Excellent Firing! Sometimes crystals are fun!

Mostly pictures this time, I have been tired today. Earlier on I did attempt to read a few paragraphs of a book about the physicist, Stephen Hawking, but fell deeply asleep whilst drinking strong coffee and thinking about Einstein's theory of general relativity.

If light is energy, and mass and energy are equivalent, and can be effected by gravity (or is that affected by gravity??)..., how much does my reflection weigh....?

I had a very strange few moments when I woke up again, as I had very little idea of what day it was, or even what time of day it might be. My only clue to the passage of time was a now cold cup of coffee, still held firmly in one hand. My missing chunk of time was curiously like some of the brain teasers that Einstein's theory spawned.


I was delighted with the results of the firing that I started late Thursday evening and finished Friday afternoon. I made some changes to my firing schedule as a result of the bad firing that I had the time before, and .... got things right this time! I also used alumina that I calcined myself on the glaze catchers and stands, and had much more success in that department too.








I re-fired three of the pots from the previous bad firing, just to see what would happen. The one below was a frustrating pot that I almost kept, but I just did not like the crystals, which were too large and not a very nice colour. I did not add anymore glaze, but just went with what was on the pot.

after the first firing.....

Re-firing it transformed the pot into something far more interesting. I like the small crystals with their pale inner rings.

same pot after the second firing......

Another pot that worked out well when given a second firing was the one below.

horrid pots from the bad firing!

The pot was captured by this photo after its first firing, seen at the back on the left.



I made this little pot on my kick wheel when I had the visit from Wilson and Marti from Dunedin, Florida.

Mr Button

I was thinking of Isaac Button, the wonderful English Country potter who was filmed in the 196os when I made this pot. Maybe some of you who have seen the film of him making a big pot, will know what I mean.

A dreamy, misty pot.

A mirror.

experimental... and slightly odd!

I tried an experiment with glazing this one. I just wanted crystals on one side. If you turn the pot around, it just is iron brown around the other two thirds of it. A bit odd really, but I do like to try these things!

This is a really pretty one.

Simplicity.

I like the simplicity of this form with a white crystal glaze and few crystals.



I like to experiment with the neck of a pot. How this is finished gives so much life, character, or feeling to a pot.





I like to glaze the top of a rim thickly, if the rim is flattish, so that a pool of glaze forms.




Some of you might like to have a look at a little extension of this blog that I am constructing. It is a web gallery of my pots that you will find if you go to the photo link at the top right of the blog page, or follow the link here, My Pottery Gallery.

The gallery is not at all complete, as yet, but I am adding things to it fairly frequently, and intend to build up a visual record of my firings. Later I hope to add some helpful technical stuff. I may also add a pots for sale page.