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

I recently watched a lecture given by potter extraordinaire, Adam Field.  Among many other experiences, he spent a number of months in Korea learning how to make very large, traditional fermentation jars called Onggi.  This is a link to a time lapse video showing Adam working on an onggi,  check it out!
 Adam Fields onggi

Adam has also uploaded a selection of his photographs on Instagram that, among other things (ie family shots), encompass unique images of patterns occurring in nature.
https://instagram.com/adamfieldpottery 

We survived pottery bootcamp!

We headed off to the Haliburton School of Arts last Sunday for 5 long days of throwing class taught by Rene Pettijean.

Rene spiral wedging clay

Key step in opening clay in preparation for raising the wall

  













Aside from the incredibly hot weather, which translated into an equally incredibly hot pottery studio, it was a great 5 days of revisiting the basics of throwing on the wheel. There were 16 of us, all at varying stages in our pottery "careers".  We were challenged by Rene to use some discipline in throwing the same sized/shaped objects - discipline that I don't normally practice!  (Throwing is too much fun to be disciplined about it). We got lots of demos by Rene and one-on-one assistance when requested.  The group was very interactive and ready to constructively share their experiences.

Setting a rim on a jar.

Throwing the top of a 9 lb vase

One of many things I learned was that I don't plan my throwing projects well enough.  Using Fibonacci numbers we were asked to design mugs, throw them, & attach handles.

5 bisqued souvenirs from bootcamp

Above are the 5 I put handles on out of 9 cylinders I started with.  The shape on the far right is what I started with, then I redesigned to the shape on the left and tried a few small variations (really - these didn't just "happen").  Turns out, I liked the original version the best once the handles went on! When I got home I redesigned the shape on the left to flare out a bit at the base to balance out the form and will try to throw a few of these.  These handles were pulled, then attached to the mugs and pulled some more - I let mine dry out too much so the handles are pretty wonky, but it was certainly good practice.  Many, many pots went straight into the pug mill so that we could reuse the clay the next day - it was kind of refreshing to "kill" so many pots! 

Tested some new glazes and decorating techniques.  I took at quick pic of this bowl as it made its way into a friend's care.  The glaze is a "faux" celadon but I didn't get it sprayed on thick enough to carry much colour on this speckled clay. I think it will look quite nice on a white clay though.  The decorating was done with coloured slips trailed onto the bowl before bisquing.

 

Kingston Potters' Guild Spring Sale is a done deal - a very successful sale for me and overall.  Thanks to Mike and Ikuko for convening.  Looks like the Tett Centre for Creativity and Learning will be a great venue for future sales too.

Well, after a day and half of moving tables, moving pots, counting inventory and finessing displays... the Kingston Potters' Guild Spring Sale is underway! A big thanks goes out to Mike and Ikuko who are convening this time around.

Potters put the finishing touches on their displays.

My pots, set off by the KPG wall plaque.

 

Rosie's Red can actually turn out red!

Latest firing resulted in some interesting glaze results.  I used a glaze called Rosie's Red on a few pieces.  This glaze is one of the standard Kingston Potters' Guild class glazes.  In the past when I've used this glaze I would get a heterogeneous shiny brown glaze, OK, but nothing spectacular and I always wondered why it was called Rosie's Red (looked consistently brown to me).  I decided to try some Rosie's on a few of my pieces in the last firing (basically I was tired of spraying and quickly dipping the remaining pieces in glaze was a way to get out of the studio sooner - it was a beautiful spring day).  Perhaps the relatively quick dip, along with a soak and slow cool during the firing did the trick - Rosie's was actually red!  or at least reddish and also satiny instead of shiny.  I found a Clayart thread that states that slow cooling is the ticket for red/orange tones with this glaze.

A little blue teapot.

I finally made a little teapot.  Of course it drips, and it only holds 1 1/2 cups of water, but I think its cute.

Spraying, spraying, spraying

Spent the ENTIRE day at the Kingston Potters' Guild studio today trying to finish glazing pots so I can load the kiln tomorrow. Its great using the spray booth at the studio but my hand feels like its about to fall off from holding the spray gun all day!

Altered rims take a long time!

Tried a "new to me" technique last night.  It involved altering the rim of a bowl by cutting into it and rearranging the edge.  It was way more fiddly that I usually like and by the looks of it this morning, could still use some more refinement. Unfortunately this pot ended up with a bloat and when into the shard pile.

Anne Mette Hjortshøj "Paying Honest Attention". A quiet, inspiring perspective on making pots.

5 South Korean Ceramic Master Craftsmen Show Off Their Skill...

Rideau Lake Pottery is a reality (more or less)

So kicking and screaming into the 21st century we go....a blog no less.

We make pots, of all shapes and sizes.  I'll post a couple of pictures for now, but will eventually get organized enough to demonstrate that we really enjoy making pots!

An attempt to get interesting results at Cone 6

Part of my Kingston Potters' Guild sale display