Bulldog Pottery Kiln Opening update

Here is a "wet" Yunomi that Bruce has made with a spider on it.

Spiders!!!

Well we have been busy spiders weaving out web of glazes and yunomis (a casual handle-less drinking vessel, taller than wide). Scheduling is always a conundrum for us and we seem to think that we are bionic humans. A crash is inevitable, but we are having a fabulous time in the studio. We have pulled out a small kiln load of of glazed cups to further proof our recent color tests. If you are interested in seeing two of the pieces that have recently come out of the kiln, go check out our facebook page. I have posted two of them there. When we are in a time crunch we find it a bit quicker to update our Bulldog Pottery facebook page than here at the blog.

These cups are bisqued and ready to glaze, Ed will be washing these pots today.

These are Bruce's red clay cups that he has drying upside down. These cups are now in a kiln ready for the first round of firing (that is as soon as our glaze kiln turns off).

I love the fluidity of Bruce's designs on his cups.

Thanks goodness for Ed and Gloria. They really have been instrumental in helping push our kiln opening through. I think they have sieved at least 20 glazes for us so far this cycle. The amount of prep time is always a mystery to us. Something that we have trouble planning into the cycle of potting life.

Bruce is brushing a glaze onto one of his ginger jars. When we work with our crystalline glazes they all get brushed on. This allows us more control and a sensitivity to the thick and thin application of the glaze. All of our glazes are touchy about application. We both handle the glaze brushwork a bit differently, which also gives us variation of effect that we like a lot.

We mix and use over 50 different glazes at anyone time. They are mixed in small amounts which helps us conserve space. Though at this moment space is needed. Will we be able to keep our new space more organized????

Loading up the glaze tests

We spent the past couple of days testing new glazes together. Bruce whipped up some of his own formulas, and I did a color run on a shiny glaze I like to use on the insides of our cups, bowls, and vases. We messed around with a couple of other formulas and now we wait. This kiln load is on and should be out on Sunday. Hopefully there will be a few that we are happy with.

We tested these new glazes and colors on our porcelain clay as well as the red clay Bruce likes to use. Also, we have some of the new STARworks local ceramic clays in the works too. We like testing glazes and this gets us very punchy and happy, especially if we gets some good results.

Bruce is loading up the tests in the kiln. We packed them in there.

We have decided or at least at this point in time that we will be throwing lots of cups for our kiln opening on December 4th. We have been known to change our minds in mid stream, but at this point I think we are about at that point. We love making cups. We thought we could make all kinds of cups with a variety of glaze and clay combos. Stay Tuned.

Maxwell was feeling spunky this morning. All work for his mom and dad means not that much ball tossing for him. It has been a few days since we played outside.

Watch those fingers Bruce. Maxwell can be very zealous for his ball.

Glaze Testing and Covering the Jar

We are busily working in the studio getting ready for the Celebration of Seagrove Potters and our kiln opening on December fourth. We are making a variety of forms for our flowing crystalline glazes. At the moment we are in the process of mixing glaze tests in the evenings and very excited to start developing some different surfaces and colors. The process of mixing and testing glazes is time consuming. It can take months and even years to go from a test tile to putting a successful glaze on a piece, and even after using a glaze for years we can and do go back and tweak the glaze a bit more.

What do we mean by tweaking? Bruce describes it like cooking in the kitchen, " We look at materials like a cook uses spices. A little bit of this material and a little bit of that material, always altering the formula to our taste."

Bruce has been focusing on creating new glaze formulas in the morning while drinking coffee, and Samantha will be trying to develop some new colors for the insides of her cups, bowls, and plates. We both have a strong drive for, imagination about, and passion to create glazes, and between us we have a lot of information and knowledge to draw from. Very cool and exciting.

Last night was like "Dueling Banjos" we had both of our scales out and were mixing glazes into the night, and in our new glaze lab to boot! Yeah !! Very Very happy here at Bulldog.

One more Day of Throwing in the Studio

We are making porcelain works for Cousins in Clay which will take place here at our place in Seagrove on June 5 and 6. We have one more scheduled work day in the studio and then we will begin to glaze. The first glaze kiln coming out on Thursday, will be out just in time to pack up and head towards Washington DC for the Pot Hop and Jam with Mark Shapiro and Sam Taylor. I am excited about the tall bottles that I am working on this week. It is a great feeling when we bump into a form that we feel motivated by. I made two of these at the end of last year and we enjoyed the way the glaze moved and looked on the tall forms, so I will continue to explore them further. I have begun to call these my Jesses. I have named them after a wonderful fellow and collector that has been adding these tall forms to his collection. He has one of the most incredible personal pottery and painting collections we have had the honor to visit. He has chosen all of the artwork for his personal enjoyment and vision. These tall slender bottles fit in just wonderfully between all of his other pots.

Below I am working on a few over sized plates. I am hoping to glaze them with a combination that we did some years back. Gloria has a couple of those plates in her collection. We think it is a great idea for us to keep work that we have made throughout the years. This helps remind us of glaze combinations that we have worked on in the past. Such pieces are a gentle reminder of glazes and processes that we need to unearth and revisit.
Bruce is working on throwing a couple of tall urn shapes using a two piece "capping" technique of throwing the top part first then adding it on to base and then throwing it further up and out. By doing this the base piece can be thrown much thinner and still support the piece, giving a bigger pot and using less clay weight for the same size. This is especially true with porcelain as it tends to fatigue quicker than stonewares do when throwing large forms.

Preparing

We have been making pots.

Now we are in our crunch time of washing our pots, waxing, glazing, loading, firing.... We are looking forward to having some new pieces in our shop here in Seagrove. Here is a picture of Bruce lightly sanding down the edges of the horse design I drew on his rimmed bowl. This is a wash away/carving technique that we have started working with as a way to decorate our pieces. I started playing around with this process on the Yunomis I made for AKAR's Yunomi exhibition last year, as well as, this year's Yunomi exhibition. We are looking forward to designing some more pieces using this process. The above rimmed bowl was thrown by Bruce especially for me to try this out on. I drew horses on one of the bowls and crabs on the other.

We are preparing for the Catawba Valley Pottery Festival that is coming up next week on March 27. Bruce and Ed will be going to Hickory together to set up our display and sell pots. I am going to be setting up our work at the Moore County Arts' Campbell House during the Palustris Festival in Southern Pines, while they are in Hickory. I will be there along with Bobbie from Thomas Pottery, and Charlotte from Humble Mill Pottery. We all will be taking turns giving demos.

Gloria will be watching the Bulldog Pottery shop.

Below I am waxing the lid on one of my covered jars. It can be tedious at times but once we get into a good flow and rhythm I can get a nice clean line.

This is the collaborative horse platter as it came out of the Moka glaze kiln. Bruce is working on it in the first image of this post.

Detail of horse platter.

Changing Gears: From Moka Glaze to Fluid Art Glazes

While finishing up some bowls yesterday the logistics of the pottery process dawned on me. I ran down the hill to fill Bruce in on my latest thoughts about our firing schedules. Why don't we change gears and glaze our vases and teapots for the Celebration and then glaze our Moka pottery for the Carolina Designer Craftsmen. My covered jars are just beginning to dry and I noticed that Bruce is still working on his Moka pots too. It can be kinda funny in the head to change gears in midstream but about an hour or so later we felt it to be the right decision. We just did not want to push our pots through the drying stage, and develop cracks and watch knobs pop off the covered jars.

Supporting this perspective, most of our porcelain vases are ready to prepare for glazing and more are coming out of the bisque today. So changing to working with and firing our flowing art glazes this week, and then switching to the Moka pottery to take to Raleigh makes sense.

For all of you planning on coming out to the Celebration of Seagrove Potters or Carolina Designer Craftsmen stay tuned in, along with Bruce and I, to see what comes out in the following weeks.

Works for this Weekend's Cousins in Clay

Here are the two glaze paintings that came out of the kiln yesterday.  We will be loading two more paintings today.  We are excited about the body and variety of works that we have been glazing and unloading this past week.  

Bruce will have a select grouping of his fossil fish mugs and Yunomis available.

Here are a few vases that have pleasing crystalline and flowing effects.  After working out a few bugs this past week with some of our glazes, we are now having successful results.  One more kiln firing to go and then we will be working on finishing the pieces for display.

Peeking!

We just can't wait, 450 degrees is cool enough for us for a quick peek. Bruce can't help himself but to snag a test tile that he threw in at the end of the glazing cycle the other night--at 2:30am.

One more kiln load to go and we have to stop. Bruce has lots of cutting and grinding work to do on the vases and framing on the porcelain wall hangings.

Seeing some Glaze Results

Bruce and I unloaded a kiln a couple of days ago and we will be unloading another one today.
Here are some of the glaze paintings that have fired successfully so far. There will be a few more out (fingers crossed) today. I hope they turn out as nice as these did.

Here is one of Bruce's agate cups. He wrote a short essay about his influences and interest in such surfaces on the Cousins in Clay blog.
Here is Bruce among his piles and stacks.
A variety of rings to choose from for the flowing glazes that go on vases.

On the Studio Table

Bruce is throwing a few more pieces. We always get to a point where we really need to switch gears and start glazing, but we are all warmed up at the wheel, and want to keep throwing and making more objects. Today is maybe his last day for throwing, and then trimming and handle work will need to be done. We are looking forward to the 6th and 7th when Michael Kline comes and joins us for our "Cousins in Clay" kiln opening.
Below are the vases drying that I finished off a couple of days ago, and some cups I have thrown to round off my throwing cycle.
I am also working on some mushroom jars that will have insects glazed on the lid.
I started to clean up my glazing space last night. I was amazed at how many glaze cycle messes there were on the table and floor. Bruce and I are pretty messy, and every once in awhile we wake up and clean a little. Our motto, "We clean something once a year whether it needs it or not."