Almost ready for the 2021 Christmas Pottery Sale!

November is rapidly ticking by and the Kingston Potters' Guild Christmas sale starts on November 25th!  Pots are being photographed, labelled, inventoried, and packed for the trip to Kingston.  Here is a small sample of what you'll find on my table at the sale.  Hope to see you there!

Also, just a reminder that you need a free Eventbrite ticket to get into the sale.  Here's the link to obtain a ticket:  KPG Christmas Pottery Sale Tickets

Layering different glazes to look like a landscape

Splash of red livens things up!

A rectangular platter with hand drawn flowers

A square plate - more flowers!

Soap dishes with a tray to catch the drips

A few mugs with a variety of flowers patterns

 

We had a relaxing weekend in Prince Edward County, staying in a B&B in Picton, dinner at Portobella (don't try to get into this restaurant between 5:30 and 8 pm without a reservation on a Saturday night - luckily we had planned ahead!), and visits to a couple of pottery studios and, of course, a winery or two.

This is a quick shot of tomatoes from our garden on a plate we purchased made by Maggie Murdoch of Wellington Pottery.  Great salad, great pottery - partner David Drown gave us a tour of the studio and great tips for our own studio.  See their work at: WellingtonPottery.com

We couldn't tour the county without a stop at Norman Hardie's winery - boy has this place changed since I was last there about 6 years ago.  Then, we trudged through mud & weeds to get to the tasting bar in the barn, which was pretty empty. Norman eventually arrived on the tractor, hot, sweaty and obviously annoyed to be interrupted, to pour us some samples.  Now, there's pizza via a wood burning oven, swarms of people, a second story tasting bar above a dining room and lots of stuff to buy besides wine.  Thankfully, the wine is still great - our fave, the County Pinot Noir - we made off with several bottles (as well as a couple of the Cab Franc).

View of bar and 2nd story tasting room.

Is the pottery marathon over?

It's been an interesting spring - frantically prepping pots for their final glaze firing just a day before the Kingston Potters' Guild Spring sale, helping to organize a pottery exhibition at the Tett Centre the following weekend and attending a 2 day workshop by Martha Grover the very next weekend - especially considering that pottery is my hobby!

 The spring sale went well - the Malting Tower at the Tett Centre in Kingston is such a great venue to hold the KPG sales in.  I had a table that was accessed from both sides - unexpectedly - but it seemed to work out OK.  I had opted for a very bright table cloth - looks pretty busy in the pics, but I couldn't resist as it contained the same colours as my glazes and it is the Spring Sale after all.

John had put together some new display boxes for me and these came in quite handy in terms of setting up with a new, 2-sided layout.  We decided on boxes with one open side so they can be used as plinths or the open side can be used to contain a piece of pottery as well.  Seeing the pics now, the table looks pretty crowded but I always like things to look bountiful. 

Whimsey Bowls

Here are some of the bowls I discussed in the last post - they were popular sellers.   These are a fair amount of work - drape molded, foot applied, slip added to inside and outside rim, carved, underglaze painted on, bisqued, black underglaze added to accentuate carving, glazed with transparent glaze and fired again. They seem perfect for a scoop of ice cream or berries topped with whipped cream - at least, if I had any left that's what I would use them for - I guess I'll make more.

The Ceramics Exhibition we put together attracted more interest in pottery and I think it helped to promote the guild. We got lots of positive comments.

 

The Martha Grover workshop was also a bit hit. Martha is a great workshop leader and she really went all out showing us her making methods.

Martha Grover demos 2 piece vase construction

Major snowstorm keeps me inside thinking about pots

So its mid February and reading week.  Along with marking exams, assignments, reading PhD theses I sneaked in a couple of quick trips to the basement to make pots - as usual, trying new things.  I made a couple of small bowls using a slump mold I bisqued a while ago.  Once the foot was added and they came off the mold I cleaned them up a bit and let them dry overnight.  Then I coated the inside and a bit on the outside with slip and did some sgraffito decoration. I hadn't slipped and carved on a bone dry piece before - works pretty good as long as you start carving the second the slip has lost its sheen.

I think I'll add some underglaze colour and then bisque them, paint them all over with black underglaze to highlight the carving and then glaze with either a white or clear glaze.

A successful Kingston Potters' Guild Pottery Sale in the Tett Malting Tower

I continue to be impressed by the creativity of the potters who are members of the Kingston Potters' Guild.  Customers flooded into the Malting Tower on Thursday night and everyone left carrying something special. A steady stream of customers continued for the next 3 days.  I had a mishmash of glazed, carved, slip-trailed, pieces and should now spend some time trying to figure out what works and what didn't!

Table set up at beginning of sale

Shelving set up at beginning of sale

 

I'm desperately in need of a clear glaze that doesn't blister when  applied over a porcelain slipped surface that has been decorated with underglaze (either before or after bisquing).  My reading tells me its at least partially a problem with glaze viscosity - I think this is part of the problem since the blistering is worse at the top of the wall of a bowl and virtually non-existent in the bottom where the glaze is thicker. It also seems to correlate with areas where the porcelain slip is, as the exact same glaze on the outside of the bowl that has no slip is smooth and clear as a bell.

I've tried the Glossy Clear Liner Glaze from Master Cone 6 Glazes and Robin Hopper's Clear - both are blistering

Ideas????

Although I don't have a photo of the glazed version of this piece, I've posted below a pic of this platter when it came out of the bisque firing.  This pot went to a good home via a silent auction at a recent fundraising event for managing Westport's stray/feral cats.

Bisqued platter with carving and underglaze decoration