What Comes Out of a Glaze Kiln?

two large, long platters

multiples

large oval platters

edge tiles, strips, and a bowl to be refired

I am firing large platters for an order taken last fall, along with some smaller pieces.  The kiln was fairly closely packed, but not overly so.  In and around the larger pieces were the little scotch tumblers, in the second photo, and the strips and edge tiles which will finish off the top edge of the backsplash I've been tiling in the kitchen  (with the subway tiles I made).  In addition, in the last photo, there is a bowl that will be re-fired.  There was a small area on the upper edge where the glaze had been rubbed off.  I touched it up with fresh glaze while it was still warm from the kiln. Now, everything, except the tiles, gets sanded on the bottom (where the red clay shows), and then priced.  My first fair is coming up!---

new decoration (from old ideas--)

pepper platter, peppers:  September, 2015

I recently visited our friends, Robert, and Renée, who have a beautiful garden!  Just before I left, Robert picked some of their hot peppers for me---and I took them home to the studio (the kitchen will be next)!  The peppers' bright colors and shapes reminded me that I had done peppers about 15 (was it that long?) years ago, and it was time to revisit the idea.  I still had a square pepper plate hanging on the wall, so I took a close look at it---wax on the pepper form before the color, shadows under the peppers.  And to this I added the use of current ideas:  a new form I have been working with (the long oval, which was the shape of the landscape platter), a higher temperature for the glaze (cone 3), a pale purple for some of the shadows, especially under the yellows and oranges, and a more complex glaze recipe.  Here are some pictures of the peppers, and of the pepper platter!