Well, in the space of 4 months I’ve got back into throwing pots and have learned a lot from each of the firings I’ve done in my gas kiln. I’ve had a lot of reject pots but also had some pots that I’ve really been pleased with. Thank you to Carisbrooke Priory for providing me with the perfect pottery workshop and a place to display and sell my pottery. Thank you also to all the kind people who have bought my pots and helped to spread the word!
Next year I will start up my drawing and painting again, so will need to manage my time between the art and the pottery. I’ve certainly felt a lot more relaxed since I stopped the design work to pursue the pottery and I’m looking forward to more creativity and greater success and sales in 2012.

The good thing is that the glazes have a wide maturing range from 1260′C to 1280′C. I’d prayed for good results before the firing and…  well I’ll let the photos speak for themselves. The range of colours is quite remarkable, and the use of rutile has produced some stunning autumnal colours! I used the word raving for the title which can mean wild and out of control!

The colours of rutile!

Closeups of two of the jugs.

The slides below show more of the jugs and the amazing range of colours achievable with the same glazes (chun/tenmoku over reactive slip; chun/tenmoku over red taggs yard).

New brush decoration motifs

… so, much of this week has been taken up with mixing the new glazes then glazing the pots that came out of the last biscuit firing. It took much longer than I thought because I wanted to try out some new brushwork motifs using my favoured combination of rutile and iron oxide, and I was suffering from a cold so didn’t have my usual energy.  I need a lot more practice with my brushwork, and I need to buy some new chinese brushes as well as a new hake brush to replace the one that finally expired this afternoon! Now I can’t wait until next Thursday when I will be doing the first of another run of glaze firings.

At the end of the following slides I’ve posted some comparisons to show examples of glazing before and after being fired.

Before and After

2lb Storage Jars
Staying with the 2lb lumps of clay I moved on to throwing some more storage jars. 

The more I’m throwing, the more uniform they are getting, almost identical heights and widths of rim. Also I’m throwing much quicker now, so maybe it’s time for another video to show my progress.

The mugs I threw the other week got their handles added. Larger mugs hold more coffee (or tea, or drinking chocolate..) so a one finger handle is not really sufficient.


That’s all for now. After the storage jars I want to try something different, like mixing bowls with a pouring lip, or soup dishes or candlestick holders. And I eventually want to return to doing some slip trailing on plates!

Here are some of the pots from that firing:

Lidded jar, height: 180mm
A beautiful plum red where the flame was nearest!
The glaze was allowed to dribble as it was poured on. I like the spots of chun blue.

A taller jar thrown with 3lbs clay.
Height: 230mm

Jar. Height: 150mm
The brownish colour here should ideally be the plum red of the first one.
Another glaze firing next Thursday, so I look forward to even better results. I’ll have to order some more glaze very soon!

I also made detailed notes of the glazes I’d used and the location of each pot in the kiln. I won’t bore you with the details right now, but I do now have a good idea of how I will glaze the pots for a glaze firing next week.

I did make one mistake however, which I won’t make again… I left the chimney dampers off after the first 10 minutes cooling, and I should have covered them completely. So, I suffered quite a lot of crazing, alas.

So, here are a few photos:

This bottle was being re-fired. It had been under-fired in a previous firing.

I really like the results of the pouring on of both the red glaze and the overlapping chun/tenmoku glaze, especially on this jug. Just a shame about the crazing!

This teapot had a fine crack in it before glazing, but I decided to glaze it anyway.

This mug had Oatmeal glaze on first, then an overlap of Chun/Tenmoku.
I was not expecting such a dry blotchy surface for the oatmeal, but the overlap glaze shows promise, without the crazing.