picked up my pieces today from class. Strangely, the bud vase and one of my teadust mugs had fused together in one spot during the firing, but I was able to snap them apart without much trouble. The teadust sure does run!
I couldn't find one piece... the little goblet that had broken while glazing. Zach found it in back with a note saying the tech didn't feel good about putting it in the kiln, if the top fell off while firing, it could totally ruin another piece or the kiln shelf... I guess I understand. I went ahead and threw it away. sad.
I spent about 30 minutes at the grinder making the places where the teadust actually had stuck to the shelf look less terrible... and then I packed up my stuff and came home!
Saturday, December 8, 2007
Friday, December 7, 2007
Hana's last class: pit fire!!
The last class of the quarter. As you know, we've been leading up to this class for a while, when we decided to do a pit firing. Really great idea, actually, since otherwise the last class would just consist of picking up our finished pieces.
I stopped by the studio on my way to Gary's house. I was able to find all my finished glazed things, I think (and with Jackie's help), and will follow up in another post with pictures of those.
Then, to Gary's. I showed up about ten minutes late, with my two pieces, a camping chair, and a bottle of wine. Other people were also starting to show up, and they brought all sorts of food and lots of wood. We each stuck our pieces into a pit at the end of the yard (next to a chicken coop!) which was filled with sawdust. Then we filled it in with a layer of kindling.
We all stood around a bit awkwardly for a few minutes, then Gary asked who would like to start the fire. No one really did anything, so Gary went and got a flaming piece of wood out of the little oven thing that he had made a while back and stuck it into the pit. Suddenly I found myself at the edge of the pit, blowing on the flames and sticking bits of kindling around, and basically all in charge. It was funny. It was a large pit, so a couple other people joined me, but I'm proud to say that my third of the pit was up and roaring first. Hehe.
Here's a picture of all of us building the fire. Strangely enough, the three of us (I'm not pictured) are also the least talkative of the group, and I think having something constructive to do was a relief for us.
While we were building, everyone else got all the food set up, and there was sake and glugg warming up inside on the stove.
Once the fire was really going, (see the second picture) I started wandering around, snacking, and attempting to chat with the others.
I found Gary's pottery shed, which was filled with great pieces and also, is that... yes! Our group project was all lined up on the shelves in there. All the little sake cups, each one completely unique, and no one could tell which ones they had thrown. Gary told us all to take one, and use it to drink the sake. So we did.
For a while, I stood around and looked at the fire, sipping sake, then a little glugg, and finally a few little cups worth of the wine I'd brought. The sake cup I'd chosen was so small (maybe one ounce?), that I was sure I'd only had about a glass or two worth of wine by the end of the night. Tell that to my hangover today though, hoo-boy.
Occasionally throughout the night, Gary would call out, "Round Two!" or "Round Three!" and we'd all rush into the little pottery shed and pick out another little sake cup from our group collection. By the end of the night, we each had at least four little cups to take home.
After we had run out of wood, several hours later, the pit looked like the third picture. You could see all of our pieces hidden about in there, glowing white. I had to leave at this point, but after this, Gary and whoever was left were going to fill in the pit with sand and leave it for a couple days to cool. I guess if the pieces cool too fast, they can crack. I'll be going back Saturday morning to dig through the ashes to find my pieces.
I stopped by the studio on my way to Gary's house. I was able to find all my finished glazed things, I think (and with Jackie's help), and will follow up in another post with pictures of those.
Then, to Gary's. I showed up about ten minutes late, with my two pieces, a camping chair, and a bottle of wine. Other people were also starting to show up, and they brought all sorts of food and lots of wood. We each stuck our pieces into a pit at the end of the yard (next to a chicken coop!) which was filled with sawdust. Then we filled it in with a layer of kindling.
We all stood around a bit awkwardly for a few minutes, then Gary asked who would like to start the fire. No one really did anything, so Gary went and got a flaming piece of wood out of the little oven thing that he had made a while back and stuck it into the pit. Suddenly I found myself at the edge of the pit, blowing on the flames and sticking bits of kindling around, and basically all in charge. It was funny. It was a large pit, so a couple other people joined me, but I'm proud to say that my third of the pit was up and roaring first. Hehe.
Here's a picture of all of us building the fire. Strangely enough, the three of us (I'm not pictured) are also the least talkative of the group, and I think having something constructive to do was a relief for us.While we were building, everyone else got all the food set up, and there was sake and glugg warming up inside on the stove.
Once the fire was really going, (see the second picture) I started wandering around, snacking, and attempting to chat with the others.
I found Gary's pottery shed, which was filled with great pieces and also, is that... yes! Our group project was all lined up on the shelves in there. All the little sake cups, each one completely unique, and no one could tell which ones they had thrown. Gary told us all to take one, and use it to drink the sake. So we did.
For a while, I stood around and looked at the fire, sipping sake, then a little glugg, and finally a few little cups worth of the wine I'd brought. The sake cup I'd chosen was so small (maybe one ounce?), that I was sure I'd only had about a glass or two worth of wine by the end of the night. Tell that to my hangover today though, hoo-boy.Occasionally throughout the night, Gary would call out, "Round Two!" or "Round Three!" and we'd all rush into the little pottery shed and pick out another little sake cup from our group collection. By the end of the night, we each had at least four little cups to take home.
After we had run out of wood, several hours later, the pit looked like the third picture. You could see all of our pieces hidden about in there, glowing white. I had to leave at this point, but after this, Gary and whoever was left were going to fill in the pit with sand and leave it for a couple days to cool. I guess if the pieces cool too fast, they can crack. I'll be going back Saturday morning to dig through the ashes to find my pieces.
Monday, December 3, 2007
j's 9th class (oh, the many things to glaze!)
right. Showed up to class pretty much on time. It was snowing gently on my way into class... coffee in hand. I hate to say this, but it really is kinda magical to be in a starbucks getting coffee while it's snowing outside. Everyone in there feels special when that happens.
I arrived first to class (after Zach ofcourse). Judy and 2 other students wandered in later.
I started rooting around in the bisque shelves. Kept finding things I forgot I made while looking for something I had the derndest time trying to find (a little sake pitcher was hiding inside a pot by another artist). FINALLY I had all my pieces.
The instructors of the ceramics lab had covered a couple of the canvas-topped tables with plastic so people could glaze out in the main room. Since no one was really in my class, and the radio (playing NPR's saturday morning favorites) was in the main room, I went ahead and filled a couple plastic bowls full of the various glazes I was interested in, and set myself up in the main room to glaze.
I sat and glazed and glazed and sat.
At some point other students came in to use the open lab hours (I was annoyed that they started showing up early actually, THEIR open lab didn't start till 1:30pm, but they started showing up around 11:30am... blah). And Zach teased me for using all the measuring cups from the glaze room at one time. I guess these other students needed them. I went ahead and washed up the ones I was done with (luckily I was done with a couple of the glazes at this time) while mock-grumping about how I was having fun by myself before other people showed up.
I think I ended up glazing 5 mugs, 3 trays, 6 little cups, 2 sake pitchers, 1 bottle-like thing, a bud vase, 2 small goblets (one of them broke while I was glazing it actually! I decided to try and glaze it back together tho, so we'll see how that goes), and a small assortment of other hand-built things.
Anyway, I finished up around 2:30... and was hungry and sleepy.
And, that's that. I have nothing left to work on. I guess next class I pickup my stuff! Here's hoping they come out!!!
I arrived first to class (after Zach ofcourse). Judy and 2 other students wandered in later.
I started rooting around in the bisque shelves. Kept finding things I forgot I made while looking for something I had the derndest time trying to find (a little sake pitcher was hiding inside a pot by another artist). FINALLY I had all my pieces.
The instructors of the ceramics lab had covered a couple of the canvas-topped tables with plastic so people could glaze out in the main room. Since no one was really in my class, and the radio (playing NPR's saturday morning favorites) was in the main room, I went ahead and filled a couple plastic bowls full of the various glazes I was interested in, and set myself up in the main room to glaze.
I sat and glazed and glazed and sat.
At some point other students came in to use the open lab hours (I was annoyed that they started showing up early actually, THEIR open lab didn't start till 1:30pm, but they started showing up around 11:30am... blah). And Zach teased me for using all the measuring cups from the glaze room at one time. I guess these other students needed them. I went ahead and washed up the ones I was done with (luckily I was done with a couple of the glazes at this time) while mock-grumping about how I was having fun by myself before other people showed up.
I think I ended up glazing 5 mugs, 3 trays, 6 little cups, 2 sake pitchers, 1 bottle-like thing, a bud vase, 2 small goblets (one of them broke while I was glazing it actually! I decided to try and glaze it back together tho, so we'll see how that goes), and a small assortment of other hand-built things.
Anyway, I finished up around 2:30... and was hungry and sleepy.
And, that's that. I have nothing left to work on. I guess next class I pickup my stuff! Here's hoping they come out!!!
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