organic shaped vase with tendrils

 More natural coloring of the glazes

Matte Bronze Green below, plum above, with a bit of overlap. Satin white interior.

skirted ladies lamps

 Will the celadon glaze which fills some of the holes allow the candle light to show through?

 The battery powered candle wasn't strong enough to show through the glazed over holes.  Oh well.

More about the poles

Last week I shared about how Duke Energy was putting up the pole on the right. (See blog Here)

So there's a nearby shorter pole (square like our small light poles) with some solar gizmos, I think, and a "transceiver" kind of thing on top pointed to the higher pole's paddle of metal that also looks like it's sending messages to outer space. To the left where the stairs go further down hill (you can see just the metal railing) is the actual outside light pole.

 I dare say Duke will then be able to tell something about the 72 apartments and office and laundry room electrical usage.  Oh boy. Yes, I'm being facetious.

Hungry baby something

The kiln gods were great to this ugly little baby, which I call a bird.  He's finished, and comments say he looks like a dragon/dinosaur.  Who knows...as long as some parent comes to feed him/her.

(Before final firing here.)

This little critter will be part of All Creatures Great and Small, next week opening at the Red House Gallery of Swannanoa Valley Fine Arts League!

Another birdlike creature

Coming from dinosaurs to birds....

or something.

Let's put up a pole here

Three trucks, 5 men and one woman, and this poe was put in place in the middle of the green area just below the office building at our apartments.

First you drill a hole

 Pu out the auger now full of nice red clay, and knock it off with shovels...

 Hammer some kind of paddle on a bar to the end of the pole which is lying on the ground.

 Use the cable and a chain around the pole to lift it up

Lower it into place, and the guys start shoveling dirt around the pole

There's already a wire attached which will go over to the nearest electric line. Since it doesn't look like any light is involved, I'm thinking it has to do with the new household electric meters that have some kind of signal that is broadcast to meter reading devices, without any meter readers involved.  Just my guess.

There it is, the tall pole.  The shorter one near it is the actual light, which is on a timer.

Goddess figures of antiquity

Before there were any male figures created, many societies had female figures in abundance.  No kidding. 

In the studio this weekend...

These are about to be bisque fired.
Wonder if I'll glaze them.  Mmm, have only done the stain thing on most work for a while.  Something to think about.

Cooking and fire and pots

Cooking the pots, that is.

 Back in 2009 a pottery class did a raku firing in the small yard beside the studio.

After getting the clay pots to 1530 degrees F or there abouts in a kiln (not shown) they were removed red hot (with long calipers) and put into little tubs.

These little tubs (a.k.a. trash cans) had a combustable material in them. Then as it caught fire, the lid was placed tightly on the can, which created an atmosphere that had limited oxygen, which the fire would quickly burn up, leaving a starved atmosphere, and then would make the glaze and the pot turn a different color.  It's called reduction, because the oxygen is reduced.

 Here you can see pieces of newspaper in a tub.

 These glazes (low fire) give great metalic shines, and the fire creates a smokey black color to the clay that is bare...and often has cracks of black running through the glazes.  The clay is somewhat porous still, and thus can't hold liquids.

 I don't know Italian sign language, and hope Bette is not saying anything too crude when I snapped her photo.  I really like her piece of pottery.

 On the right is Geoff Bird, the teacher. On left is Bette Potter Jones, a good friend of mine with many years of making pottery.  Geoff is picking up a unfired piece to place into the small kiln.

My friend Pat Levi showed me her piece after being washed of the soot of the firing.  She seemed pretty happy about it.

These are a few of my first raku pieces from that workshop.  I still have them, probably won't ever sell!

 This is for Sepia Saturday post No. 459

Tasting what's in the pot...perhaps a young wife who hasn't done much cooking in a household yet.

A few days ago I posted photos of my parents when they applied for their marriage license, and then the wedding announcements, both of which were in the San Antonio TX newspaper. The Lucky Couple.

I remember when I got married the story my mother told of her first attempts at cooking. She apparently read the directions wrong, or had written them down wrong. She cooked rice with equal amounts of water to rice, which resulted in a burned pot, and a big glob of solid rice, which of course she couldn't offer to my father.  I think they even threw the pot away. Hopefully they laughed about it, even if they were a bit hungry.

More studio time

 I don't have any pottery coming out of kilns...but got back to work yesterday doing some new things.

 Some pottery waiting to be unloaded after a glaze firing.

Students have been chugging along, and the master of the kilns has been conducting the concerts of bisque firing and glaze firings.