More decorating thoughts with Linda Arbuckle

Here's another wonderful short clip from Linda Arbuckle's Majolica video. I think I'm going to treat myself to this video because I've so enjoyed these two clips.

Yesterday I over did it in the garden, so I'm giving myself an easy morning of computer work, time to read a couple of blogs before making breakfast, and watching the woman's tennis final from Miami, before heading out to do some Easter dinner shopping at Costco and a short stop at the garden center.

When I get home there's all the hand watering to do, and guacamole to make to take to a barbecue with friends and family on the river tonight. I should have a little bit of time to get in the studio to go through all the under glaze tests and pick out three or four colors that I'd like to use as small accents on this group of pots. I have a good list of studio "to dos" but they will all have to wait till the family goes back to L.A. after Easter.

It's going to be another beautiful, mid 70's day and I'm hoping that I'll find time for a little bit of fishing. My fishing gear is in the car and I'll probably head out to our sons place a little earlier so I can cast a few before the barbecue. Life is so good!

Here are a few slip tests from my last little test firing. From left to right are: 5% Mason stain #6315, next is the same stain with 10% stain, the first green is Mason Florentine stain 4%, the next one is 2.5% chrome and the last one4% copper carbonate and 14% Rutile. All of them have my new clear glaze.The claybody on all of them is Lagunas R2 earthenware.

There's a tiny bit of pinholing only on the two darker green tests, so something in that stain is causing this. Zinc could be suspect, but there's none in my slip or glaze on the one with chrome oxide. I'll have to get over to Mason's home page and see if I can find out what's in that Florentine green. The tiles were bisqued at cone 04 and glaze fired 04; but the guard cone in the Skutt kiln was 03 and bent enough to flip off the dawson kiln sitter. I'm not thrilled with these greens. The darkers ones are very flat in color. They might be better applied thinner to allow the clay to come through a little. I'll have to test that. The last green one in interesting but not a color I think I'd use. I'd like to test that rutile/copper combination but maybe try lowering the rutile. Another followup I'd like to do with a couple of these is to bisque even higher and then fire the glaze at C04 and see if the higher firing will stop the pinholes that are happening on some of these stain.

I'm taking this pre-lunch, blog break after a morning of garden chores. The raised beds are pretty well cleaned out, all the seedlings needing transplanting into potting soil are done and some others too young for that got transplanted in a better starting medium.

After lunch I'll transplant the lettuce, broccoli, cauliflower and celery. It's going to get up to 72 degrees here today, so I'm taking advantage of these couple of warmer than normal days to get on top of these garden chores. Unfortunately the lawn guy severed an irrigation pipe when he moved a shrub for me, and he can't turn on the water until Wedneday - the earliest he can get here with parts to fix it. So that means I'll need to be hand watering all my planters as well as all the landscaping in the front. Oh joy- not!




 

What retirement looks like from where I sit

Spring fever has hit and the garden is still calling. The rain stayed away and I was able to clean out about 90% of the material that I needed to get rid of in the raised beds. The bees will happily gorge themselves on the yellow flowers of the going to seed broccoli raab, so I didn't have the heart to pull them all, so I left one for them to munch another couple of days.

My planters are in good shape but I still have some more annuals to add. I ordered a couple of perennials on ebay today, but that will be it for the season. I'm in pretty good shape now.. Jim says Yeah! I also planted just a few strawberries in one of the planters after seeing a taped gardening show  this morning,  that mentioned that growing them in planters, where the fruit can hang over the rim. It  keeps the snails and other critters from eating the fruit. That's a problem I've had in the past - 75 plants and hardly any berries, because I was mainly feeding the local wildlife and didn't have the heart to continue putting the mesh down when I found that a little bird had gotten caught in it and died. So my answer was to keep planting more strawberries, but there were always more furring and feathered visitors who were happy to  partake of the abundance.

I transplanted seedlings at 7am this morning and after a lunch out,. got out to the store for a few more veggie and flower starts, then drove to our sons place to leave them a tray of veggie starts for our daughter-n-law to plant tomorrow. There are  some morels growing in last years mulch which was a great thing to see. I'm hoping that we'll get some rain and more morels as a result. I took a photo using Instagram, but unfortuately, it's difficult to see since they're the same color as the mulch they're growing in; and I can't figure out how to get the Instagram photo off my IPod touch and on here.  

It looks like one more trip to the garden center should do it for getting the remaining annuals for my planters. The clay is waiting, but clay in a bags can wait, but seedlings are needling care right now. They need watering and daily moving in and out of doors; and there's still a last bit of planting to do and daily watering until we get these drip system set up again and the water turned on.

This afternoon I had to re-plant a bunch of tomato and other seeds which succombed to wilting fungus. That job is done and the rest of the planting will be directly into the soil, so I'll be able to get in the studio faily soon. Between family visits and the garden, the studio has just had to be put on the back burner for a bit.

Our son and family are flying in again tomorrow, and I'll be busy with dealing with the handyman who has some painting and other maintenance chores to do here, and starters that I need to plant in the newly cleaned raised beds; and then there's a family dinner tomorrow night. So there's one more day spoken fo. Saturday I need to shop for Easter dinner, and the last of the annuals so I can finish these planters, so pottery is just going to have to wait a bit more. This is what retirement looks like -  making preferred rather than have to choices.
 
I told Jim earlier that I need a wife - you know - that person who cleans house, maintains a garden, shops, plans meals, cooks and takes care of animals while her husband goes off to work. Wonder if Santa will put one in my stocking this year! I believe, I believe.

Video eye candy of some of the greats

This video is great eye candy; but it did leave me wanting more.

Today is another day to shop for more plants and transplant some seedlings. I need to buy some cold weather veggie starters for our son and daugher-in-laws garden and a few more geraniums and potting soil for us. When I get home I need to transplant some of my seedlings from the seed starting mix into potting soil.

I lucked out at one of the garden centers yesterday and got a lot more of the annuals on my list than I thought would be available this time of year, so if the rain stays away I'll be able to get some of them planted when we get home.

The new all organic grocery store Natural Grocers, was amazing and we decided that's where we will be doing most of our shopping from now on. Before this we had to drive to Ashland to find a decent, organic grocery store; and this one in Medford is even better.

If I can squeak in some studio time today I have a few pots to slip and sgrafitto, and weigh out a batch of the honey glaze. I picked up more clay yesterday, but throwing will have to wait another day or two if the rain decides to stay away another day or two so I can complete this round of garden chores.

Linda Arbuckle decorating a ewer

Here's another great demonstration video with Linda Arbuckle decorating a ewer. It's always a treat watching other artists work, and especially in a case like this, when the artist shares the thinking process that leads to the color and design choices she makes.

It rained over night as forecast, so I get a break from hand watering today. It's another day for food, plant and clay shopping right after breakfast and then afternoon time with the family before they head back to L.A.

Tomorrow I'll have the luxury of a pretty full studio day in between plant and animal care and cooking. And if the rain stays away tomorrow I might even be able to sneak in a half hour of planting.

Today I was busy with plant shopping, a bit of fishing with my little grand daughter McKenna (which turned out to be more time untangling her line than fishing), but she's such a delight that I didn't mind at all. I would have loved more time on the river, but I needed to get  home to put in some garden time.

When we checked the mail box, two bare rooted hardy geraniums had arrived and needed immediate planting, after cleaning out two planters. Then I cleaned out a few more planters and planted some annual geraniums and a few other perennials, did some hand watering; and made a B1 mix for a transplanted shrub that isn't looking too happy about having been moved last week.

Fortunately I took some bolognese sauce out of the freezer, so dinner was super easy.

Since company left a bit later than they originally planned, I put off a trip to the pottery supply store till tomorrow.  We're going to town for the grand opening of a brand new, large, all organic grocery store, and the clay supplier isn't too far from there. A quick stop at another plant place for some hardy annuals and maybe some tomato plants will round out the morning chores. They had some tomato plants at the co-op but they looked like they had some cold damage from the freeze we had a couple of nights ago; but since it's still early in the season I can wait on those for a while if necessary.

I lost some of my seedlings from wilting fungus so I need to replace some of them and re seed others in the next few days. I can't remember the last time I had this happen since using fresh peat pots and sterile starting mix. Meantime, I need to get outside and bring the surviving seedlings inside. I'm hoping that being outdoors on this warm, overcast day, with some slight breezes have done them some good. One can only hope.

Here's a great five minute clip of Ron Meyers painting a couple of platters with his fabulous, iconic animal figures.

Other than some garden work ttttime yesterday, the rest of the day was family time here and for pizza night with our son and family at his house on the river.

Our daughter and son-in-law leave tomorrow and I'm going to give myself a bit of fishing time in the afternoon. I renewed my license today (the steelhead/salmon tag cost over 70% more than the license!). Our nine year old grand daughter caught a huge steel head two days ago and there are some early salmon being spotted, so I'm not going to waste a 60 degree afternoon - or at least, not part of it, on studio work. Many good perks come with retirement, and fishing when you get the itch and weather permits, is just one them.

Depending on when our daughter and son-in-law leave in the morning, I'd like to get out to the pottery supply store for some more clay, so that Wednesday, when our son and family go back to L.A. for a few days, I'll be able to get a couple of studio days before they come back up for Easter.

This time of year, with too few 60 degree days, the garden and river are calling more than the studio. 

Spend some studio time with Doug Fitch

Enjoy sharing a slice of Doug Fitch's day, and his lovely slipware.

I love his blog! His videos always share little bits of his day -walking down a country lane to his studio, making slip, throwing and decorating pots, packing pots feeding the birds, and his ducks, maybe making some lunch for himself, etc.. You feel that you've been invited into his life for a few moments.

His video clips often remind me of those lovely nature shots at the closing of the old show "Sunday Morning" with Charles Kuralt. Both just make you feel so good.

Here are 2 tiles with some of the oxide washes (I posted the recipes on the blog a couple of days ago). I tested them over white slip with my new clear glaze, and over a 3% rutile slip. As you can see, the top one is a bit thin, but you can see it's a quiet, greyish blue, and the second one down with chrome and cobalt (both refractory materials), is too dry without some flux. So I'll retest that with some frit or gerstley borate in the next firing.

The left tile has my new clear glaze over Ayumi's white slip and the right tile has the same clear glaze over Ayumi slip with 3% rutile. If you open the photo to get a larger look, you'll see the subtle differences in the colors and well as more intensity in the last one over the rutile slip.

I did a quick tests with these, and didn't strain them. My aim was just to quickly get an idea of the color responses over this glaze and these slips. A couple are too thin since I wasn't too fussy about the water color consistence. I just wanted to see the color response.

From top to bottom, the oxide mixtures used were:
#3A 9 yellow ochre 2 cobalt carb, 1/2 cup water.
#12  89 grams chrome, 20 grams rutile, 20 grams cobalt carb (I need to add 1 tsp or more of flux to this). Added water to get watercolor consistency.
#42 2T Copper carb, 1T Ferro Frit 3124 (used frit instead of powdered celadon for Cone 04).
#47 equal weight rutile and copper carb and Ferro Frit 3124 (the earlier posted recipe didn't have the frit). I added enough water to get a watercolor consistency.
#89 70 grams cobalt carb, 20 grams Gerstley borate, 10 grams Titanium dioxide
#40 1 part Red Iron oxide, 1/2 part Ferro Frit 3124
#18  Equal parts Rutile, Red Iron Oxide, Ferro Frit 3124 (used the Frit for this cone 04 firing instead of powdered celadon)

I unloaded the test kiln early this morning and reloaded it with a few mugs to bisque, and finally finished making cleaner copies of my test results charts.Now that breakfast is over, I need to turn up the kiln, and update the notes with the latest slip tests.

Later, if the rain goes away, I need to get some garlic planted around one of my roses, since it's supposed to help avoid blackspot. We'll see. There was no place in my raised beds for any more of them; but I did manage to clean out a couple of the squares and transplant some leeks and plant some shallots.

Our daughter and son-in-law are arriving this afternoon, so after today, there won't be any studio time till after they leave early next week; but since I'm such an early riser, I'll try to get a couple of other tests posted before the rest of the household is awake. :-)

6:30am test kiln on, then some tea to wake up a bit more, and got these lovely artichokes stuffed. I got four of them at Costco for under $6; and at local stores they're usually $3 each and all to often pretty dismal looking.

Our daughter and son-in-law arrive tomorrow, so I don't want to start any new pots until they leave next Monday; but I will get studio time today to find better places for some things. I also have a couple of unmarked bags of stains or oxides to deal with. I just have to mix them with a bit of water and apply them like a wash on a freshly glazed tile which I did yesterday; and maybe I can get a clue about what they are.

Time to get to some more email read while these artichokes finish cooking, and get some breakfast before heading to the studio for the day. Have a good one!

Final tests in kiln to be fired tomorrow

After breakfast I had to re-pot some of my seedlings, and do some computer cleanup so I could do a new backup before heading to the studio.

Once in the studio, I mixed up seven oxide washes and got them on to tiles along with a couple of new slip tests and loaded the tiny test kiln which I'll fire tomorrow. That took up the bulk of studio time other than sweeping, mopping and putting away a few things. By that time it was time to think about dinner - just making some rice to go with some pretty good store bought gumbo thanks to Costco.

These should be the last tests needed to give me a good starting point for the next batch of pots. I've got a good basic white, and light cream slip,  and a good clear glaze and one called Amber assault which is more of a nice gold/yellow. I'm hoping this firing will give me a couple of more colored slips to work with.

Right now there's some evening paperwork to do. My glaze/slip test charts need re-doing after the last test firing.

Happy St Paddy's day

Happy Saint Paddy's day for all who are Irish or wish they were. :-)

I came in a while ago to get my traditional corned beef dinner started, after some morning studio time.

Now that that's done and the aroma of corned beef is wafting through the house, I'll get something light for lunch and head back to the studio.

This morning, I weighed out a couple of small glaze batches of my new clear glaze, got one sieved and still have to do the other one. Then I want to test some oxide washes over the clear and the same base with 3% rutile.  Before I moved I discarded or gave away all my washes, so it's time to start over.

Here's a list of oxide washes I've accumulated and tested over the years. I used these with my cone ten reduction glazes, but many would work just as well over oxidation glazes.

When water amount isn't specified, just aim for a water color consistency. For lower fired usage, substitute gerstley borate, or frits like Ferro 3124, or Ferro 3134 for the feldspar or the powdered, clear celadon. 

OXIDE WASH RECIPES

#1 40 GRAMS ILLMENITE, 13 GRAMS KAOLIN 3/4 CUP WATER

#2 1T CHROME OXIDE, ½ T GERSTLEY BORATE 1 CUP WATER

#3 9 GRAMS RAW OCHRE, 2 GRAMS COBALT, ½ CUP WATER

#4 3T RED ART, 3T OM#4 BALL CLAY, 3OZ WATER

#5 10 GRAMS COPPER CARB, 1 GRAM RED IRON, 1tsp KAOLIN, 1tsp COLEMANITE, 1/4 CUP (APPROXIMATELY) WATER

#6 1 1/4 tsp COBALT CARB, ½ tsp CHROME OXIDE, 3 T ALBANY SLIP(CAN SUB ALBERTA SLIP), 4 OZ WATER

#7 100 GRAMS RED CLAY, 4 GRAMS COBALT OXIDE, 4 GRAMS MANGANESE DIOXIDE, PLUS WATER TO MAKE WATERCOLOR CONSISTENCY.

#8 50 GRAMS NEPHELINE SYENITE, 50 RED MULE CLAY + WATER.

#9 20 GRAMS CHROME OXIDE, 10 GRAMS BALL CLAY , 10 CUSTER SPAR, 20 SILICA, 20 FLUORSPAR, 2 CUPS WATER

#10 1 tsp NICKEL OXIDE, 2 tsp RED IRON OXIDE, 25 GRAMS POWDERED CLEAR CELADON, PLUS WATER.

#11 50 GRAMS RED IRON OXIDE, 50 COPPER CARB, 1/4 CUP WATER.

#12 CARDEW AQUAMARINE 80 GRAMS CHROME, 20 COBALT CARB, 20 RUTILE, PLUS WATER.

#13 10 ALBANY SLIP (OR ALBERTA SLIP), 1 COBALT OX., PLUS WATER, FOR BLUE BLACK.

#14 RED ART ALONE (CAN USE AS BUTTONS IF MIXED LIKE THICK SLIP)

#15 3tsp RED IRON, 1 CUP WATER, 1tsp CHINA CLAY

#16 30 GRAMS COLEMANITE, 20 RUTILE, 20 CLEAR POWDERED CELADON, 4OZ WATER.

#17 1 tsp COBALT CARB, 1/4 TSP CHROME OX, 1/4 C. WATER, 1/4 tsp POWDERED CLEAR CELADON

#18 1 T RED IRON OXIDE, 1 T RUTILE, 1 T POWDERED CLEAR CELADON (Or Frit 3124)

#19 DRY PORCELAIN BODY 50 GRAMS, RED IRON OX 30 GRAMS, COBALT OX. 20 GRAMS, PLUS WATER. (HATCHER)

#20 75 GRAMS RED CLAY, 25 IRON OXIDE, 1 CUP WATER.

#21 RED ART 25 GRAMS, TENNESSEE BALL CLAY 13, NEPH.SY. 7, RED IRON OX. 2. PLUS WATER SIEVE IN 150 MESH. FOR RED.

#22 SAME AS #21 EXCEPT SUBSTITUTE RED MULE FOR RED ART.

#23 BLUE TRAILING SLIP FOR BISQUE.
60 GRAMS GROLLEG, 11GRAMS TENNESSEE BALL CLAY, 9 GRAMS RED CLAY, 20 GRAMS CORNWALL STONE, COBALT OXIDE 1 GRAM, 1 GRAM COBALT OX. ADD WATER, SIEVE 150 MESH.

#24 BLACK UNDERGLAZE: 43 GRAMS BLACK IRON OX., 18 MANGANESE DIOXIDE, 15 COBALT OX., 15 NICKEL OXIDE, 9 CHROME OX. PLUS WATER.

#25 DAVID MORRIS BLUE PIGMENT - GOOD ON CHUN OR TIN GLAZE:
21.6 % POTSPAR, 27.2 WHITING, 6.4 CHINA CLAY, 2 BENTONITE, 8 NEPH. SY. , COBALT CARB. 0.7 PLUS WATER.

#26 ORANGE SLIP: 10 CUSTER SPAR, 70 OM#4 BALL CLAY, 20 FLINT, 20 RUTILE, PLUS WATER.

#27 15 GRAMS GERSTLEY BORATE, 30 WOLLASTONITE, 20 BARNARD CLAY, 35 0M#4 BALL CLAY, ADD: 3% RUTILE

#27A 20 GRAMS GERSTLEY BORATE, 30 WOLLASTONITE, 20 BARNARD CLAY, 30 OM#4 BALL CLAY. ADD: 3% RUTILE

#29 12.1 GRAMS SODA ASH, 22.6 BARIUM CARB, 15.6 GERSTLEY BORATE, 34.6 SILICA, 10 TIN OXIDE , 7.5 COPPER OX.,

#31 REPLICA COPPER UNDERGLAZE: 20 REDART, 66 WHITING, 14 COPPER OX., - GOOD OVER AND UNDER CLEAR FELDSPATIC GLAZE.

#38 100 GRAMS EPK, 4 COBALT OX., 1 YELLOW OCHRE, PLUS WATER.

#39 90 ALBANY SLIP (OR ALBERTA SLIP), 10 COBALT OX, PLUS WATER.

#40 GLICK RUST PLUM - 2T RED IRON OX, 1T POWDERED CELADON. PLUS WATER.
* CAN ALSO TRY SUBSTITUTING FRIT 3124 FOR THE CELADON.

#41 GLICK RUST GOLD - 10 tsp RED IRON OX, 5 TSP RUTILE, 3T POWDERED CLEAR CELADON, 2 CUPS WATER.

#42 GLICK GREEN, RED, MAUVE - 2T COPPER CARB, 1T POWDERED CLEAR CELADON, PLUS WATER.

#43 GLICK PURPLE RED - 10 tsp COPPER CARB, 1 tsp COBALT CARB, 5T POWDERED CLEAR CELADON, PLUS WATER.

#44 Dark Brown (w/reddish tone) - 10 grams Copper carbonate, 1 gram Red Iron Oxide, 1-2 tsp of Frit 3134 or clear, dry celadon base.

#47 Yellow Green - 1/2 Copper Carbonate, 1/2 Rutile (by weight) + water to make watercolor consistency.

#50 Gold: Rutile 50, Frit P54 or equivalent. 50 by weight + water to make watercolor consistency.

#51 Red Orange: 50 Rutile, 50 Red Iron Oxide, 50 Frit P54 or equivalent + water to make watercolor consistency. (can go pretty red on high calcium white glaze)

#59 Green: Chrome oxide 1 T, Gerstley borate or Frit 3134 (boron frit) 1 1/2 tsp + water  to make watercolor consistency.

#63 Pink or purplish brown: Manganese Dioxide 1tsp, 1/2 C water

#67 Red Underglaze: Red Clay 3 parts, Red Iron oxide 1 part + water to make a water color consistency. (for comparison, try  versions using  both weight  and   volume).

#71 Leach blue: Red Clay 10, Cobalt oxide 20, Red Iron oxide 30, Manganese Dioxide 40. + water to make a water color consistency.

#80 1/4 tsp Cobalt Carbonate, 3/4 tsp Frit 3124, 1/4 cup water. Light blue or lavender on a high magnesia glaze.

#83 Medium Green: 25 Cobalt Carbonate, 53 Rutile, 2 Chrome Oxide, 20 Gerstley Borate + water to make a water color consistency.

#86 Tan/Orange: 50 Rutile, 17 Titanium Dioxide,  33 Gerstley borate + water to make a water color consistency.

#87 Underglaze Blue: Cobalt oxide 30, Nickel Oxide 4, Manganese Dioxide 16, Grolleg 50 + water to make a water color consistency.

#89 Bright Blue: 70 Cobalt Carbonate, 20 Gerstley Borate, 10 Titanium Dioxide + water to make a water color consistency.

#91 Iron Yellow: 70 Red Iron Oxide, 30 Titanium Dioxide + water to make a watercolor consistency.

#105 Kawai Red (use under a limestone glaze) Black Copper Oxide 60, Zinc Oxide 28, Tin oxide 3, Hard ash (Rice Straw) 9. NOTE: Clean sweep available from cleaning maintenance suppliers is made from rice hull ash and may work as a suitable substitute.

Mocha Diffusion and other slip techniques

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=rmImY4ckQAU Here's a link to a very good video clip of Robin Hopper demonstrating some slip techniques including Mocha diffusion. On his blog a day or so ago, Robin gives a very detailed, instruction on this technique. If you're interested in further exploration of this technique, check his blog which you can find on my blog roll.

Up very early this morning, meditated, got the tiny test kiln loaded with slip tests and got a batch of breakfast bread on it's first rise, checked and watered my seedlings, fed and massaged our furry kids (no kidding!). They're addicted!

It's been a busy couple of days with very little studio time. Instead, there's been time for shopping, gardening, cooking and other household chores. With the warm weather, and the automatic watering/drip system turned off, I've also had to do a lot time consuming, hand watering. Once I get the planters cleaned and moved, which should happen this week, the drip lines can be re-installed. Meantime, I'm dragging heavy hoses around every day.

Yesterday was an incredibly beautiful, warm, day, so I spent a lot of time in the afternoon on garden chores. In the morning we did a Costco run for clams for dinner and other goodies, then a short stop at Lowe's hardware for some Vitamin B1 to ease the transplant shock for the big shrub we had transplanted in the morning. Got home, unpacked the Costco order, and with trowel in hand, headed outside to plant  a couple of perennials, weed and hand water. Making dinner and watching a little tennis and a Doc Martin episode made a nice ending to a good, busy day.

This morning I have to trim the couple of pots I threw two days ago, in between dealing with the bread dough and manually firing the tiny kiln. In the afternoon I'll be back outdoors to plant a few more things and clean up another planter or two, while the handyman is out there pressure washing the pool area and fence.

Dinner will be easy - just have to make some roasted potatoes and cook the rest of the crab cakes I made the other day. They were the very best crab cakes, and so good with the remoulade sauce. That one is definitely a keeper.

First seedlings out

Just took these lettuce/mesclun seedling outside to start hardening off. It's amazing to me how good this Gardens Alive seed starting mix is, compared to how bad the mix I got at Walmarts is. Those seedling planted long before these are barely hanging on. I think I'm going to replant them in this mix and throw that Walmart stuff in the trash.

My Dell laptop is giving me way too many blue screens of death the past two days; but the good news is that yesterday morning, Jim informed me that we have a lot of reward points from our Master card; and I found that it's enough to buy me a new, basic laptop computer if this one completes it's dying process any time soon. So yesterday morning I signed up for the rewards program and found out that there are all sorts of goodies to get; but with further comparison research, I found that taking the cash is better, since you can buy a lot of the products they are offering in the rewards program, cheaper through Amazon or other sources. One Dell computer they're offering was a hundred dollars less from other sources.

After breakfast and other time consuming morning chores done, we headed out to the garden center for some planters, soil, plants and other supplies. A stop at a great new (for us) cheese shop, and a lovely Thai lunch, followed. Then it was back home to unpack, get my two new planters drilled, filled and planted, and get my hand watering done.

We're trying to get ready for our daughter and son-in-laws visit next week, so we're getting a lot of work done around the house and back yard.

George the handyman has been here to help us get all the outdoor furniture in place and treated, and he's coming again today to continue power washing. His machine broke down yesterday after two hours, and his truck broke down two days ago. Seems mercury retrograde is still rearing its ugly head.

I have this morning and early afternoon for studio time after I go through some of this snail and email; and then I need to get out in the garden when George the handyman arrives and plant a few things and then start on dinner. It looks like I can make the time to make a nice crab cake dinner tonight.

Time for breakfast, feed my sourdough starter, and head to the studio. Jim is taking Bodhi to the dog groomer so his aroma will be more worthy of next weeks house guests.

Slipping and scratching

                                                                      Front

                                                                           Back

Yesterday I got more studio time than expected and finished up the latest, small group of pots. I think my slip is still a wee bit too thick, since no amount of shaking got the slip beads to depart the mug rim, so I'll have to thin it a tiny bit more for the next group.

This time I did the sgraffito before the slip had totally dried and that worked much better. I couldn't do pencil drawing on the pots because of the softness of the slip, so I just winged it.  I found that one my tools with a rounded point worked great. I have 3 of these tools with different sized, tiny balls at the end; and after trying several other tools, like ground down, old dental tools, etc. this one eems to be best, at least with this not too dry slip.

There was no time to do garden and grocery shopping yesterday, because I was house and studio bound because workers showed up, so I'll do that this morning and have the afternoon for the studio. Meantime, there's breakfast to make.

Monday morning eye candy

Found this link on a fellow bloggers site this morning. Check out the beautiful pots at:
http://www.artceteragallery.blogspot.com/

It's going to be another gorgeous day here in the valley, so I'm planning on a studio morning, and leaving most of the afternoon free for other chores. I need go out after lunch to pick up some things for the garden, then home to plant a few things. By then it will be time to start on our usual early dinner.

Cone 6 ox greens

Here are a couple of cone 6 oxidation tests I did a few years ago when I was planning for a retirement, electric kiln. Of course I changed those plans and built a soda/salt kiln instead; but saved these and many of the other tests,  knowing that if I made it to my current age, I would be putting that electric kiln to more use other than using it as a bisque kiln.

The top tile, is #7473V3 Color yy, is one that I based on a calcium eutectic, and it's a beautiful, buttery matt, slightly softer in color than the picture shows. The darker, top portion was doubled dipped. The one below, #70912i color V, is a glossier, high alumina, semi transparent green, very much like a blue green celadon.  Both  are on porcelain bodies. Either of these, because of the high calcium content would probably make nice glazes, particularly liners, for cone 6 soda. 

Today was a play day  - breakfast with our son and one of our grand sons, then home for a bit. The day was too beautiful to stay in, so I suggested it might be a good day for a drive. Since there's still a lot of snow in the mountains Jim suggested a drive to Grants Pass to check out the kitchen store I've been wanting to visit. I checked, and found that it's open on Sunday, so off we went. The drive was lovely and I came home with a bag of kitchen goodies.

When we got home, I found that I have left a couple of small pots which I thought I'd be trimming this morning, uncovered; and pretty dry. Needless to say I dropped what I was doing and got them trimmed after wetting them down a bit.

It's been a lovely play day, which we're planning on doing more of now that spring is in the air. We saw the first daffodils today. I'll have to plant some of our own next fall. Meantime, we'll enjoy the fruit of our neighbors labors.

The sun is shining oh happy day

I'm taking a break and using the time to try to figure out how to make my header picture smaller. So far, no luck.

It's been a mish mash kind of day - seedling care first thing in the morning, then some email followed by breakfast and then some studio time to throw a few pots. After lunch, taking advantage of this warm, sunny day, I headed to the garden and spent a good amount of time hand watering and power washing as much as I could with my hose. We don't have any big trees but our neighbor does; and guess where all the leaves go!

Time for me to head back to the studio to check the pots and pull a couple of handles. Then it's off to the Mexican restaurant for an early dinner. I will have a margarita tonight. Oh yeah!

Is there a computer whiz who can tell me how I can make this header photo smaller? I re-sized it to 4 inches high in Paint Shop Pro, but when the blogger software opened it, as you can see, it's huge! And there's no option to make it smaller on the header page. After spending over a half an hour on this I'm stumped.

Got a couple more slip tests done and now I have wait for the test tiles to dry.

Jim brought some lovely sushi home for lunch and afterwards I went out to clean out a few planters and plant a few new ferns.

Now I need to update my test notes and then it's off to dinner with our son and grandson.

More yellow

Here's 3 more tests from the last Cone 04 oxidation firing. All have my transparent glaze over, which was supposed to be a clear but wound up with some transparency. Ayumi's white slip is the base for all the slip colors. The tile on the left has about 3% rutile (I wet mixed a plain and a 6% rutile version), middle tile has about 3% mason Titanium yellow stain, also wet mixed with a plain version of the slip, and the far right tile has 6% of the Mason Titanium yellow stain.

I had to photoshop the photo to get close to the color. They're a bit lighter in color than shown, and the tiles have a lovely, buttery, gloss finish which isn't showing. The tile on the left is actually a lovely, off white, the middle one is a pale, warm yellow, and the far right one looks more like the middle one in person.

Yesterday studio time was very limited. More carrots had to get planted because 3 year old seeds that I didn't think were still viable, sprouted after pouring the rest of the packet on wet hand towel paper for a few days. Before planting I had to clean out a big bucket which had some deep, stems and roots that presented a challenge. A computer problem (yes, they are still ongoing), took away studio time. Seems my entire photo folder disappeared, and was no where to be found on my laptop. Fortunately I had a backed up copy on my stand alone hard drive. So I spent a lot of time dealing with that, cooking and other things.

Today I'll continue with more yellow slip tests for under my newest, and finally, successful, clear glaze test; but first, there's a hearty breakfast to make, and two grungy kitchen mats that need hand washing, before someone reports me to the health department.

Nailed it

Eagerly opened the tiny test kiln this morning to find the results of my 3 new, clear glaze tests; and am happy to report and they all look great - smooth, not a single pin hole; and the best part is that all are absolutely clear. They were all all applied over the same white slip, that had been bisqued to C04 and all have the same two Lug under glazes.

The first tile has no ghastly borate, the second has 5%, and the third has 11.5%. Other than the ghastly borate, the base formulas of all three glazes have the same ingredients, but different amounts... Since they all worked great over the test under glazes, I'll use the first, no ghastly borate version to do further tests, with some stains and test it over some colored slips. I am soooo happy with these results. These were fired manually, to C04; but most probably, reached 03 because of the setting of the cone sitter. The cone was much more melted than a true C04. I want to re-fire these with an 03 bar cone in the sitter to see how they'll work at cone 03 and even higher.

Other than the usual, daily, household chores and seedling tending, I'll have the bulk of the day for the studio. I need to throw more test tiles to further test this clear and mix up some other slip colors to test with it. I also want to test some of the Velvet colors over a yellow version of this glaze. All my Velvet testing has been under the glazes to this point.

It was a beautiful day yesterday and I took advantage of it, and planted some carrots, escarole, cilantro and sorrel seeds and transplanted some garlic and did a bit more cleanup. That takes care of all the colder weather seed planting for a while. The only thing I need to do with these now, is check them daily to make sure the soil isn't drying out.

The buds on the trees are getting fuller every day and the perennials are awakening. It's an exciting time for gardeners and everyone else who's looking forward to spring.

In search of yellow

These are all Mason Buttercup stain on my new, clear glaze (which turned out to be transparent and not as clear as I need). The left one has 2.4% Buttercup, the middle 8% and the right 4%.

The colors on the left and middle are fairly close to true, but the right is looking deeper than it does in person. I tried to photo shop them to get them as close to possible; but this is the best I could do. For my purpose, the two end colors are closer to what I want.

The right it blotchy only because I wet mixed equal parts of the 8% batch and the clear without straining. Since it looks promising, the next step will be to weigh out a fresh test batch with 4% of the stain, since wet mixing isn't exact; but gives me the next place to go.

The new clear glaze tests are in the mini test kiln, so I'll have those results tomorrow. In between turning up this little manual kiln, I'll see about continuing organizing the studio space.

It's a sunny day, and will be warm this afternoon (low 60's expected),so after lunch I want to plant a few things - cilantro, sorrel and carrots and transplant parsley.

Time to turn up the kiln.

Yesterday I perked up enough to get to the store, buy a few more storage boxes for the studio, getting them filled and labeled. Then I got into the garden and planted potatoes, fava beans and a few other things and planted some more seeds to go under the grow lights.

Today only the seedlings needed checking and watering, so I got into the studio to batch 3 different revision of a cone 04 clear. Then I brought a 2 large bowls of fired tiles in the house, got comfortable on the sofa, and went through all of them, making followup notes, assessments, etc.That job continued till after dinner; but it's done.

On close scrutiny it was interesting to see the various tones of white using the same clear glaze over three different white slips on two different earthenware bodies. Some slip color were more vibrant over Georgies Vortex red, their new earthenware; but that won't make me use it. It looks and feels like it's loaded with red iron oxide and makes a messy cleanup. I'll stick with Laguna's R2 earthenware body. It throws fine and isn't such a bear to clean up after.

Finding space for everything by going up

This is still a work in progress, but it's getting there. Going up to gain storage space is working; but it's sure taking time. I have one or two more deep containers to buy and probably another day to finish this section, but it won't be today.

Yesterday morning was busy with the usual - email, breakfast, animal care, and then another unexpected computer glitch to deal with, then off early to Lowe's hardware to get a new surge protector for my wheel, more peat pots for transplants, a new timer for the grow lights for my seedlings, and oil to feed the outdoor furniture, etc. etc. We had lunch out - a new, local, and good Chinese restaurant. Portions were so huge that we had the leftovers for dinner, which was a blessing, because, by dinner I was too tired and achy to do much of anything.

I had spent 4 hours in the garden planting beets, onions, lettuce, kale, spinach, arugula, radishes and an artichoke, transplanting some veggies because I needed to follow this years square foot gardening plan, cleaning up a lot of the planters and pulling weeds. It was amazing how many early weeds were not only up, but flowering! It was six o'clock when I came in and barely mustered the energy to reheat and eat dinner. It was a beautiful warm day and I just kept going (longer than I should have), to take advantage of it.

Every part of me is aching this morning, but if I can perk up later, I'd like  to at least spent some time planting carrots, potatoes and the fava beans I didn't get to plant yesterday. Maybe after breakfast, I can find some sit down studio chore that doesn't require shoulder, hip or leg muscles. We'll see. Meantime, I have some raw materials I bought in Japan years ago - labels are gone, so I'm going to see if I can find a kanji Japanese translation site and maybe through elimination (they're all oxides I think), I can find out what they are without getting into heavy testing. I do enough of that!

Build your own kiln shelf cart

Here's the kiln shelf cart I built with my handyman George yesterday. Since the studio space is less than 1/3 what I had in the old house, I've had to find space under tables and by going up on shelves. I put wheels on it so I can wheel it out to access a few, rarely used items stored behind it. I designed mine to fit comfortably under this table, and heavy enough to support the heavy shelves for my Skutt kiln. I might add my advancers to this since I'm within the weight limit for those wheels.

It would be easy to adjust this simple design for your own needs. Here's a material list for anyone wanting to make this one:

1  3/4" piece of plywood 20x30 inches for the base
1  1/4" piece of plywood  20x30 inches for the top (get a thicker piece if you expect to put heavier items on top.)
6 pieces of 16" 2x4's for the posts
4 swivel wheels each rated for 125 lbs for an expected 500 lb load.
12  #10 1" screw to attach the top piece
12  #10 1 1/2" screws to attach the 2x4's to the base.

All these materials were less than $60 at Lowe's hardware; but could probably be less at discount lumber places or if you have some of these materials on hand.

A lot more time was spent moving things, re-cutting boards to sit on a metal shelving unit so I can use it as another ware cart, and getting more raw materials into plastic, stackable storage bins, and labeling them.

This morning I'll get some studio time and this afternoon I have to get back to Lowe's to return something and buy a  new surge protector for my wheel and a new timer for the plant light, followed by a stop at my local butcher/fish monger to buy some fish for dinner

It's going to be in the mid sixties today, the last day for this good weather; and then the temperatures are dropping way down, with a lot of rain in the mix. So,when I get home I'm going to plant some cold tolerant veggies, cook dinner and vegg out for the evening. Hope I can stay awake for the River Dance show on our local PBS station at nine o'clock. It's going to be iffy, for these old bones, after such a busy day.