A satisfying end and new beginnings

This is the end of the kiln for us, the beginning of a kiln for others.
Today, we clean, and plan.
Dreams can come true.
M

This

 I am not sure how I should title this post.
A man and his kiln.
Changes.
New beginnings.

We are letting go of our large kiln that we built in 1986. We fired many good pots, and many questionable pots in this kiln. It was designed by Mark and built with my help. We used soft brick and dry stacked it, cutting the soft brick as needed to make it fit. We talked about the dry stacking as opposed to the method of mortar. We had seen how difficult it was to take apart a kiln with mortar, our decision was to dry stack in case we needed to take it down or rebuild it. Our thoughts when we built Ms. B was to rebuild this one as a smaller kiln.
Then life changed a bit for us, we found we like working in a smaller kiln, and, I am making more and more tile.
The last time we fired this kiln was January 2016.
Mark told me one day that he was ready to let it go and let it go while the brick could still be used.
We sold the brick and we sold it for a song.
I am sure people will think we were crazy, but behind crazy you can find reason.

 We had our reasons.
We wanted to find someone who would be dedicated to removing the brick from the kiln, and putting that brick back to use, building a new kiln, youth, we were looking for youth, and they found us.
A young couple are in the process of removing the brick and taking it home with them to now plan a new wood fired kiln. They were planning a small kiln, this is going to allow them to build a larger kiln.
There are times in your life that you are helped, we were, and we know it. We built this kiln with help from my parents. Back in the day getting a loan for an art based business was difficult to say the least. They co-signed for us. This was a big investment for us. 5,000.00 . But, if you take that and divide it over 30 years that is 166.67 per year or closer to 200.00 if we are thinking of interest. What we did was pay this off as quick as possible.
As we watched the bricks being stacked in the back of trailers and pickup trucks it is bittersweet.

the patenia of many years of shoes with the local red dirt.

 With bitter is the sweetness of knowing this will be a start for a young potter. It is not always about the dollars, yes, we could have asked more money for the brick, but why? I think we all got what we needed. We are pretty happy watching it go away. We are not leaving it to Rot away and maybe have no use later. Over the past few years I have watched people hang on to things that they think are important. My thoughts is it has no life unless you give it such.
This kiln will have a new life.
 We have new space.
What's next?
Not sure
Stay tune.
M

Look at the marks the burners made, arches. 

You can't all make bowls

As you all know I am still teaching one day a week at the Community College.
One of the things I do is load kilns.
I load the bisque kiln and some days I am loading a glaze kiln as well.
There are these times when everyone is making bowls.
I can't tell you why, maybe it is the alignment of the stars, the moon or a combination of both.
The problem with everyone making and glazing bowls is shelf space in the kiln. What do I put around all the bowls? How do I get them all in? It has become a  puzzle for me to figure out.

In our own studio we know for every serving bowls on a shelf we need 10 mugs, 4 to 6 juice cups, and maybe an odd item or two.
We also know, that in order to fire well using gas the kiln needs some mass around the bowls.

I just grabbed a picture from a firing done last year, as you can see that there are many like items on a shelf, but in order to get good heat flow through the kiln, we will vary sizes. If I packed a shelf with nothing but beer mugs, 3rd from the top, I could block some of the pots from getting the heat and later the reduction that is needed.You can see that along with the mugs are salt jars, a juice cup or two and some spoon jars.
Looking above or below you will find like items staggered with unlike items. Again this helps the kiln heat all the pots, and helps those pots get an even reduction. Or, as even as possible.

In the electric kilns we fire I use as much space as possible filling all the nooks and crannies I can.

I was trying to find a picture for you and ran across a picture of the large gas kiln that we are not firing right now.
You can still get a feel of how much you will need other pots to fill a kiln.

When we plan a load to fire we usually work off a list, knowing that filling the kiln in the most efficient way to work. We work towards a goal. Mugs, oil lamps, lamps, crocks, juice cups, bowls....jars, creamers, trays... and so it goes.
How do you map out your work, even if you are not making pottery you need a plan to get a job done.
Are you just making bowls all day, or do you have a lot more on your list?

Get ready

 There are pots.
There are good ones and there are seconds.
We are "talking" about why.
Why, why, why.....

We know that there have been changes in the materials that we use for glazes. The buzz in the pottery community about loss has been out there for months. We are just now being hit with some of the difficulties that come from those changes.
New plan of action, testing, testing, testing, and not using some of the glazes that we have used for years until we figure this out.

 Menahwile, we will take the good.
Hammer the bad and move on.

 The pictures loaded backwards on me this time.
You can head to the bottom and work up, if you like.

Winter storm heading our way. Let us hope it is quick and short lived.
Stay warm!
Plan on coming to see us in the early spring.
M

Was it worth the sweating and swearing?

Yes I think it was.

Mark says there was a little trouble setting reduction.
I can see that most of the glazes loved being reduced more with the exception of one.
It seems to have reduced right off the pot. It's okay, no real worries there.
We are pretty happy with the new way to load the top of the kiln. Maybe next load there will be no S&S.
Cheers!
M

Trying something new

 Mark and I had a business meeting to talk about how things were going. We have found that no matter how long you are in business, how successful you are, how large or how small, that every few months you should evaluate what you do. Is this working? Do we continue the same path? How can we do this smarter. What are the needs of the customer? And, what are our needs.

I know that most folks think we play at clay. There are a lot of myths around art as work and work as art.

 What we have found over the 30 plus years is that work is work. Yes, we enjoy what we do. That does not mean that we have to love every inch of what we do. There are jobs that require a good back, endurance, and, learning to let go, move on when things are not working, or, did not work.

We decided that in this kiln load we would load plates and platters at the top of the kiln. This is something we have been playing with as we see a slow down to the larger items we have been using to fill the top shelves in the kiln.
There is no reason that it should not work. What could possibly go wrong? (laughter here)

It took us a bit longer to load and figure this out. We were out there sweating and swearing a bit Saturday and Sunday. It's all good.



The kiln is in, the fire going, Mark is ever present as the kiln is turned up. Fire today, cool down Tuesday and Wednesday, unload Thursday.

I am heading to school for the final day of summer semester.
Boy, did that 8 weeks fly past me.
I have a few weeks to get ready for the fall.
I have kilns that need attention, clay to ready and summer camp.

Pictures of the fired pottery coming up.
Please watch this space.

Stay cool if it is hot where you are,and,warm if it is cold.
Cheers,
M

Yes

 Yes, we are open.
I might be working 3 days a week teaching, but that means Mark is here, working and open.

Are we always open on Mondays?
No, there are times that we close on a Monday, call or email ahead.

 Will you be open this past weekend?
Yes, we are open weekends.
This weekend we will open at 9 close at 5.
Sundays, call or email.


Are there times that you have to be closed?
Yes, we are like all people. We have families and that means that there are times that we need to go for many reasons.

Again, call or email if you want to be sure we are here.

Do we have any of Laurie Abela's soaps in stock?
Yes, we do.
We love her soaps and if you have used them you will love them as well.

We have plenty of stock in the gallery and more set aside.
Custom orders.
Talk to us, we can work with you on many items.

We hope to see you out and about.
Come on by.

 We would love to see you.

You did see my post about Spring break?

 If you did you know that rather than going to the beach, mountains or jetting away to Spain, I was here working on glazing for the gas kiln.

We loaded on Easter Sunday.
Because, when you work for your self, that is what you do. We had just seen our kids and family making the pain of working a little easier.

No ham, no deviled eggs, no pie.
Just work.
Mark fired while I went to work on Monday.
The drive over this time of year is really a treat with all the trees blooming. Every turn brings something new.

The last few weeks there has been a turkey  hanging out in one of the wooded areas I pass. last Monday I thought he must have become food for a fox since I did not see him anywhere. Then Tuesday and Wednesday there he was.

 We were pleased with the firing.
Mostly good.

A few okays.

A few hammer worthy.

I was very happy with this wall pillow that I made. I spent way too much time carving on it and then when it came time for glaze I went for a solid color.
 I really like it.
I know, I am in trouble when I really like something fresh out of the kiln. That can mean all kinds of excuses why

 I need to hold onto that piece.

Of course, the other issue is how to price. There are things that we make that you just have to blow it to the wind. You can never recover the amount of time you put in the piece.

 At some point you need to let it go.

I also have a weak spot for this tile that came out of the gas kiln. I usually make and fire them in the electric kiln. This time I had an order for some that needed to go in the gas kiln. I made this one to use up some of the clay and it came out very well.

I am happy with it as well.
There again is the issue of letting it go.

I know I like it and maybe someone else will like it as well.

Work is calling.
There are many things left to do before Monday calls me back to work.

it's time

 Mark and I headed back out to the studio this week to ring in the new year by getting back to work in the studio.
He has been cranking out the mugs with his count hitting 100 for the week. Along with that 100 mugs are bowls, juice cups and some odds and ends.
Me?
I have just finished my first round of tiles and today, yes, I know it's Sunday, I hit the wheel with some clay; small bowls, cereal bowls, and a good start on an order of honey pots. I wonder what it is about having an order that makes a person drag their (her) feet? All day I thought I would hit those honey pots first and get them out of the way, but instead I did my pottery warm up on bowls first. They are quick and easy, just right to see if I can still toss clay at the wheel and make a pot.
The honey pots, 4 down and 16 to go.
I guess we  all know what is on my list for tomorrow.

 I had not given much thought about going back to teach in the next 8 days ( I just looked at the calendar, darn....) but the last two mornings as I have just hit the edge of  being awake, my mind has jumped over to things left at the school as I walked out for break.
Hush, I tell them, not yet, let me think about those things next week.


Meanwhile back at the land of Whynot we are working on our list for the first firing of the year. We have a wholesale order that will need to be out of the kiln for the first of March, that means we need to fire in February. There are always some pots left from the last year to start off the firing, we just need to be smart about adding the right pots to the list.
No messing around, get serious here.

I really hope that we get some days of sun in the next week.
We have had so much rain that everything is nice and soggy around here.
I even had a disoriented black snake at the front door the other morning. I looked at him and he looked at me. He did not look any more happy to see me than I did to see him. My thoughts were- it's not spring yet buddy, go back to bed. I did not hang around to see where he was bedding down. I was just happy to see him gone when I went back out later.

Cheers!

Up to old tricks

 Yesterday was the last day we had to get the kiln loaded and fired in time for the show this weekend.

It was cold yesterday, with no wind, that made it easier to get it all loaded. We both added a extra layer or two. Mark checked the weather for today and did not like the forecast of wind and thunderstorms. With the no winds to continue overnight, Mark decided that this would be a good time to light up the kiln and pull an all nighter.
He just rolled in to bed as I rolled out . I am off to work this morning as he sleeps.

Here is the kiln load--------back

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front---------------------------------


















Tree---------

Unloading coming up in a few days.
M

Let's talk

I know, it's been awhile.
Life does that to a person, it just pops up and becomes something all on it's own that takes the days and the nights out of you.
My mother fell.
She is in her 80's and a broken bone is a broken bone.
So we went.
She is fine and recovering.
Time will tell.
Meanwhile it was back to school and pot making time.

And, the beauty of fall is all around us.
The drive to school and back is breath taking.
I take a route in the morning that winds through the back roads and as I round the curves and climb the foot hills there are some fabulous trees full of color.
The reds are here.
I love all the colors, but the reds just break my heart with their scream of color.
Every year we say, this is the best fall ever, well, maybe it is.
I'll check back in later.
Peace,
M

Here you go!

Front

 Pictures of pots.

It was a hot firing, to be expected with the tall lamps in the load.
The iron red loved the heat and the reduction..... I love a good iron red.

Most of the kiln came out very well; you can expect a few dogs with the amount of pots we put in the kiln.
Again, I am asked, how many pots we get in a load.
Again, I fail to count.
Some loads it's a lot, some loads it's a lot more and some loads it could be more.

We are mulling over a test we put in the kiln that we think we forgot to add some of the oxides in... but we like what it did and it could become a new glaze for us. It has the possibilities of a happy accident.

middle

back

  ( this space left intentionally blank)

Mugs anyone?

The fog yesterday morning

More fog....

Now, the real work begins, we are sanding, pricing, and toting, come on over for a look see.
M