Wednesday 14 March 2012

busy week

On Monday the sheep heads were done bright and early. Which is more than can be said for the weather...it was foggy and chill, so I went by the steep lanes from Risca via Lisvane to St Ffagan.
It was still cloudy when I finished there, but gradually lifted as I drove home, then suddenly by Risca...sunshine!!
The kiln was ready so the glaze firing started by 1.30pm!

The Carpenter had ridden well in the Bristol Polo tournament, his team coming 8th(?) which was a good result. He has a few scrapes and bruises and a nasty cold as souvenirs, therefore a lift to work was deserved on Tuesday morning! On to finish the sheep, and that is sheep making finished for now until more stock is needed. At least the day wasn't so grey as Monday and again the sun came out as I reached home!

Kiln unpacking was a little disappointing, as the new black glaze turned out a dark brown. An interesting dark brown...so this needs working on. Perhaps I underfired a little in trying not to overfire as I did on the previous glaze firing. The new red just isn't working which meant mixing a batch of the usual red glaze.

Packing for the next firing started straight away! The platters are in this time! Hopefully the old red glaze will test ok, and the last firing will be mostly red!

Today the kiln went on as dawn broke, still misty, to the sound of birds singing. The traffic noise soon drowned that out, but it was lovely to start with. The mist is hanging on, but with any luck it will lift later. Tredegar (fifteen miles away) was the hottest place in Britain yesterday, at 15 degrees C ! I'm itching to get back on the allotment, but firing the kiln comes first.

8 comments:

Sandy Miller said...

Good
Uck with the firing!

Very warm here, to warm for March. Had to get things done in the pottery when the birds are singing and the weeds are growing.......must wait until March 30th.

Zhoen said...

(o)

Kath said...

On Monday the sheep heads were done bright and early.

when this came up on my blog reader, I thought, what the..?

Then I looked up and saw it was you and it all made sense LOL

gz said...

The mind boggles, Kath!!

Anonymous said...

(o)

cookingwithgas said...

these gas kilns are tricky!

Jenny Woolf said...

Oh, post a picture of the sheep. Or maybe they're on your website, I'll check.

Gwen Buchanan said...

Your work is beautiful ... and functional.. and I love Functional Art!

That was funny in the comments when Kath draws attention to you making Sheeps heads nonchalantly like just another day making Sheep heads.. I forget myself sometimes when people ask me what i'm doing and I say cutting up cats and dogs... sometimes folks are a bit surprised and that's fun ... but I'm just making earrings..