Blazing Chametz

Low temperature, reducing atmosphere...happy & kosher Pesach!

Recent Work

From Meir's anagama,refired in electric kiln to cone 10 From Meir's kiln,retired in Bourry [wood & salt] Meir's anagama Bourry Bourry Bourry Bourry The Seder plate from the youtube video Gas kiln,cone9 Seder plate,gas kiln

From the Bourry firing...

More gazing at flames...Click for short but moving video...

Happy [& Kosher] Pesach!

Slip-trailing a Seder plate

Starting to glaze

For my gas kiln, just for a change.

Range

I think I might have found my next archery range in Tsfat- know where it is?

14 Bowls High

On Friday I fired another bisc kiln, including this stack of 14 bowls: I wasn't sure they would all survive, but they did.

Always a Good Sign-

Firing a bisc without using any shelves is, I think, a small sign that something is working properly- that there's a connection between your production and your kiln size- that's how we fired bisc back at Robin Welch's studio in the 70's- a whole [big] electric kiln just stacked with cups from floor to ceiling. I made a lot of cups in those days- that's probably where I came to love making cups and handles, which is what I'm doing this morning...

18 Cups

That's it for today. I learn from throwing this shape that the best forms are to be found when the material is stretched to its limit- just before it collapses; the only way to learn where that point is is to go past it a few times [quite a few]...

Moving Into Porcelain

I've finished the stoneware pots I want to have ready for Pesach, and have a week or so before I need to start [glaze-] firing them. I've also come to the end of my stock of French stoneware- I'm not sure if Ullman [from whom I buy it] has it either, and anyway I'm waiting for the arrival of 1/2 ton of English clay from Potterycrafts [a clay I used years ago]; all in all, a good time for some  porcelain. I'm right out of facetted celadon and copper-red cups, so they're first on the list.

Set the Controls...

...for the heart of the sun...well, not quite [27 million degrees FYI] but cone 12,which is a bit over 1300, and hotter than I have ever fired in my studio; the pots improved, especially where I splashed a little extra ash on them- still a bit wrinkly, so maybe a trip to the wood-kiln...