BAMBI (OR BAMBETTE) RETURNS... (THE STORY VERSION)

Quite a while ago, I had a picture of this fawn on my blog, bedded in the thicket next to my house. I have thought of the encounter often. So..."What about it??" you say... well here's my story. Once upon a time, I built a wood-kiln. Not a huge one, but one I could fire by myself.  I have been spending all of my "clay time" making pottery to fill this kiln so I can learn how to fire a wood-kiln. I now have fifteen firings under my belt and I feel pretty confident that I have a good grasp on it. I have to admit that I didn't spend as much time on some of the work as I would have liked to, but I didn't want to waste "clay time" on a poor firing. Understandable. I remember not being able to get past cone nine until after my third firing. I can now get to twelve in no time... I actually hold the kiln back now for the results I want. So, what does this have to do with the fawn!!?? Talk about dragging it on and on ... So, now that I am confident with the kiln, I have been putting more time into the pieces. I was a sculpture minor in college and have missed sculpting and now I have been doing more sculptural pieces for the next firing. I have sculpted objects on top of pottery, sculptures all by themselves and I just finished a serving dish with a fawn bedded inbetween the logs on top of it. I am working with a fettling knife in the first picture, carving details in a log.

I want the end of the log to look old and weathered...

And have the bark peeling away... and a good shape for a handle.

Add a few shale/limestone rocks like there is poking though the forest floor up in my woods...

A bed of leaves to keep dry on... Bambi has returned, just in clay form.

I also made some casseroles with a simpler fawn, this particular one is a mule deer fawn...

So... looks like I'm starting to get my sculpture "fix" now, and it looks like the snow is melting some.  I've had enough winter. There was three feet of snow out there just one week ago! Closed all the schools in the area.

Guess what I was doing? ... besides the driveway...

Looking forward to firing soon. I have enough for a kiln full now, just need to melt some snow.

And, I have some more teapots, couple with the birds I've been seeing at the feeder every day...

THE END

I SLIPPED.......

 I slipped .... in more ways than one. I slipped into overdrive over the holiday season. Glad that's past. Busy with shows, the usual - set 'em up, work some hours, take 'em down, put away. I slipped some wood into a now empty bedroom and "arrainged them" into a studio for Mary Ann's growing bead and jewelry business. Here are the results before she started and after two hours of breaking it in. Glad she likes it.

 I slipped back into some throwing again, made a few boards of teaware, mugs and tumblers (my boards are 18" x 24"... worth mentioning as I know a lot of potters think of a board as 6" wide by 24" or more long.) 

I slipped a peek out the studio window at my kiln, as it patiently waits for me to fill it. Looks nice, even in the winter.

And I slipped some molds I picked up at an estate sale and I have been experimenting with some small molds of animals. I slab built the cart to go with them (whatever they are now) and temporarily secured the pieces with some bead wires from my wife's new shop. I did some research about making a slip from your own clay body and after a bit of a learning curve, I got it straight. Get the specific gravity right, then add sodium silicate/Darvan to make it pour well. I've always wanted to try adding some slip cast elements to my thrown and altered work.  I have wanted to do some sculptural work for a long time (my minor in college) and have some ideas that I am going to put in motion.

Now I won't mention anything about going down to the studio and putting on Jimmy Buffett's song "Slip Sliding Away..." but I will mention the winter roads get really slippery when it hits -14* like it did on Monday and I was slipping and sliding on my 40 minute commute to work ... 

LMAO!!!    I slipped again!!  Did I say Jimmy Buffett's song??? I meant Paul Simon!! I think my oldies recollection skills need sharpening! Hope I don't slip and cut myself while sharpening... 

KILN'S DONE...

I'm tired but I wanted to share some pictures from the firing. I can't wait 'till Sunday. I got a soft 12 in front and 10 almost flat in the back. Only about a cone difference front to back, gettin' better. Top to bottom is even. I'ma likin' this kiln...

New site: Wikiclay.com

Hey everyone,
I just joined a new ceramic information site by Michael Kline called Wiki Clay. Check it out for information on artists, techniques, all kinds of useful information. I'm on a list of ceramic artists who blog.

http://wikiclay.com/wiki/clayceramics-blogs

"Stack 'a Work for the Fourties"

Another stack of work ready for the bisque kiln. It's getting more exciting now because now I know I now have enough to fill the wood kiln again. I have altered a lot of pieces to compliment the wood-firing process. Soft corners and uneven surfaces, trip up the flow of the ash and flame, leaving interesting surfaces in the wake. I will bisque fire these and then start my glazing, which should take me a couple of weeks, working part-time - I still teach full-time.
The glazing will be exciting because I can continue with my experiments of color combinations and layers, an ongoing, never ending process. The timing of all this should take me to later in March where I can fire. Mid fourties would be nice.

Slice and dice

As you can see, this is my huge clay wedging and slicing area. I do however have a creative way of slicing bricks of clay into same size slabs that I then quarter or sometimes cut only in half. I make sets of mugs, etc. and I get them to come out close without weighing them out any more by choosing a set of sticks that has been ripped down to a certain thickness.

In this picture, you can see I'm using 1 3/4" thick pieces on each side. I then push/slide my taut cut off wire across the top of them leaving me with a slab of clay 1 3/4" x 6" x 6". I then quarter that by eye on the wire mounted to the wall and bat to the right and each quartered piece gets packed into a ball that will be 1 lb. That will give me a nice sized mug or a small bowl... I could also turn these two sticks on their side and have 2 1/2" slices for a 1 3/4 lb. ball. I have several thicknesss' and even stack them for thicker slices. Works for me!!