clay and pots

Well things have finally started to slow since our big 'You Tube' premiere. Back to more mundane chores such as processing clay. For those of you who are curious, it looks like our new clay drying set up is working as predicted. In other words: very slowly. It's been about six weeks since we first set the clay in the racks to dry and I've started pulling it out this week.

Our clay seems to be picking up a little extra iron from the drying racks.

I'm guessing it will be about seven to eight weeks before we have it all up. It does dry very evenly, though, which is nice. Pulling clay as it drys has never been easier. It seems like a good set up as long as we stay well ahead of our clay needs. As a side note, the pug mill is incredible. Clay processing has never been easier.

I'm giving another try with the red slip/ white slip combo. I was really pleased with how it looked last time (pictures here) however we had some cracking in the slip which wasn't so pleasant. We kept two of the nicer plates with the cracked slip for ourselves and have been using them in our kitchen on a regular basis. They are quite nice. Seems like the combo deserves a second chance.

Both of the slips are thinned down quite a bit. I can't imagine they will crack this go around. Hopefully they will still retain the contrast between the two slips even though both the slips are significantly thinner.

Christy's still stuck at her "real" job, though she is finding time during the weekends to make pots.

These plates are a commission from a local gallery. Christy's made some new round molds. She's been making plates on the molds and then adding feet afterwords


They end up with a much softer feel than plates thrown on the wheel. Quite nice.

Well our next firing is just around the corner. They always seem to sneak up on us and catch us by surprise. I'm not sure how that's possible as we are the one who pick the dates. Happens every time though......

Joe