the firing

yesterday we went to Morston again, to give Sal and Tilda a good leg stretch after the firing day. here’s T ambushing Sal

and rushing about, with a large lump of mud flicked up by her foot.

and here’s something to think on for texture and pattern. its just barnacles on an upturned plastic boat. In fact I think its going to be an inspiration for the knit collection, I can just see an embroidery, or an encrustation of sequins from this photo.

I am pleased with the firing. I had some re-tests of the new glaze, plus the new black clay, and I used the terracotta crank for the small cone settings to see how it reacted to the high temperature (80 degrees C higher than recommended)

here it is, opened up this morning. it’s good to keep a record of where things were in the kiln. the big pot on the left has reacted in the same way as the big bottle I had in that spot with the same glaze combination, fired in December.

the terracotta crank which I used for these cone sets has done about what you would expect a red clay to do – rather purplish and metallic. it might bloat as well, but I will put the pots I make using it in a cool part of the kiln.

the link for the pots is here

here is the black clay with white porcelain spread on it with a knife, then scored through, and glazed with the crawling shino. I think I shall get some more of the black clay, its very dramatic.

with the new versions of my dolomite/copper glaze, it has a lot of depth under the porcelain overlay.

this is the crawling shino glaze again, on the basic crank. it was very near the flue, which is a very hot place, and a lot of the glaze has just thrown itself to the kiln floor. I am going to have to chisel it off. it leaves this gorgeous reddish veined colour on the bare clay.

and the biggest pot came out very well, I think, another in the series of large bottles with the white clay layered over the crank. there is a mystery black metallic spot on its shoulder, which I like very much.

there must have been a bit of the used fireclay grog around when I rolled the clay out.

out again this afternoon, I can’t resist posting three photos, one of red campion in the hedgerow in Cake’s Lane.

and the Lane itself, full of twists and turns, it is very ancient. I would like to think it is prehistoric.

this gateway leads into another big permanent meadow, full of cowparsley. sometimes there are sheep in it, but it is allowed to grow long at this time of year. I don’t think it gets sprayed.

I would like to bet that a roe deer has fawns in here. they prefer long grass, and are as territorial about their fawning grounds as the bucks.