Wednesday, November 11, 2009

Good news Bad news

First the bad news, obvious right?! One of my brand new shelves, fired in the kiln only one other time, cracked in half somewhere around cone 10. I know this because I could see the cones fine through cone 9 and then I started looking for them and they had disappeared. Now I know why.
Good news is, it only fell on pieces that I had put in to re fire from my first try at reduction and they were all bad anyway, I just thought I would see if I could still get the celadon to reduce, Well, it didn't. The strangest thing is that the nicest of the pieces survived, things fell and stuck together all around them, but they are ok. It was like kiln natural selecton or something! The other good news is all of my good bowls and mugs are BEAUTIFUL! The temmoku is realllllly pretty and I think the other tests are good too. I did have one amber celadon that doesn't look all that great and one tiny white bowl that is very cool but, I don't remember what I put on it and my notes just say little bowl, forgot to say what was on it. The firing was smooth, in spite of pretty hard rain at the end, I came in around 7:30 fairly soaked, but had a nice pot of lentil soup on the stove, smart to have made that earlier!
Unfortunately it is 7am and pouring rain outside, so I'm not quite in the mood to go out and dig through the rubble. Mike, I know you asked for the firing schedule and I will do a post on how I fired the kiln once I'm awake. Just one hint, don't rush about the night before a firing making cone packs. Have them ready in advance. I put the cones in backwards, quite a funny sight this morning. How many cone packs have I made for other people? But mine? Backwards, go figure!
I think the temmoku is going to look really nice with my turquoise raku, I'm excited about this combination. I'll get some better photos later, I know these are not so good. Of course, will people buy temmoku, that's the question. We'll see...........
More later, tea now!

7 comments:

cookingwithgas said...

Girl you have been through it all this week!
Me, I love temmoku and I think it will be striking against your raku!
I can't wait to see more!
I know I am suppose to be doing the last of the paper work- don't tell!

Tracey Broome said...

M. this has truly been a rough week! I need a tequila party:) I am loving the temmoku pieces though. We all had oatmeal in the bowls this morning and drank tea from the mugs and I think this combo is a keeper. Fires well, looks good on my work and good with the Raku. It feels nice to hold and food looks good in it. What's not to love!

Judy Shreve said...

Temoku is one of my favorite glazes -- and it looks fab with your raku! Can't wait to see more. Bizarre about your kiln shelf?! Was it wet?
It sounds like your learning that kiln pretty quickly --

Linda Starr said...

Oh my so terrible to have a broken shelf, man what a bummer, I too like tenmoku and I think it looks great on your pieces. I think folks who know pottery like it, it sure looks beautiful with your turquoise tray - what a great combo that is. Gary said tequila is the purest form of alcohol. You've reminded me of my old days of tequila shooters, Ha!

Laura Farrow said...

I'm glad that there is at least some GOOD NEWS mixed in with the bad this time. Your luck is turning. xo

potterboy said...

Looks good. When I used to fire pots at the class I do on a Monday, almost everything I made was glazed in temmoku - love it. Nothing beats a good one.

Looking forward to some better/more photos.

Patricia Griffin Ceramics said...

whew, saw the photo first and thought all was disaster. Glad to read on that your favs survived and look great! Yeah!