Saturday, February 20, 2010

I smoked a lot of pots and drank a little wine

HA HA!! Need I say more? What an AMAZING day. I ain't gonna glaze no more stinkin' pots. They will all be smoke fired and raku fired (for awhile at least). Fashion shot of the day....
Barbara, Amy and Wesley are prepping pots in Barbara's studio for saggar firing
Baked potatoes ready to go
This is my newest most favorite thing. could you just die!? Barbara brought this back from a workshop in Switzerland. I MUST have one of these. This bitch went to 1600 degrees in like fifteen minutes. Seriously, We put tiny sticks of wood in it and off she went like a rocket, and wait till you see what the results are like. Of course you can't get much in there but who cares! I love it!
We had the raku saggar going, the sweet little Zurich, and a trash can blazing for a smoke fire. Aren't we the shite!?
These sweet little folks came out of the Zurich (I'm calling it that because I can't pronounce the real name for it that sounds something like oxymoron but that's not it) LOOK at that little house! Hollis you want this one? The spheres were burnished and have red terra sig with copper sulfate and ironite, the house is white terra sig with copper sulfate, the box is Barbara's and came out of the trash can fire. They were wrapped in Spanish moss from the trees of the NC coast and sprinkled with some kosher salt blessed by a Rabbi (we figure the salt was blessed since it is kosher and the pots turned out so good).
Sweeeeet...........
One of Amy's rattles, a little note here: the saggars all came out like this. There was not much color from the pieces in the larger raku kiln, even though we added lots of copper and organics that should have given us color. The foil did not burn off so I'm thinking we didn't fire it hot enough. We fired to 1200 f and the little rocket kiln went to 1600. the foil burned off in there and we got nice colors. Oh well, it's all experiments for us right now so no great losses.
my beautiful child that I love
while we waited for the pots to cool Amy and Barbara row, row, rowed their boat.
I have a few more pots to photograph, if they look decent I'll put them up later. Handles on red clay cups tomorrow, stay tuned, Peace!

9 comments:

Trish said...

Wow, wow and WOW!! (If I would have checked your blog before I sent the email I would have known how FABULOUS your day was!).:)
The spheres are beautiful, Tracey, and the rest. great day.

Linda Starr said...

All looks great, such beautiful colors, love that zurich pot firing thing. wonderful work and looks like a great day too.

ang design said...

suweeeet indeed, that lil kiln is the sme as annas rocket they really go off eh!! is that the ingredients you put in your foil saggars? what temp?? stunning looking day too..

Tracey Broome said...

I should edit this post and explain the saggars. that didn't go as planned. The best pots came from the little rocket kiln for me. Ang, I do remember now that you had a post about that.

Anonymous said...

smokin' pots and wine go together like florida and sunshine... it looks like you got the sunshine too. sounds like a great day and i didn't realize at first but barbara's is the place by the lake that you posted before. what a dreamy locale for all that fire. this makes me miss the primitive firing methods. we used to fill a small swimming pool with sawdust from the woodshop and soak the top 1/2 inch with anything flammable and let her rip. fun fun fun. the house has got some beautiful markings on it.

Judy Shreve said...

WOW - wow on the kiln, the day & those luscious pieces!

Tracey Broome said...

I know you guys! the day was amazing. I have had such cabin fever, it was great to get some sun on my face. Barb's place is so nice, she has a huge yard, with her raku kiln down by the lake and an arch gas kiln up by the house. Her entire basement is studio space, what a dream!

Sue Pariseau Pottery said...

Very nice results. Love the color on the round pieces.

Laura Farrow said...

Yowzah!! Looks like you all had a great firing and fun day! My heart pines away a little bit for all you peeps I hardly ever see. Keep it rockin, Trace!!