Tuesday, May 11, 2010

pots, tests, and poodles

For whatever reason the last three or four cycles I've been putting off making teapots until the very end. Of course teapots aren't the only thing I procrastinate. So I usually only end up with time to make four or five teapots.
This go around I decided to make teapots first thing:

I made a dozen small side handled teapots, and a dozen larger teapots with handles over the top.


We ended up being in short supply of teapots for "Clay in May". We should be all stocked back up after this firing.

Christy's been working full time recently so she hasn't had time to make any pots yet. She has been doing some clay tests though:

These are all earthen ware clays based on the same red clay that we use for our red slip and iron glazes. We're going to give a try at firing earthen ware in our third chamber. In our previous firings the third chamber reaches cone 08 as we are finishing the second chamber. So in theory we should be able to stoke the third chamber for around five minutes to reach cone 04. We'll see how it all works out.

In non pottery related news Chirsty found this little poodle at the pound.... and it followed her home.
I guess we'll have to keep her. Her name is Maggie.
Joe

9 comments:

Sheridan Ray Pottery said...

Teapots look great! So do the clay tests. Hope all is well and congrats on Maggie. I bet Charlie is happy.

Ron said...

Love those teapots. It would be cool if you could fire some earthenware in the 3rd. You'll have to see if you can locate any galena. ;-)

cookingwithgas said...

love the teapots.
And Maggie May......

Joe and Christy said...

i think they dug all the galena out of here before 1920, ron!

laura weant johnson said...

what a beautiful friend for charlie!! i bet he is thrilled...congrats!

Kathy said...

She seems like a great family addition! Congrats :)

klineola said...

Welcome Maggie!

Great teapots. Inspires me to make some!!

joe said...

Great idea about putting the earthenware in the chamber to "Kiln two birds with one stone." :)

Joe and Christy said...

:) thanks! i'm excited to see how the earthenware comes out!

**c