Will Baker wood and soda fired pots

These are Will Baker's soda/wood fired pots which were available this past weekend at the Spruce Pine Potters market. He and his equally talented bride, Joy Tanner, are serving a residency at the Energy exchange and firing the new wood pallet kiln that Mark Peters designed and built. They are getting some incredible work from this kiln.

Yesterday was another day of mixed activity - after breakfast meeting with our tree man, walking around pointing out where I wanted saplings and under brush removed, then on to the studio for several hours before I had to quit and come in to make dinner.

I got a few more pots slipped and got them all decorated and today I should be able to finish slipping and decorating the last few pots to top off this bisque load.

Dinner last night was an easy, but delicious pork tenderloin browned and roasted on the stove top with some garlic, thyme and red wine - another keeper recipe ready in less than an hour. I'll post it on my other blog, at: www.plantharvestcook.blogspot.com
later.

Will Baker's booth at Spruce Pine Potters Market

Here's a shot of Will Baker's elegant wood and soda fired stoneware, taken at the Spruce Pine Potters Market.

This morning I re-adjusted the basement grow lights and re-arranged the plants. There's a bit of room left under the lights for me to grow one or two small window boxes with lettuce this winter.

Looks like it's going to be a great afternoon for me to get out and dead head the flowers that past two nights of freezing temperatures have claimed. Bonnie kitty has gotten a taste of the outdoors and is going to be a very happy kitty to be out there while I'm doing some of this garden clean up. Since she's gotten a taste of the freedom of the outdoors, she's been moaning and groaning because of her being relegatted to the confines of our bathroom and laundry room areas.

I'll should get some studio time today to re-arrange the plants Jim brought in the other day. Once I move them out of my heavy traffic pattern, I'll set up the grow lights and timers for them.

Since dinner is going to be a simple cheese tortellini pasta with tomato sauce and meatballs (already made and frozen), I should be able to get all the things on today's agenda completed.

Will Baker soda fired bowl

Here's another Will Baker pot - soda fired bowl.

We slept in a bit this morning after staying up till Midnight watching the Academy Awards.

Grassy Creek just delivered the doors for upstairs. We're replacing all the hollow core doors with solid panel doors as well as replacing those old louvered closet doors for paneled doors. The construction crew will be here tin a little while and I'll dash out to the studio after breakfast. If they need me for decision making they're going to have to come in there.

I have over 100 test tiles to deal with this morning. After doing the Helios tiles, I realized that since the Helios's lowest cone is 7, I'd at least better just test these slips and glazes on a body that can actually be used at cone 6, so I threw another 50+ tiles of Loafers Glory yesterday. I rummaged through some jars of old bisqued tiles and found I have a few Phoenix , a large sun tea jar full of a cone 6 white stoneware from Highwater, and P5 porcelain tiles that I can use; but I need to throw more Phoenix tiles since I've finally decided to settle on that one body once I use all all my reclaim and other clays.

Yesterday I cut and cleaned the 56 tiles I threw the day before. Today I'll so the same with the Loafers Glory tiles, and trim and put handles on the few porcelain mugsI made a couple of days ago. If I have enough uninterrupted time I'll also throw more Phoenix tiles.

John Britt's new soda test kiln only takes two 12X24" shelves and there may be 3 of us putting tiles in there, so I don't have many tiles to make for this cone 6 soda firing of glazes and slips. All of the slips I want to test are already batched. They're slips I'm either currently using on a regular basis or have batched and only have to be remixed. I think I still have some small test batches of some cone 6 glazes I tested 5-6 years ago. I just have to figure where I put them. I suspect they're in large rubber maid containers in the basement, so I'll dig around there when I go down to water my seedlings.


Till later!
June

Will Baker mug

Here's another mug from my collection. This one is a soda fired stoneware piece by a local young and talented potter, Will Baker.

The winds were pretty strong yesterday morning but we had no trouble driving over the mountain. We actually felt them more when we got into the flatter areas in Tennessee.

We almost finished all the shopping for the remodeling project. Lowe's was one window shade short of the style and size we chose, so we'll have to either go to another Lowes in the next couple of days or drive back to the Lowes in Johnson City, TN next week when they get a new supply.

I got a 4' folding table so I could get my photo set up off my dining room table and set it up permanently in the basement. It will mean carrying pots up and down but the exercise won't hurt me and my dining room will look like a dining room again rather than a make shift photography studio!

After breakfast I should be able to get in some studio time. I just watered all the seedlings and indoor plants and it's time to get breakfast made. After lunch I'll try to get some or all of the day lilies transplanted.

Tonight's dinner will be easy - chicken piccata and oven roasted potatoes and salad, so I'll be able to work till around 4 o'clock.

Till later,
June