Even though not much has been happening on this blog (ugh!) — the work in the studio has progressed… slowly… but there is progress being made. I unloaded a glaze kiln the other day. Here are some photographs of the process.
This first shot after opening the kiln. The sculpture on the top shelf has been fired on stilts. That’s why the funky shadow under the sculpture. Stilts keep the piece hovering above the shelf — where a glazed sculpture and shelf meet they will fuse. The stilts keep the sculpture from fusing to the shelf. Or I could clean off the glaze from the bottom of the sculpture, but I dislike that unglazed line around the bottom of a sculptural piece.
The 1×2 inch tile is one of the last tiles for a table top project (more on that in another post).
So I’ve removed the sculpture (above) from the kiln and the shelf it was fired on. We get a better view of the platter prototype, a few wall pockets, and more tiles for the table top project. Let’s look at these pieces…
A 2×2 inch paw print tile for the table top…
A specially ordered tooled wall pocket…
A small wall pocket with Greyhound and bunnies.
Now the platter. This is the first platter I’ve made. There are a few things I’d change, but overall I like it. What do you think? Yay or Nay on the platter?
The shelves were also removed to reveal the next layer: still more tiles for the table top (I really miss counted!) I’ll lift the shelf and all the tiles out together.
Ah-ha! The bottom of the kiln: two boxes, a small test sculpture and larger cockroaching Greyhound sculpture.
Here is the test piece. This piece has a crackle finish glaze.
Now the box. This was also a test piece — a box of different dimensions. This size is prone to warpage — don’t think I’ll be making many more of this size.
This is the interior of that box. A speckled turquoise blue glaze.
Here is the box out of the kiln — couple of here — the box is warped and bends in at the middle and the figure’s feet have risen off the box lid. Not terrible flaws (and I love the glaze on this one!). I might offer it for a discounted price rather than have this box meet Mr. Hammer. We’ll have to see.
And here’s the lid for the last box in this load. This is a large box about 10x6x6 inches. It has the same interior color as the box above. This box turned out really fine!
The cockroaching sculpture came out last. Overall I am very pleased with this firing. All of these available pieces are on my etsy store.
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