Horse Hair Vase

I had a good weekend. This is one of my favorite horse hair pots that I fired this past weekend.
This pot was pulled from the raku kiln while glowing hot, set on an insulated fire brick, and then strands of horse hair were brushed and placed on the hot pot to burn.
Once the pot was cool to the touch I gently scrubbed the pot clean of and residue from the burnt horse hair. After that I applied a thin layer of polishing wax and buffed it to a high glossy sheen.

Mishima Decorated Platter

 One of my favorite pieces I pulled out of the kiln this weekend. The platter itself is made of low-fire white earthenware clay.
Once the platter was thrown and trimmed I used a can opener tip to impress the triangular points into the rim. Old timers call the can opener a "church key." The straight lines on the outer edge of the platter was made using a flat head screwdriver.
Very time consuming but the end result is a beautiful design and pattern. Once the platter was bisque fired I had no idea how I was going to glaze it. Somehow for some unknown reason, Mishima popped into my head.
Mishima is actually a Japanese island that produces a type of pottery surface design /drawing by inlaying a slip of contrasting color into lines incised in leather-hard clay.
In the case of my platter I applied three coats of Amaco Teal Blue Velvet underglaze to the entire platter, front and back. Once that had dried I used sand paper to remove the underglaze from the rim of the platter. The sanding removed the underglaze on the high parts of the rim and left the underglaze untouched the the recessed indentations made by the can opener and flat head screwdriver.
When the sanding was completed I applied three coats of Duncan Super Clear over that and fired the platter to cone 04.

Camo Ashtray

What can I say? Somebody asked me to make them a couple camouflage pattern ashtrays. Give the people what they want.
This ashtray is made out of low-fire white earthenware clay. Hand painted with Amaco Velvet Underglazes with 3 coats of Duncan Clear Glaze over that and fired to cone 04.

Earthenware Tumblers

I finally got my new electric kiln wired in my studio. These were some of the first pieces out. Made them quite a while ago but I'm real happy with the abstracted carvings. Two carvings on each tumbler.

Perfect tumblers for Beer or Bloody Marys.

White earthenware clay. Amaco Black Velvet Underglaze with Duncan clear over that.

Latest Project

Pint-sized tumblers that I plan on carving. Black underglaze on white clay body. Plan on glazing with a clear glaze..

Burnishing

I don't know why I started burnishing this pot instead of applying terra sigalatta to it. Maybe I was bored. It has been a while since I hand-burnished. I forgot how time consuming it is. This vessel is about 12 inches tall and 6 inches wide. I have 2 hours into it and still have the rim to finish.
The vase was leather-hard, bone dry, and I applied small amounts of olive oil to facilitate the burnishing process. I have a nice polished turquoise colored agate that I normally use to burnish pots but couldn't find it. Must be at my other studio, so I used a metal soup spoon.
I really thought I could finish this in an hour using the spoon, but I was wrong. This pot will eventually get "raku" fired and get the horse hair treatment.
This pot is smooth, smooth, smooth, and glossy as polished marble.

Platters

Texture/imprints created using a metal "church Key" and a flathead screwdriver.

Piggy Bank

A fun little project. I couldn't find a cork to stick in the pig's mouth but got lucky and found a wooden lid from a jar that fit perfectly.

Horse Hair Pottery

During my mother and brothers visit last weekend I gave them a quick demonstration on horse hair pottery.
Start to finish was only about 40 minutes and both of them applied the horse hair to the pot and threw some granulated sugar on it.
Once at home I applied a thin layer of Johnson past wax to the pot and buffed it up with a cotton rag.
This pot had terra sig applied. My brother Scholl took the pot and celebrated the whole process and final result with a beer.

Cookie Jar

I didn't make this cookie jar. It was a slip-cast porcelain piece that was purchased years ago by my friend Lee. His wife would then glaze and fire the pieces. She passed away a couple years ago but Lee still had the jar and asked me if I would finish it for him
Well, I think it came out ok. I used store bought majolica glazes from Amaco and fired to cone 05.

Majolica Dishes

I fired my dishes on Monday and am pretty happy with the results. Amaco majolica glazes and a low-fire white clay body from Continental Clay.

Texture Stamps

Was hoping to fire up my raku kiln and do some horse hair pottery yesterday morning. Woke up to screaming winds and snow flurries.
While drinking my morning coffee and looking through pottery magazines I came across stamps. Figured that was a good way to spend a winters day.
I had made bunches of stamps while attending Viterbo college. Had a whole box of them but I left them there.
Fun to make and fun to use. I just rolled up small pieces of clay into ping pong-sized balls in the palms of my hands and used items I found around the house to create the textures. Once bisque-fired these will last ages.

I need dishes

When I moved into my new place I didn't have any dishes, not a one. Can't imagine that I've made hundreds of bowls, plates, mugs etc... over the past 20 years and I have no dinnerware.
This is a good start. The small salad plates are 9-inches in diameter. The bowls are 6-inch diameter and I threw 8 tumblers.
I used a white low-fire clay body from Continetal Clay and glazed them with commercial majolica glazes made by Amaco.
From left to right: Royal Blue and Violet, Royal blue and Orange, Royal Blue and Yellow, and finally Royal Blue and Rose.
I still plan on making some larger plates, some coffee mugs, and a couple of platters. I dont have a kitchen strainer for pastsa.....I might try making one of those too.

Piggy Bank

I saw a photo of a piggy bank similar to this one on one of my artist friend's facebook page. I thought, what a great idea. Simple and fun. I added eye lids and the floppy ears.
I'll use a commercial pink glaze and low-fire to cone 05 in the electric kiln. To finish it off I will plug the pig's mouth with a large cork.
I can see all kinds of possibilities with this project. All kinds of animal banks.
It didn't take anytime to make and was extremely fun.

A Few More Pots

I'm really liking my new place. The front room is working out to be a really nice and comfortable studio.
Last night after dinner I had a little bit of time before bedtime so I quickly threw some bowls for the set of dishes I am making.
Should have enough pots to fill the bisque kiln this weekend. Looking forward to making some horsehair raku pottery soon. The terra sigilatta I made seems to work really well, so far. Can't wait to get it into the fire.

Terra Sigilatta

Last night I decided to try my terra sigilatta and it looks fantastic. The photo does it no justice but these pots are smooth a a baby's bottom and have a fantastic shine.
I centered each pot on my potter's wheel and applied 3 thin coats of terra sig with a brush while the wheel was spinning at a slow speed.
Once the third coat was applied I waited for a few minutes and then buffed the pots with an old cotton t-shirt.
The brush application took about 5 minutes and then buffing, maybe another 5.
Next step the bisque kiln and then it is time to light up the raku kiln for some horsehair pottery.

New home for my new wheel.

My new wheel has a new home. So do I. After many many years with Susan, I packed and split.
I didn't go far. I rented a nice small 2 bedroom, 1 and a half bathroom place just off Main Street in Coon Valley.
Actually a pretty cool place. It used to be an ice cream shop. Works out great for me as the whole front part of the old ice cream shop is now a nice sized studio with two big picture windows in the front and lots of counter top space and cupboards for storage.
The crappy plastic on the walls will be replaced with some dura-board and trimmed out sometime in the near future. I'm also right next door to a Pub. Cheers!

Terra Sigillata

This is my first attempt at making terra sigillata. I want to make more pit-fired pots as well as do some horse-hair pieces and I have found out that I DO NOT like burnishing my pots with a spoon, marble or whatever. It is too time consuming and very boring.
Anyway I found this terra sig recipe on the internet, http://ceramicartsdaily.org/pottery-making-techniques/ceramic-decorating-techniques/terra-sigillata-101-how-to-make-apply-and-troubleshoot-terra-sig/.
I wrote it down on the 5-gallon jug and decided to try this one recipe in particular because I had the materials on hand. I wasn't sure about sodium silicate I used because it was several years old and took a lot of shaking and stirring to get it uniform again. I don't know. Can Sodium Silicate go bad? It also took 4 days for the terra sig to settle to the point where I siphoned 2 gallons from the 5-gallon container.
I haven't used it yet but hope to make some pots this weekend and give it a try.

Fat White Chawan

This glaze is an opaque matt white glaze but I think I'm going to have to rename it "Fat White." I love the thickness of the glaze and the orange peel effect is what I've been searching for for a long long time. The best thing about this glaze is that it is dependable with the same results every time.
I used wax resist in the carved recessed areas of the tea bowl and then applied a thick coat of the "Fat White" to the interior and exterior of the bowl.
To give the bowl an extra accent I carved through the glaze with a pin tool. The black is a result from the post reduction process.

My Favorite Chawan

I knew when I pulled this chawan from the raku kiln that this one was definately my Favorite to date.
First of all I have been searching for years for a "fat white" glaze that would crackle and also produce an "orange peel" effect.
Secondly, I've been searching longer for a dependable red. I got lucky this past weekend and produced some of my best tea bowls to date. I'll post some of the others on my website jeffguin.com

Ok! This post is for Joe since he wanted to see the fired results of this red iron oxide wash over my Matt White Opaque Raku glaze.
I was hoping this would turn out a light red rust color. Well, it turned out brown. It still has potential the way it was fired in this photo but I think I'll do another test but use a more diluted form of the wash. I applied this pretty thick and I think a thinner solution of the iron wash will produce a "nicer" result.

Glaze Testing Again

More glaze testing. This chawan has a base coat of a matt opaque white on the interior and exterior. I then mixed up a red iron oxide wash and applied that over the white glaze. Will raku fire this in my gas kiln and if I'm happy with the results will try it in my wood-fired raku kiln.

Raku Fired Chawan

Raku fired chawan glazed with a gloss opaque white glaze. I applied a red iron oxide wash over the bisqued bowl and then applied the glaze but my oxide wash must have been a little thin as it did not come through the withe opaque glaze like I had hoped. Will try the wash again, both under and over the glaze.

Kodai

Hand carved foot ring or kodai. I carved this foot ring with one of the tools I made out of a piece of flat banding steel.

Opaque Gloss White Raku Glaze

Here is a close up of the opaque gloss white glaze
pictured below. I like the glaze and will retest it with some brush strokes of red iron wash, under and over the glaze. Looks like it has lots of potential. I like the pinholing.
As is, the glaze doesn't appear to crawl so I am going to add some magnesium carbonate to the base and see what happens.

Raku Fired Tea Bowl

I finally was able to fire some tea bowls in the raku kiln this past weekend. Had several glazes to test and wasn't able to fire them all because I ran out of gas (not energy, propane). And, it was dangerously too windy to fire up the kiln yesterday.
Anyway, out of the pieces I did fire this is my favorite.
It is just a plain opaque gloss white glaze inside and out. The exterior was heavily textured and I used a metal rib to scrape off the glaze and even used a piece of sandpaper to clean it up a bit more.
The black, of course, was bare clay and recieved its color from post reduction in a can of sawdust.
I think this glaze has a lot of potential but it is a gloss white. I also have another similar bowl to fire that has been glazed in a matt white. Will post a photo of that when it is fired.
I also had a few failures, but all in all it was a pretty successful weekend.

Glaze Testing

Got a lot done in the studio yesterday. Started my bisque kiln bright and early with a load of torso sculptures that I made last year. While that was firing I decided to test some new raku glazes.

Thought I'd post them on my blog just in case I misplaced my notes.

Back left has a black underglaze and a gloss red on the exterior. The interior was glazed with Soldner's Clear Crackle Raku glaze.

Right Rear: Interior and exterior glazed with an opaque glosse white. This was a heavily textured tea bowl on the exterior so applied a heavy coat of the white and then used a metal rib to scrap away the top layer of glaze. In post reduction I am hoping the black will create a nice effect on the unglazed parts of the exterior.

Left front: Interior glazed with Soldner's Clear Crackle Raku. This was also textured on the exterior so I applied a gloss red and used the metal rib to scrape the high areas clean of glaze.

Center: This is a real "experimental" glaze. This is a borax and feldspar glaze with 15% magnesium carbonate added to create a crawling effect. The glaze brushed on terribly because of the Borax I think but I got a heavy coat on it. The interior is an opaque gloss white.

Right Front: opaque gloss white on the interior. Three brush coats on the exterior and then I brushed 3 coats of Amaco Arroyo Black glaze on top of that.

It was way to damn windy to fire up the raku kiln yesterday so I'll have to wait to fire these up. Maybe today. Stay tuned.

New Addition to the Studio

Newest addition to my studio, a Shimpo RK-Whisper potter's wheel. Actually it is the first store-bought wheel I've owned. I've made my other two wheels, my favorite sitting right next to the Shimpo.

It is a Korean or Onggi style kick wheel made out of about 50 board feet of cherry wood. For a touch of class I added one layer of walnut on the bottom half.

The first wheel I made is a kick wheel with a motor assist.

I also have a stand-up treadle wheel that was given to me. This wheel was made by artist Harvy Littleton sometime during the 1950s.

New Coffee Mug

Just received this coffee mug in the mail yesterday. I traded some albany slip for it. It is made by Wisconsin potter Paul Boland. Paul is on Face book and he and his wife Amanda have an etsy page.
http://www.etsy.com/people/Haywainpottery

Raku Red

This is about the only thing I have accomplished the past month. I've been working too many overtime hours at my paying job and haven't been able to fire anything, but this has a lot of potential.
It is actually a low-fire commercial red glaze that is dinnerware safe. I brushed two coats of the red on the tea bowl and then brushed a layer of commercial low-fire black over the red.
What I would like to experiment with is adding an opacifier and some magnesium carbonate to this red glaze. I'm hoping to tone-down the translucency a bit with zircopax and create some crawling with the magnesium carbonate. The end result, I hope, will look like a high-fire crawling shino. Will mix up some test glazes this week and will raku fire some more tea bowls onnext Saturday, weather permitting.

New Plan

New plan. I had originally planned on installing a Skutt electric kiln in my studio but changed my mind when I found out how much it would cost to run the 240V electric into the room.
I had this old Cress electric in the basement but it needed a new lid and new elements. I think I'm going to re-build this kiln but make it smaller, but that is another project. Back to the new plan.
The new plan is the Cress is being moved out and the Skutt is coming down stairs. I have 240V already wired and all I need to do is take the cone sitter out of the Cress and install it into the skutt.

Moldy Porcelain

Ok! So I mixed up a bunch of reclaimed porcelain and bagged it all up and set it in a sunny corner of my studio. I probably should have put it in a covered container because now all my bags of porcelain have been attacked by this lovely green colored mold that smells AWFUL!
Any ideas about killing this lovely green colored mold? I was thinking about trying some bleach. Thought that should do it but Have no idea how much to use.
Anybody out there have any ideas?

New Addition to the Studio

Newest addition to the studio. Looks a little rough on the outside but it only cost 50 dollars and I got a lot of nice kiln shelves and boxes and boxes of all kinds of kiln furniture. The inside is in great shape and the only thing I need to do is replace the kiln sitter tube assembly. I need the tube, the firing gauge and the cone supports but I have an old kiln in the basement that I can scavange these parts from.
I plan on installing cement board in the corner and then I need to have a 240V line run to that part of the studio.

Torso Lamp

With a little help from photoshop I have come up with what the finished product is going to look like. I think it is going to make a fantastic lamp.

I think I am going to go with a jet black gloss glaze. Not sure about the lamp shade yet. We'll have to see what kind of shade I can find in La Crosse. My mother said this was a silly idea and said "who is going to want a lmap like that?" Well, believe it or not I've already had two people say they're interested in it. So HA!

Torso Sculpture

Started a new project a few days ago and things are going well. I wanted to make a torso sculpture in the round just to see if I could do it. I can do it. I'm not sure what made me think of it but from the start I had planned on making a table lamp out of this sculpture. We'll see if it makes it through the firings and then I'll buy the lamp shade.

Oh! Still working on the kiln. I ordered some ITC and a couple of venturi burner/mixer pins from Laguna Clay last week. Should have been here by now. Once I get that stuff I'll have a propane tank delivered and get the gas works hooked up. Getting there but going too slow for me.

Still At It.

I'm not sure the "how or why" of it but there were some small gaps between the soft brick on the interior of this kiln. I am thinking that it has been this way since the original owner built the kiln. There was some fiber in a few of the gaps but I pulled it out and decided to plug all the gaps with new fiber. I cut 1 inch fiber into 2-1/2 inch strips and then kind of peeled the fiber apart into thinner pieces. I then used a plastic flexible putty knife to tuck the fiber into the gaps. Worked real well but was hard on the knees.

My friend Darrel also ran the copper gas line for me, about 50 feet of 1/2 copper and buried it about a foot deep. Next step is to order the 120 pound propane tank and set that in place. Still at it but getting closer.

Insulation

I had a bunch of fiber from old raku kilns so I used it up. This is a well insulated roof. On the top of the arch brick I laid down an inch layer of fiber. Then I laid down two rows of 3-inch soft brick around the edges. I then leveled it off with crushed pieces of insulated fire brick. And finally, on top of that to level it all off I put down another inch layer of fiber. To finish it off I will cover it with metal.

Burner Pins

HELP!
I need to find two of these GACO burner/mixer pins for my venturi burners. I can find them for 1/2 base but I need 3/4-inch screw in base. Can any of my friends/readers out ther point me in some possible directions on where to find them.
Thanks.

Burner/Mixer Pins

Cleaning the burner mixer pins has definately been the easiest part of getting this kiln into operation. Just going to polish these up with some WD-40 and a small wire brush. Will unscrew the orifices and clean them with the proper sized torch head cleaner.

During the moving of the kiln we accidently broke two of these mixer pins from the burner system. Just a minor set back but I still haven't found the replacements yet, but think I moight have found a company in New Mexico that sells them. If not, I'll just make my own.

Burner/Mixer Pins

Separating the burner mixer pins from the venturi base plate wasn't an easy job but made much easier with the help of a big-ass pipe wrench, a vise, and some WD-40.

Once I got the base plate broke loose from the pin I sprayed the WD-40 on the pin and worked the plate back and forth with the wrench until I could turn it and spin it with my hands.

Kiln Burners

To clean the burners I completely disassembled them and then used power tools with wire brush attatchments. This really knocked the rust down and smoothed them up real nice, inside and out.

Slow Going

Everything about getting this kiln into operation is slow going. I suppose its because after I work a ten-hour shift at my "paying" job and by the time I get to the studio, I don't feel like working more than an hour or two.

I wanted to finish the top of the kiln yesterday but this is as far as I got after an hour and a half. Although I had previously crushed the IFB, they were not crushed into small enough pieces and I had to crush them again. Two beers later and when I took this photo all I kept thinking about the song lyrics "breaking rocks in the hot sun, I fought the law and the law won."

Working overtime at the "paying" job today and tomorrow but hope to have the crushed IFB done today. And hopefully tomorrow I can finish the damper/flue bricks. I need to sand them down a little bit so that they're flat and even.

Nuts!

I'm working on the kiln's burner system now. There are ten of these venturi burners and all of them were filled with nuts. Somewhere out in the woods is one pissed off squirrel.

Once the nuts and other debris was cleaned out of the burners I put a round wire brush on the end of an electric drill and cleaned the hell out of the inside and outside.

The otherday I removed the pilot ring and cleaned every pilot hole, 187 of them.

During the move we accidently broke two of the mixer pins, (the threaded piece at the end of this burner), so I'm trying to hunt down two replacements. Also will need a new thermocoupler. Once I get that done I'll reassemble everything and set it up under the kiln for operation.

Kiln Insulation

Laid down the fiber, one-inch 8lb. density. I had a bunch of replacement IFBs for an electic kiln so I decided to place them around the edges. Had enough to go two rows on each side and they seemed to fit together well so I used them up.

I cut the center flue bricks out of K26 IFBs and set them in place. I had to order some kiln cement so I'll cement them in place when that arrives.

I plan on filling in the rest with an even layer of crushed IFB and will eventually cover the top with some 16 gauge sheet metal.

Fixing Up The Kiln

A little bit of work needs to be done to the top of the kiln. Will be putting a layer of brick around the flue holes first. Then I was thinking about putting down an inch layer of fiber over the arch. Not sure yet but I have bunches of broken up IFBs and was considering covering the fiber, to the left and right of the damper, with that and evening it out to the top of kiln.

Free Kiln For The Moving

This is about an hour into the project. The first step was to demolish the structure that the kiln was in. Once all the debris was moved aside it was time to fork it and move. Didn't happen that way. The damn thing weighed 3,ooo pounds and the skid steer couldn't lift it. So the door was removed to make it lighter. Even then the skid steer could barely fork it. It was pushed to its limit for sure.

The Tough Part

This was the tough part and when I really thought we might loose the kiln. I really thought it would roll right off the skid steer. Although it might look like the skid steer has this kiln off the ground a good deal, it isn't. The damn thing was too heavy. Instead of just forking and driving the kiln up the hill we lifted the kiln up a couple of inched and slid boards under the metal base of the kiln and then pushed it up the hill. Slow going but it worked like a charm.

Loaded

Finally loaded (the kiln). Beer Break! Only took about 3 hours. Now its just a short five mile trip to the studio.

Needs A Door

Needs a door but not before a quick beer break. One of the several people who made this move possible. Thank you Greg Gerke, "the Crazy Carpenter."

Kiln In Place

Well, the kiln is in place. A million thanks to my friend Darrel and his buddies who spent all afternoon moving this beast. Next step is to work on the burner system. Needs a good cleaning and looks like it needs a new pilot igniter.