Hope everyone has a Happy Holiday! I'm signing off until next year. See you in 2009!
Cone 04 Lizard Skin
Maybe I should explain a little bit about what I look for in a "good" glaze. Since my work is sculptural, I don't worry about whether a glaze is food safe, dishwasher safe, etc. Usually, the stranger the glaze, the more I like to use it. What some potters might consider "defects" in their glazes, I love for my work! I love crawly, crackly, beady, crunchy, crazy glazes.
Here's my current glaze tile chart with my both my old glazes and my 24 new ones added. The 2 rows at the bottom involve layering glazes and were also unloaded from the kiln today. 
Today, the plan was to just straighten up the studio so it would be ready to go after the holidays. I had test tiles covering basically every horizontal surface, and it was time to box/trash many of them. But... as soon as I went out to the studio and saw those tiles (no, I didn't run away), I was compelled to do yet another round of testing! You would think it would have the opposite effect, and seeing tiles everywhere would prevent one from feeling the need/desire to test even more. But not me! I have the kiln going again with the 3rd batch!
[An older piece with clear float glass slumped into the "window"]
[Cone 04 ceramic glaze test tiles using line blends of (L-R) dark rutile, red iron oxide, cobalt carbonate, chromium oxide, copper carbonate. The single tile to the far right is the base glaze with no additives.]
I thought that I'd be so sick of mixing glazes that I wouldn't want to even look at the triple beam balance much less strap on a respirator and start adding chemicals together. But I was so excited when I saw some of these, that I was back at it yesterday. Unfortunately, I ran out of a few materials, so I'll be placing an order with Highwater Clays this afternoon.
[Unfired Test Tiles]
This was actually only the first series of tests I hope to do this month. (Though the thought of mixing any more at the moment makes my head spin a bit.) The plan is to take the successful glazes from this batch and cross them with each other. 
This is my glaze storage area. 
Happy Organizing!Art Sales and the Economy - Part II
This week I received emails from 2 galleries I work with. One, sadly, was announcing that it would be closing its doors at the end of the year due to hard times. The other, proclaiming that they had just sold out of all the work I had just sent them, and were requesting more ASAP!
I smiled, and was then reminded of a something my mom used to tell me. "This, too, shall pass."
Though their are many explanations for this statement, I found the following definition on Wikipedia.com.
The phrase "This too shall pass" and the associated ring story were made popular by Abraham Lincoln in his 'Address Before the Wisconsin State Agricultural Society, Milwaukee, Wisconsin' on September 30, 1859:
"It is said an Eastern monarch once charged his wise men to invent him a sentence, to be ever in view, and which should be true and appropriate in all times and situations. They presented him the words: 'And this, too, shall pass away.' How much it expresses! How chastening in the hour of pride! How consoling in the depths of affliction!"
I've often found myself thinking this during both exciting and trying times, and it always seems to help give me a little perspective and comfort. Thought I would pass it along to you today in hopes that it make your day a little happier or more humble.
The plastic wrap is then positioned on top of the soft clay. It helps to brush a small amount of water on the clay so the plastic wrap will stick. Using a rubber stylus, I then press down and re-trace the sharpie line until it has created a nice impression in the clay. 
The plastic wrap is pealed back to reveal a nice, clean line in the clay. I'll then leave the tiles flat until they are at the leather hard stage before smoothing the edges . 
I've also done this technique with kids, and it worked great! Just have them create a line drawing on a piece of paper, trace it onto plastic, and then trace it again onto the clay! It always seems to be a crowd pleaser.
Thanks for taking the time to stop in. I'll be back later in the week.
A fun group of ladies from The Red Hat Society stopped in over the weekend.
I'd love to hear your thoughts, and "compare notes" from your recent experiences participation in/shopping at recent art festivals.
Constance Williams
[John looking over notes for the triaxial glaze blend we did.]
Before this class, my glaze knowledge was very limited. Though I mixed my own glazes, I bacically could only follow the recipe. If anything went wrong, I had no idea why or how to fix it. It was like baking a cake without know what flour, salt, sugar, and baking soda were.
Call me a dork, but I found glaze chemistry fun! It has been years since I looked at a periodic table or thought about chemical formulas. But John made it both easy to understand and practical - explaining how it was relavant to ceramics and glazes. I learned even more than I expected to! Though it will be quite some time before I'm able to recall or recite all the information with ease.
[Tiles from the ^10 gas reduction. A line blend with increasing amounts of iron oxide, and a base glaze with various oxides and stains in the back.]
Because our class was small, we were able to focus specifically on the areas that interested in us. We fired both a ^10 gas reduction kiln and a low fire ^04 electric kiln. So, we got quite the range of glazes. I cant wait to incorporate some of these crunchy, crawly textures into my work! 
[Some of the ^04 glaze tests that will be making their way into my work.]
We had a fantastic, but fast-paced weekend! Starting with 2 electric kiln firings in our first session Friday night, we worked and fired till 2:30 this afternoon. I am so proud of my students and everyone seemed to get over their kiln firing fears!
Here they are! The wonderful, enthusiastic group of 11 from this past weekends class.
Tonight, I'm in Asheville, NC relaxing and switching gears. I get to be a student tomorrow in John Britt's glaze workshop. Cant wait!
Place wrapped work into a box, surrounding/floating the pieces in peanuts (ugh, the mess!) or similar packing material. 
For artists, always remember to include your business card(s) , any other promotional material, signed insurance/consignment forms, and a HAND WRITTEN note. If the gallery hasn't provided an inventory list, make one yourself to include with the package. 
Seal this box with packing tape. It should feel nice and solid, and you should hear nothing rattling around. This becomes your inner box. It then gets placed into a slightly larger box, and again surrounded/floated with peanuts or similar. (Often called the "box-in-a-box-with-peanut-float" method.) 
Top off the box with more peanuts.
Tape closed. Remember to thoroughly tape the bottom, as well as any opening on the sides. Again, it should feel nice and solid, and you should hear nothing rattling around.
If reusing boxes (which I always do), remove, cover, or mark through any previous shipping label. I have a FedEx account, so next, I measure and weigh the package myself (using a bathroom scale) and prepare my shipment information online. It's then ready for me to just drop off at my nearest FedEx location. (super easy!)
Sunday Ben made a double batch of his Famous Oatmeal Cookies and I baked a couple loaves of sourdough bread.
We had homemade veggie soup/chili and an bottle of organic wine for dinner. Yum!
And I worked in the studio too. I'd go in for 1-2 hour intervals (while my bread was rising) and grind the groove into the pendants I've been shaping. This groove helps the wire stay in place when they are wrapped. Then I cleaned them up, and fired the kiln again last night.
Today I hope to clean up the mess from the tile saw and grinder, unload the kiln, sort the pendants by price, start wire wrapping, fire a kiln with slumped glass, and finish up some other odds and ends in the studio. I've decided that I just need to set aside a "computer day" to focus on my new artist statement and get my ETSY shop up and running.
