NewBridge Firing Results

After just a few short weeks, I received three boxes of pots from Cleveland, where my good friend Junji fired them in the NewBridge center's brand new Bailey downdraft gas kiln. A downdraft kiln gets very consistent reduction, so I was excited to try out a variety of glazes. As I had hoped, I got some nice copper reds, lusterous temmokus, beautiful celadons and wonderful Shino finishes.

Check out the results in this Flickr gallery.

Big Al is Loaded!

It seems like it's been an eternity since our last reduction firing. That's how it goes when you've got a beast like Big Al, though. Big Al is the nickname given to MCG's large Alpine HF60 updraft kiln. With a kiln this big, you've got to make a lot of work to fill it. Thankfully the summer program students did their best, and Bill Strickland has taken care of the rest with his large bowls and platters.

As for my work, this time around it's mostly small tea and sake cups—guinomi and yunomi. I did make the large bowl (bottom left) for one of the students, and the tall lamp body (top shelf, rear) while working alongside the kids one day this summer.

I'm particularly excited to see how some of the glazes I mixed will turn out, all of which came from John Britt's book. I added 3% red iron oxide to Richard Aerni's basic wood ash recipe, which I'm hoping will be interesting... I mixed up the Fake Nuka #1 recipe, and a carbon-trap Shino, too. I applied each of them to buff stoneware, dark stoneware and porcelain pieces, and placed them in various locations throughout the kiln so I can see the effects of reduction.

Watch for new photos on Flickr after we unload on Thursday.

Success!

Here is what my shelves look like after this recent reduction firing. I was very productive this winter, and so there are two full boxes of work that aren't on these shelves.

One of the things I'm most proud of is this set of Kotler's Orange-Grey mugs and serving platter. I made these upon request and they became some lucky lady's Valentine's Day gift.

Tiny Bubbles

In ceramics, nothing is certain. There are so many variables that even the artist who controls every part of the process isn't really in complete control. Of course there are things you can do as an artist to minimize failures—for example, checking your underglaze to make sure it's approved for cone 10, not cone 5. So the sgraffito carved mugs that I was so excited about all bubbled horrendously and were ruined.

Lesson learned. Thankfully, I had lots of other pieces in the kiln. Some others failed, as well, but most pieces were successful. Some came out amazingly well. More to come...