the kiln and onward to whatever and where ever it is that helps me make more work for the Fall. Speaking of which, thanks to our latest trend of mild weather, has me gearing up for it even more.

I thought I would post a few pics of my recent trip to Little Mahoning Creek Pottery where I dropped off pieces for our wood firing this coming Tuesday. The top image is the studio there in full bloom...dahlias and amaranth are taller than me and Nancy's owl keeps vigil over the garden in the bright morning light. And speaking of bright, I have a new color/pattern/texture experiment I am trying out for this firing. I am using underglazes like slips to add a little something extra to the surfaces.

The black/white on the large 14 inch stacked vases I can kind of envision in my mind but the bright colors of the encapsulated underglazes, now that is still hard for me to envision post firing. The encapsulated colors are supposed to hold up to cone 10 reduction and not change... I might be happy if they do get a bit knocked back, maybe a bit obscured, but I am not one who is afraid of bright color or what might be a real stylistic collision...in fact, I wouldn't mind either. I will be using some flashing slips and a clear high fire glaze to finish the surface for the firing...and I guess we will see then. The new colors and bold stripes are meant to go with a larger body of work that will also be fired again with decals. This body of work is more or less intended to be mid range stuff but I certainly plan on traveling over to Little Mahoning Creek Pottery to do a few more wood firings while I can...so why not just see how it works on these pieces...again, we shall see.

bright and beachy for the wood kiln!

And while I am have been busy making pieces Nancy fired the salt kiln and tossed in 5-6 mugs that I had laying around over there...they do look nice! Here are a few quickie shots of some of the sweeties that I picked up on Saturday.

 I can guarantee you there is more where that came from as I have a bunch of pieces like: pour-overs, bowls, and tankard mugs being loaded into the wood kiln for the firing on Tuesday. I am gearing up for the Fall and I plan to try and revive my poor, neglected etsy shop as well as continue to populate the Self Serve Pottery Kiosk at my local coffee shop...who knows, maybe even have plenty of new work to farm out to a couple galleries this Fall. That's the plan. Keep your check book open...