"The chief source of art is man's pleasure in his daily work, which expresses itself and is embodied in that art itself."
William Morris (1834-1896)

Thursday, August 13, 2009

Glaze firing last night

We are hurriedly preparing for our next two art fairs.

The first is this coming weekend on Garrison's Landing on the Hudson River by the Garrison Art Center. It is a small show in a very beautiful setting.

The second show follows on the weekend after that in the Finger Lakes region of New York. It is in Canandaigua at the Sonnenberg Gardens & Mansion.



This is the kiln filled with glazed pots like the second photo. After the glaze is applied and before the pieces are fired, it is difficult to visually determine what glaze was used.

We fired the glaze kiln last night after glazing for 3 days intermittently with making pots. Glazing is always a unique challenge. There are so many factors that determine the glaze results. One factor is the changing viscosity of the glaze along with the aging factor of different chemicals. Although we do use an instrument to measure the viscosity generally, it essentially relies on our experience with its feel. Heavy cream/medium cream/ light, etc.... will influence the application thickness and needs to be adjusted according to whether we dip or brush the glazes onto the pot. Pots with two different colored glazes require both brushing and dipping. Smaller areas of one glaze would be brushed or painted on then waxed so that when the dipping occurs, there is a resist.

Today the kiln cools all day. We may be able to crack it open tonight. It is crucial that the cooling process not be rushed for our pieces.

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