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Sunday, October 11, 2009

Emptying The Kiln Again.

As promised I emptied the kiln this evening and remembered to take some photos.

So the first pic shows the contents of the kiln after firing. There are all sorts of experiments here so will highlight a few things. But, in a nutshell there are biscuit fired objects, single fired mugs and glaze fired pots. I fired the kiln at a mid earthenware temperature of 1060 degrees C to achieve this.


The pic above shows the single fired mugs I threw. They are divided into two types: The front mugs have a brush of slip on their rims and a clear glaze and the mugs to the rear have a honey glaze from a white base glaze which have not fired succesfully, but that was the point of the test, to find out what I could expect to work. Below is a close-up of one of the clear glazed mugs which I think are very succesfull.


The following pic shows the frog pot after it has been biscuit fired. I intend to glaze fire it too, but only apply glaze to the inside of the pot.


The next pic I have included to show those of you who have been following my progress how the stamps have emerged from the kiln.


I'm very pleased with them. The detail is very good and I look forward to using them.


The pic above may have come as a surprise. Often when I have finished for the day I will sit down and doodle with the leftover clay and I thought it would be fun to fire some of the little figures I made. If you are thinking I am a bit over keen on large boobs you should do a google search for the Willendorf Venus which is a small prehistoric sculpture; my little figures make a lot more sense when you know a bit about prehistoric art. I'm not fixated (no really!).




These last two pics are not from the firing, but are of a bowl I have been working on for a friend. I have included them so that they are able to see the progress so far. I'm thinking of only glazing the inside, leaving the natural terracotta burnished and smooth as you see in the pics. The bowl doesn't look shiny because it is wet, but rather because the clay has been burnished.
Anyway, I don't want to waffle too much...Thanks for visiting.

2 comments:

  1. looks good Mark, Happy to go with your idear can't wait to see the end result.
    Thanks
    Friend

    ReplyDelete
  2. Pleased you like it. Will let you know when it is finished.
    Mark.

    ReplyDelete

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