Wednesday, March 16, 2011

Steady Gets It

A selection of the vases that we pulled out of the kiln yesterday

Steady gets it here at Bulldog. Glazes to mix, bisque pottery to wash, rings to glue on, glazes to sieve. All part of what goes into our process of ceramics. We love glazes and the immense variety that one can get from constant testing. We always want something different. We wish we would be better record keepers, but it is one homework project that we just have not started properly. When using as many glazes as we do, we don't remember some of the glaze combinations that were once our favorite. There is an organic feeling about how we approach our studio work. Our work is a continuous cycle of what colors, textures, and forms that we are emotional drawn too. Reality sets in, and for some reason some glazes just want to misbehave and we can't (for reasons we don't understand) get the combination to work properly for us anymore. This can be frustrating to say the least, but we look at what is working for us and go from there.

Ed is helping us wash the recent bisque pots that we unloaded from the kiln. Are you wondering where Gloria is? She has been working out in the garden. And also coming up with a few goodies for the light refreshments that will be served next weekend.

Bruce is still at it, gluing on the rings to our vases.

He has finished quite a few and these await our brushes full of glaze.

Now Ed has gone to bed. Which leaves me to finish up the sieving process. Bruce and I think about the new glaze colors that we want to mix up, but there just is not enough time left in this glaze round to get into the lab. There are all of the other "known" glazes that we need to make to top off our containers.
Samantha getting another glaze sieved, she feels she hasn't enough to choose from.

2 comments:

klineola said...

Amazing. I love the idea of steady, but it's not a reality for me right now.

Glaze lab: I know what you mean. If only there were more time. I have always dreamed that if I ever went to grad school, I would somehow get into the Alfred glaze lab for three years. That would be my MFA!

Keep on!

Michael Mahan said...

You guys seem to be in the groove. Love he last picture. Did Samantha see the containers of glaze tucked away above the heater?