Salty salty kilns... and birds and trees

So much to tell. I am the worst blogger of all time-- I don't even remember what I wrote about last or when that was. So... things have been going pretty great, personally and in the studio. Did I mention that I am also the T.A. for the art history class that I'm currently enrolled in? Yup. I thought it was worth mentioning at least. So in the studio, I have been staying busy like crazy-- probably more than is necessary, but I want to make the most of this semester. Also, I had to make work like crazy to help fill a salt kiln last week. I have been firing kilns like I've been baking cookies. Just last week between Thursday and Wednesday, I fired three bigger kilns-- and I was making pots and glazing them at the same time, and loading and unloading bisque kilns as well. The first kiln I fired was the class salt kiln (for the intermediate class that I am retaking). Oh, and I guess I should mention that we had a two-day workshop last week: Walter Keeler demonstrated his working techniques and styles on Wednesday and Thursday. On that same Thursday, my professor started the salt kiln at about 8:30am and was having issues with one of the burners. Apparently it just kept blowing out. When the workshop ended at 4:00pm, he asked me to watch the kiln for a while-- which I was fine with because I needed to make work for the other salt kiln anyway. I watched the kiln from then until about 10:00pm-- when my professor showed up again. That night they were having a dinner for Walter so the studio was basically empty. It was kind of nice being the only one there for a while. I had already introduced one round of salt before my professor got there, and I was waiting for it to clear out. He helped me finish the kiln-- told me to wait for the temperature to climb back up before introducing the second round of salt and be patient enough for cone 10 to tip-touch. The kiln was finished at 10:30pm.
Friday was just another class day with crit and glaze calc. We unloaded the salt firing on Saturday morning, and then the class loaded a bisque kiln and my professor rearranged the gas kiln that I loaded the day before. He said that he wanted to pack it tighter... and then he almost postponed firing it but I said that I would be around so I could fire it. The starting time was 1:05pm, and I finished it at 10:35pm. It was a lot smoother of a firing than the last time I fired that kiln... he did come to check on me once after I put it into body reduction. I guess I was doing alright, because he just left again. I got a lot of work done for the next salt kiln, and I glazed most of my work (thanks to seeing the awesome results from the class salt firing from the day before. We finished glazing on Sunday afternoon and immediately loaded the kiln and started the pilots to candle it over night. We started it at 11:00am the next day, and finished it at around 10:45pm. It wasn't too bad. We unloaded it on Wednesday afternoon. I got some amazing results, and here are the photos:

Salt fired mugs. Turquoise oribe, thick application. (not from either of the firings from this week, but I thought they made a nice photo together. The atmosphere was a little more reduced than I would have liked... notice the pink speckling on the surface)

Soda fired mugs. Turquoise oribe copper glaze. The glaze ran like crazy because there was a ton of residual soda in the kiln...

Soft slab mug. Red stoneware with painted porcelain slip, gas reduction cone 10. This was in my first firing that didn't run as smoothly, even though my professor said that I got "decent" results.

Mug. Red stoneware with painted white slip and sgraffito decoration. Gas reduction cone 10. This came out of the more successful gas firing that I just did on Saturday.

And now... the latest salt-fired work! :)

Cup. Salt fired dry surface with painted black slip and sgraffito lines. Oh, and the liner glaze is the one that I came up with from my grid in glaze calc... with 10% zircopax. It makes a nice stable satin matte liner glaze :)

Bodice mug. Salt fired dry surface with painted black slip and sgraffito decoration.

Tree cup. Salt fired dry surface with painted black slip and sgraffito decoration.

Cup. Salt fired dry surface with painted black slip and sgraffito decoration. 

Cup. Salt fired dry surface with painted black slip and sgraffito lines.

 

Small tree pitcher. Salt fired dry surface with painted black slip and sgraffito decoration.

Bird pitcher. Red stoneware with painted white slip and sgraffito illustration. This one is my personal favorite :) I am thinking about submitting this photo for our slideshow at NCECA :)

Bird pitcher, second view.

Alex introducing a round of salt into our kiln...

And this is me introducing the last round of salt :)