And things are moving

We are moving along on the "wares", a local term I thought I would snatch.
We fired a bisque kiln yesterday and have another one going right now.
After so many years of crawling out of a warm bed to fire kilns who would have thought that a computer kiln that turns itself on would be so good. Really, why did we wait so long?
Oh, yeah, money- and we are pretty cheap in that we need to get all our moneys worth out of what we buy.
We had to dig through the past tax records to find out when we bought the electric kilns.
Seems the ones we replaced were bought in 1987 and 1991.
 I think they showed a true test of time.

The plan, where are we on the plan?
We are moving along.
What is the plan?
Glad you asked.
I know I have alluded to something being up over here and I think we are far enough along to let you in on it.
Last November we were approached by a designer who wanted to come out to Seagrove and talk to some of the potters about making a line of handmade pots for her. We said come on by.
She came out, took pictures, talked shapes and glazes. After she left we went back to doing what we do and waited to see if she would call.
Well she did and we met in early December.
She came with fabric swatches and drawings of 4 lines of pots she wants produced.
We said yes.
We have now made round one of the samples, she has been out and picked them up for a catalog that she is producing to take orders from. The pots will be shown starting next month, end of February.
Now, how do we feel about this?
We hope this works.
We have struggled with part time jobs the past few years, family issues and many thoughts about how to survive as potters. We see this as an opportunity to keep us both here working and maybe even employ some of our friends now and again to help us with all the work it will take to get these things through. We are testing glazes, working shapes out, poundage and all that.
This will also allow us to continue to make our own work to sell. What the designer wants is not carved or stamped, the shapes are good classic shapes with glazes on them.
Our name go on every pot along with the designers mark.
Soon I will give you more detail as the 4 lines are announced.
We brainstormed and came up with 4 names  for the collections and we feel that they represent us, Whynot Pottery, and the area we live and work in.
Glazes have also been named.
How do I feel?
Clear headed for the first time in a long time.
I am doing what I know, making pots, firing kilns, following a path.
So this is part of the plan, a big part, cross all the fingers, making a living making pots can be tricky...
Handmade-let's do it!
Our slogan should be putting potters back to work one pot at a time...
M 

What say let's give it another go

Part of the plan for the year is to just get in the studio as much as possible and work. We are setting real goals that we hope will get us real results.
One goal is that work has to be made in a timely manner in order to get the work through the kilns and out the door.
This is the progress on the February firing.
This round we are starting big and working down to the small stuff.

The plan- 3 weeks and we will be firing the next kiln load.
Oh there are other things to be done as well, but good start going on here.
I am off to check some bowls for trimming.
Have a great weekend!
M

The ride

Thank you all for crossing your fingers, toes and eyes for us while we unloaded the kiln today.
See previous post for reasons if you just logged in.
As we knew the kiln fired hot and here are some thoughts from the peanut gallery, us.
Since the kiln hung up and since it toolk longer to reach temperature the glazes in theory got a good soak at cone 8 and 9. Some of the glazes loved the soak and others were pushed to their limit and ran to the shelf. It is always funny to me, ha ha, that you can have 6 mugs on a shelf and one sticks to the shelf- then it becomes a set of 4 with a spare, right?
And then it is funny to me that a place in the kiln that you thought of as a good place to place a pot because it is usually cooler there gets hot as heck!
So with this all said- there were some very good pots, some okay pots and some real seconds, yep, the real deal.
So here we go:
Front:

 The top or crown shelf has 6 lamp bases on it, 2 of those had the ash hit the iron black and run just to the shelf hardly enough to worry about, they are fine. In this stack there were a few pots that almost hit the shelf but were good.
Middle stack:

This stack is always hotter and we try to take that in consideration. Bottom up, 3rd shelf mugs with brown and ash- 1 is stuck like a tick on a hound, as was this goblet shape on the bottom shelf back.

There were a few other ones here and there some that will take grinding and others will take a hammer...
The back shelf:

 Bottom up- Mug- black and wood ash, 3rd shelf- stuck like a pig in the mud. Above that just off center a wee ginger jar, cute as can be, stuck....grrrr. I hated to loose that one- but oh, well, so it is.
The goblet shape bottom front, yea, you got it. S.T.U.C.K.
But- for the most part it was a good firing despite the problems  that arose while firing.
In fact the spodumene galze loved being hotter and so did the iron red, when it did not hit the shelf.
Our iron black with the rutile wood ash top glaze...not so much. It was hotter than we like but it is fine.
There you go.
Thank you all for your support!
We will sort this all and send some out for sale.

And then back on the wheel for us we are working on deadlines.
Cheers,
M

The ups and downs and somewhere in between

Firing day started off a bit windy and then, this never happens, the wind settled down and the day was perfect for a gas firing.  Mark was chugging along and I was out the door at 5 for a meeting with our local Seagrove Potters' Association.
I had left Mark some food since I would be gone for a bit, you know meetings can run long, and this one did.
I fully expected him to be wrapping things up when I got home.
Instead the kitchen looked like a quick run through with food that was close to burnt, not a good sign.
The kiln, almost at the very time I left, hung up.
It would not gain the final temperature, the pressure had dropped to the burners and it was as if the tank was freezing up.
Puzzled Mark did all he could plus calling the gas guys on a Sunday night.
The kiln was hanging at cone 9 and the cone for 10 was still standing, now we are worried, its been too long.
Do you shut the whole thing off a cone early or wait.
We waited and the 10 started to bend.
We waited some more and once the 10 was bent enough we shut it down figuring that the glazes had sat long enough to get hot.
We never look in the kiln the day after a fire because the glazes usually need a good 24 hours or more to really develop their color. Looking sometimes means seeing mud instead of the the true color of the glaze. We could both tell one thing, the fire was hot.
Tucking our tails between our legs we are working on what we think happened with the kiln.
The kiln is 26 years old this fall, the regulator that regulates gas to the kiln seems to have a problem.
After 26 years and many firings it may be just worn out or there could be some trash that has clogged  something up.
This is where I fall short and Mark could explain better.
But explain or not we are out to unload this morning.
There were more looks yesterday and we saw hot glaze, but good color with a bit more run on the ash. I can see one pot that has a run to the shelf and I am hoping that is the only one ( I hear you laughing..)
Mark has just headed out to take down the door and I need to follow.
More with pictures later, but whatever is out there we will deal and carry on.
We always do-
M