Obvara Firing

We (my Thursday morning class at the Eagan Art House) had an Obvara firing today and came away with some fantastic results!!!!! We had a variety of different clay bodies and we achieved a range or results by changing the time before dipping hot pots into the Obvara mix and also the speed to quench the changing surface with cool water.



This is one of mine that I let cool a bit before dipping in the Obvara mixture and then quickly into water to quench before blackening. This one did not get any mixture inside and the rim remained the raw clay color (in this case, white clay). The circle on the right side near the run is the tong mark.


This one was quenched more slowly and thus has a darker finish. I dunked the pot entirely in the Obvara mix so the inside is speckled as well.


These three were all textured pots instead of smooth. The taller bottle has a line that I dipped, held in the mix at that level for a few seconds, then quickly up to the rim before quenching in water. These three were the last pots out of the kiln, so were the coolest pots of the batch.


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New pieces

This piece is Obvara fired which is an alternative firing much like Raku or Horsehair. Pieces are pulled out of a kiln hot (1650F), then dipped in a mixture if flour, sugar, yeast, and water, then quenched in water. Colors can range from gold to brown to black sometimes with spots of white.


Here are some slip print pots I have been working on lately. These were fired to Cone 6 in an electric kiln with clear glaze on the outside to show off the slip decoration.


The Obvara pot is not water tight which makes it a nice planter. I will add a plastic pan under it just to be sure it doesn't seep out onto furniture.


Here is the information for my only sale this summer.....come out and support local art and local artists:)


Here are some not-so-new dishes that I thought I would photograph as long as I had my black background paper handy.


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Pop-up Shop

We (pottery friends and I) are trying a new venture with this pop-up shop pottery sale. There is a nice kitchen design store in St. Paul that has started hosting these little sales for one day every so often. We end up with a cute place that is centrally located and the owner of Kitchen Comfort gets new for traffic. Come on out if you are around!


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On the work bench tonight

I lined up all of my pretty little bottle forms on my work bench for a photo tonight.....what glaze shall I put on you, my pretties?






I also picked up this bowl that was an experiment in texturing with slip. I expected the "iron red" slip to be red, and not just high in iron. The white glaze looks much like what I can expect on regular fireclay with iron.






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Slip transfer on Plate

In the past few weeks, I have been playing with slip transfer on slabs and flat plates before adding the rim, and today I added transfers to a completed plate! I like being able to print up over the transition to the rim and the rim as well. It was much easier than pulling a rim after making the plate base and printing. It seemed as if that sequence led to lumpy rims from uneven pressing on clay to et the images transferred. Today was much more successful! Yay!


And this is my kids' pet, Pheonix. He is a Bearded Dragon and he likes to climb on people and sit on your shoulder. He is pretty cool!



He also likes to give himself kisses in the mirror:)


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Today at the studio

I had a class this morning (taking a class not teaching one today) and here are my projects....


Here is a vase I made, thrown in two pieces and seamed together....then I added an iron red slip over the top third and drew my little feather through the top color.....no clue what glazes to use!!!!!!



Below is a hanging tile idea that our class was creating....I used my pile of stamps that I have made over the years and made this pretty thing. I hope to fire them with a wide variety of colors and firing techniques and them string them up and mount them hanging from a board. FUN! Thanks for the project inspiration Daisy!



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Just drew this

Doodling tonight before bed....



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A nice pot

This one popped out of the kiln today and I was quite pleased:)




Black slip over a mid-fire clay body, sgraffito decorations, clear glaze over the whole inside....fired cone 6 electric....


High Fire White with Grog, a clay body formulated by Continental Clay, with image transfer using under glazes and slips, clear glaze outside and a blue liner glaze inside, fired cone 6 electric....


Slip transfer on wall tiles, clear glaze, cone 6 electric fired...


And yummy buttons:)


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More Slip Transfer Prints

I experimented today adding these prints to plates!!!!!! What a blast!!!! And now I am left with a whole new string of questions that need answering!






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Slip Transfer

I made this yummy slip layered slab yesterday and today it became a simple slab pitcher. Normally, I make these pitchers shorter, but this one had to be tall to use up all of the great print area!!!!!!






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