Old Pewter Styles

Last week I got out some "Old Pewter" glaze that I've had stashed in the back of the cabinet for a couple of years. I bought it on a whim and because it is a cone 05 and it requires a "fast fire" in order to become shiny like gun metal, I never used it. It's impossible to get things in a big kiln to fire exactly the way one wants. Big kilns are for happy accidents.

However, because of the smaller jewelry kiln with the digital temperature controller I can do anything, including fire "slow", "medium", or "fast".

So out came the "Old Pewter" glaze and I am delighted with the results. These are so shiny! I am in a glazy-sort-of-love daze at the moment.



This next picture is a pattern that I especially am fond. I did some experiements and this is an extremely opaque glaze, able to go on porcelain, earthenware, and red Toas with no visible difference. These pictured, however, are all on a porcelain clay body.









This is a 10 mm round that has a lovely daffodil stamped on two sides.


...and here are some simple, but wonderful, nuggets.

New Bead Styles

I worked hard every day last week glazing and kilning beads for all the upcoming shows. To recap, I'll be over in the Heliotrope's parking lot on October 1st, and as of last night, I will be at Lockheed Martin's Annual Trinity River sale sharing a booth with a fellow potter October 8th and 9th (more about that in some upcoming posts).




These are some beads I had lots of fun making. I used a clear gloss over a textured Lapis Blue glaze and then I used that wonderful bumpy glaze over that.










These are some beads that are from about 4mm to 12 mm. They are elegant in their absolute simplicity.















I have been glazing these and placing them in the kiln as I have a bit of extra room. These are such fun pendants to make. The demo on how I made them is at:

http://www.nkpdesigns.com/demos.html

Take the first link: Sunflower Demo

There is another batch kilining right now. Every day I have that little kiln going. I am growing to like this small kiln with its digital temperature control more and more. At first I thought it would be hard to operate, but I was wrong. It is easy.

Sept. 3rd Show Canceled

I apologize profusely for those who showed up at the show expecting to find me. For lack of a more delicate way to state this, I had some unexpected things come up the night before.

This means I will have even more product when I show in October.

Thank you for your understanding.

No Peeking!

I went to the Texas Pottery & Sculpture Guild meeting last night. Rachel Bates from Passon Pottery gave an awesome demo on the Majolica technique she has employed in the past and continues to develop currently.

One of Rachel's bowl (Click here to view one of her bowls) was this July's doorprize for the TP&SG's show at the Botanical Garden in Fort Worth.

I am planning on using some of these techniques I learned on some beads. Like Rachel, I enjoy watercolor painting and the exciting thing about this particular technique is that it gives the translucence of watercolor -- something I've tried to do in the past with plain underglazing.


Fresh out of the kiln! These bowls were painstakingly thrown over a period of three days. What I mean by that is that I measured out the clay and threw them exactly alike as I possibly could and it took three days to get these three bowls. I am now well aquainted with the use of a caliper.








Here are the same bowls stacked one on top of another.
Inside two are a rustic turquiose and the third one I used a barn-red glaze. These would make excellent French Onion soup bowls, or could be used for Creme Brule, or (my favorite) ice cream.










These are similar to what I brought to the 2005 July Botanical Garden show with the Texas Pottery & Sculpture Guild. I am continuing to experiement with different shapes and sizes. I am still enthralled with a turquoise swirl over an oatmeal glaze. As always, these are all lead-free glazes and also dishwasher, microwave, and oven safe dinnerware.






I have the kiln going again today. This will be the last load I can kiln before the show on Saturday. In fact, I will be pulling out this batch late Friday night. I am telling myself over and over again: NO PEEKING!