More Soda Fired Pieces : Textured Vases, Honeycomb, and Another Leaf Vase

I was fortunate to catch some natural light this morning, to take photos of a few more of the items I brought home Sunday from the soda firing :

Here they are, one by one, continuing from the previous set of pieces :

9) This little beauty was thrown from 1500g of P570 white clay, and then coated with No. 6 Soda slip, before applying the Japanese anemone leaves.  It was given a light spray of Gordon's #3 flashing slip, otherwise it is mostly glazed on the outside by the ash and soda.  The inside and rim is glazed with Yellow Salt.  I like the Autumn colors on this one.  The leaf texture has also been preserved very beautifully.

For these next few pieces, since they are very similar, I think my notes got a bit confused, but I think I have made sense of them...

10) This one was thrown from 1300g of mixed (reclaimed) clay.  I then textured it with a thick white slip.  It was likely sprayed with a light dusting of #2 Flashing slip.  It is glazed with Tesha inside, and then a band of Cobra applied around the bottom.  I really like the crackly texture of the Cobra.  There's a lot going on in this piece.

11) This one was also thrown from 900g of mixed (reclaimed) clay, and textured with white slip.  It was also sprayed lightly with #2 flashing slip.  But along the bottom, I applied a band of Gordon's Shino, which ended up a similar color to the rest of the vase, but a bit more shiny.  Nice.

12) This little vase was thrown from 1100g of P570 white clay, and again textured with the thick white slip.  I have a note that it was sprayed with a bit of Ben's Avery, and #2 flashing slip.  It was glazed with Yellow Salt inside and on the rim.

13) This totem piece was thrown from 1400g of mixed clay, and also decorated with the same white slip.  It was sprayed lightly with Gordon's #3 flashing slip (which gives it some light touches of blue, among the beige and bronze tones).  It is unglazed inside (except by the soda).

14) This big guy is one of my favorites from the set.  It is thrown from 2000g of mixed clay, and textured with a slip labelled "Arlynn's slip".  Since Arlynn Nobel (yes, apparently she is a distant relative of Alfred Nobel, for which the Nobel Prize is named) often teaches a soda course, I believe this is a slip formulated for the soda firing.  But I also sprayed it lightly with Gordon's #3 flashing slip (which I think gives it those areas of light blue).  It is glazed with Chun inside, and then I brushed on bits of "Poison Blue" glaze.  There are also a couple of dots (barely visible in the bottom left photo) where I carried the piece through the rain, and the rain made a few marks in the slip.  It has a beautiful triple trimmed foot.

15) This is a fun little piece.  It is also destined for the garden, as a topper to one of my garden totems.  It was thrown from 1700g of mixed clay, and decorated with honeybee and honeycomb stamps.  I applied Kingsmill stain to highlight the textures, and sprayed it with Lorna Meaden flashing slip, which gives it the golden color.  I then glazed it inside with Yellow Salt, and intentionally splattered it with more Yellow Salt glaze, to give the appearance of honey.  I'm quite pleased with the result, and look forward to seeing it in the garden, once I have enough totem pieces to assemble another totem.

Soda Fired Pieces : Cups, Goblets, Geranium Leaf Vase

My eyes are stinging tonight, but as the sun was already setting, I snapped a few photos of some of my soda fired pieces, and I can't wait to share them.  Here they are, starting from some of the smallest items first (since they were packed on the top of my boxes) :

1) This little yunomi or informal tea cup, was thrown from the specially formulated "No. 6" soda clay, with no salt added.  It is glazed with Robin Dupont Clear inside, on the rim, and in a band near the bottom.  I really like the colors achieved in this soda clay.  It was a very colorful and successful soda firing.

2) This little jar / vase was thrown from 900 g of mixed (reclaimed) clay, with a bottom that was thin enough to not require trimming.  It was sprayed (from one side) with Gordon's #3 flashing slip, which gives it the green/blue hues.  It is glazed with Malcolm Davis Shino inside, and then dotted with "Blue Poison" glaze (so named since it is apparently not food safe) on the outside.  It is pretty funky, and has a very wide range of colors, so I'm very pleased with the result.

This may be one of the first sets I've made.  It is a pair of goblets, of similar size and coloration....

3) Both were thrown / formed from a reclaimed mixture of white clay and porcelain, and were finished with a spray of Ben's Avery flashing slip on the stems and foot, and #2 Soda flashing slip on the cup (outside), with Yellow Salt glaze inside the cup.  It is interesting to see how the Ben's Avery resisted the soda on the stem, but it seemed to land more heavily on the foot, making it nearly white.  This first goblet is quite yellow inside.  I am really pleased with this Yellow Salt glaze, it is so cheery, and one of my favorites.

4) This second one has some interesting rust and yellow colors going on inside.  As if the #2 Soda flashing slip and the Yellow Salt glaze were interacting.  Very nice.

5) This goblet is an interesting character.  It was a little bit off-center when I made it, and it seemed to warp even more in the soda firing, so it stands upright, but just barely.  So I don't think it will be functional, but it has an interesting form, and I may try something like this again.

It was also formed from a reclaimed mixture of porcelain and white clay, with Gordon's #3 brushed on the base and stem, and Tesha glaze brushed on the cup (inside and outside).  I like the richness of the colors, and even what looks like my brush marks on both the outside and inside of the cup.

 I will end tonight with this black beauty.  It is so pleasing that I will give it a few photos.  This one with a branch of the scented geranium plant which provided me with the beautiful leaf imprints.  The beautiful lemon scented plant was a gift from my friend Beth, so I decided while I was making this vase, that it will be a gift back to her.

Here is a before and after photo.  The fresh clay, after being imprinted with the leaves, and brushed with black slip.  And the finished vase, after some staining with black stain, and soda firing.

6) The vase was thrown from 1900g of P600 porcelain, and finished with black slip, and then black stain on the leaves.  It is stained inside with Tesha.  It again features an untrimmed bottom, which has been nicely tanned by the soda.

I had taken a "group shot" of the items so far, thinking that I was done for the evening, but then decided to squeeze in one more set of photos...

7) These 3 leaf pendants were formed from WSO sculptural clay, using the imprints from my beloved Davidii involucrata (dove or handkerchief) tree.  They are beautifully glazed by the soda, with a bit of blue from a light spraying of Gordon's #3 flashing slip.  Next time I will try spraying on a heavier coat of Gordon's #3, to get a deeper blue or green.  But I am happy with the blue through rust variations.

I am still experimenting with some pendants, hoping to one day do some collaborating with my jewelry-making friend Shelley (Instagram's "Composed by Shelley").

8) While I'm at it, I'll describe this one, which was whisked away by Fredi for another student exhibit.  It was thrown from 1300g of a reclaimed mix of various different clays, also imprinted with the beautiful scented geranium leaves, and finished with black slip, and black stain on the leaves.  It has a hole in the bottom, so it could be a topper for a garden totem.  But it is probably too beautiful to put it out into the yard, it will likely live inside for a very long time.

Soda Unloading and Bubble Glazing

It was a beautiful sunny day today for our unloading of the soda kiln.  These were the treasures awaiting us this morning.

We tried to wait patiently for all our classmates to arrive, taking turns taking photos while we waited.

We took a group shot (missing Crystal, who arrived a few minutes later), and then formed our bucket brigade, to unload and admire each piece.  I'm glad Fredi posted our group photo.  What a nice group of people, I have enjoyed working with them, and enjoying their creativity.

I was really happy with my batch of about 20 pieces.  Some didn't turn out how I had envisioned, but none of them was a disappointment.  We got lots of colors and variations in this soda firing.

Fredi was collecting a few samples for the window display, and asked me for this piece :

It is the imprint from fresh scented geranium leaves, surrounded by black slip.  It turned out really black.  Very nice result.

I will be posting more photos when I have time and energy, and good lighting for photos.  I want to take my time and enjoy taking photos, so I may take a while to work through them.  But in the meantime, I'll give you a photo of my friend Cindy with her weird duck creation.  It brought a smile to my face, and I love the crackly texture from the "Cobra" glaze :

We ended the class with a lovely potluck lunch.  Then I went back to "work", trying to glaze all my pieces (about 20 more) which didn't go into the soda firing.  I got most of them done, but there are a few pieces I'll need to finish up in July, when Shadbolt re-opens for drop-in workshops.

Our teacher Jay was demonstrating bubble glazing the other day.  I have been wanting to try it for some while, and I also had a few pieces which had enough smooth surface area (not easy to find, with my love for textures) which was suitable for it.  So I decided to go for it.  With the help of my friend Cindy (it turns out the bubble glazing benefits from extra hands!!), I glazed these pieces :

...and then these pieces :

I was glad to see a few more people inspired to try it also, like my friend Karie.  Look at the size of those bubbles :

So now I wait, for the next chance to start picking up finished pieces.  But I'm fortunate also to be signed up with a workshop with Tony Clennell next weekend.  So I won't be away from clay for long.  Not to mention, I keep a small stash of odds and ends in my garage, in case I feel the sudden need to stick my fingers into some.

Soda Glazing Day and First Finished Piece Comes Home

I held off glazing almost all my pieces, so I would be sure to have enough for the soda firing.  It's a good thing I did, since I was able to fit more pieces in than I had expected.  So I only have a few more, which I want to play with some different techniques, and my soda cups which I didn't get into the bisque firing soon enough to get them back in time.


So I will have a very large number of pieces coming out of the soda firing next weekend.  But in the meantime, I have one piece which came out of the cone 10 gas firing :

A) This highly textured piece was thrown from 1800g of "revived" P600 clay.  It is finished in Amber Celadon glaze, which is a rich brown colour, and shows the texture beautifully.  The photo (on our porch) doesn't do it justice.


Since I don't have any other photos from today, I'll post a few from yesterday, when I visited my pieces which are on student display :

 It's hard to get a good look at my dragon bowl, through all that reflected light, but she looks great in that display case.

This raku fired pot shows up better in the photo.  I'm also very pleased with this one.

Really Near the End Now

Today was the last class in Jay's course, so all my classmates were glazing today.  I have held off, since I want to ensure I have enough pieces for the soda firing.  I will be glazing for the soda firing this weekend.  Then if any pieces (I'm expecting 3 or 4) don't make it in, then I will glaze those in a subsequent workshop.


Since I threw those 6 pieces from the soda clay late last week, and only trimmed one of them, I trimmed the remaining 5 pieces.  I was pretty pleased with the results.

I had lots of time to trim the 5 pieces, so focused on doing a good job, and finishing them well.  Although I wondered with some of them whether the finely trimmed foot was too much of a contrast with the scratched and altered body.  But I do like a foot which is smooth and sits nicely on the table.


Since the clay was still very soft, I ended up doing my usual hybrid trimming / throwing approach, and forcing the rims dry with the heat gun.  (As well as the bottoms, once trimmed, so they wouldn't be damaged by setting them onto the wooden boards.)


Here are some views of the feet, as I finished trimming them :

I was trimming on a small chuck which I had thrown from Big White sculptural clay, which was quite gritty, and which I finally coated with a bit of the smooth porcelain soda clay, so that it didn't make so much damage to the rims of the cups.  So when I was done, I moistened that clay, and threw an egg, and brought it home.  We'll see if something hatches from that.  :-)

Getting Near the End

I had a very nasty stomach flu over the weekend, so missed pottery class on Sunday, in which the class was spraying flashing slips on their pieces, prior to the bisque firing.  So I started the class today under a bit of pressure to catch up on Sunday's class, and also I finally got my bag of clay designed for the soda class, and I had not had a chance to throw anything with it.  Not to mention, I needed to run away for almost an hour for an appointment in the morning.

But first things first.  I went to visit my dragon vase.  It was looking very good.

I asked Jay to help me lift it for a moment, so I could run my finger around the bottom edge, to clean it up, but the bottom looked already pretty good.  I had cut it clean and level off the bat (which is not always the case).  So I transferred it to a square board, and rotated it a few times, to clean up the bottom even more.  But I think it can be considered done.  It just needs to take its time to dry now.  I can't wait to see it finished.  Although there is much to consider about glazing it.  I bounced a few options with a classmate, and think I may have decided on my plan.

Then I needed to catch up by spraying the flashing slips on my soda pieces.  I am confident I have enough for the 2 cubic foot allotment, with perhaps some pieces to spare, so I that is good.

Spraying turned out to be very time consuming, since I wanted to check the notes on all my pieces, and figure out  which ones already had the No. 6 soda slip on them.  Then decide between the 6 flashing slips which were available to me.  I ended up doing a few of each, all except one which was a dark blue, and didn't suit any of my pieces.  It was 2PM by the time I finished this exercise, at which point it didn't feel like enough time to throw any new pieces, since I'd need to start cleanup at 5PM.  But after waffling back and forth, I finally decided to go for it.

I trimmed and cleaned up the bowl which I had thrown originally to be a base for the monster vase, but I like the trimming and carving I ended up doing on it:

Then I finally opened that bag of soda clay, and surprised myself by throwing 6 pieces in the remaining time :

Since they all need to be trimmed, I don't believe there is chance of trimming them, and getting them turned around from the bisque firing soon enough for the soda firing.  However, I could always save them for a future soda firing, or just fire then in the cone 10 gas firing.  Amber Celadon would make a great glaze choice for those deep textures.

One piece, though, particularly pleased me, and had a bit too thin of a bottom, so I decided to force dry the rim and upper part with a hair dryer, so I could add a bit of clay to the bottom and trim / throw a foot.  Which is what I did, and I am very pleased by the result :

So in the end, what started as a daunting catch up day turned out to be fairly satisfying, and very productive.  I had better start building more shelves for my pottery.

Surprise Ceramic Mug Encounter

I have switched massage therapist a few times over the years, not because each one has not been wonderful, but because my schedule didn't allow me to continue.  Today I had yet another therapist, Sharon, filling in for my new regular therapist, Rosanna.

After Sharon had left the room and I was pulling myself back together to face the day, I noticed a handmade mug at the corner of the sink, and instantly recognized it as one of mine, from my early days.  When I picked it up, my stamp on the bottom confirmed it.

I had given it as a gift to Heiko, a former therapist.  He has since moved out of town, so I haven't seen him at the clinic for some while.  I asked Sharon about the mug, and told her this was one of mine from my early days.  She told me that when she comes into the clinic in the morning, she likes to claim this mug, as it is one of her favourites.  Wow.  Pretty cool story.

I looked back, and this mug (#6 in this post) was made in 2013, in my second pottery course, and given to Heiko soon after.  Fun.  I can't wait until I get more of my work "out there" so I can run into it on occasion.  It is such a nice surprise.