this here is a face mug. a spin off the face jug. I mentioned that we had a field trip to the Catawba valley pottery festival, and i was wondering about the historical origins of this phenomenon.. apparently they were made as grave markers for the slaves. not for moonshine. it is only in past two decades or so that they have become commercialized as kitsche. what a surprise. the kid holding this one also writes a blog- go check it out- potteryodessey. His name is Rob and he's in the upstairs clay class that is working with local clays. that class just organized a woodfiring that wrapped up this evening. the next photo is of a jar that was made by the teacher David Stemphly. sorry it's sideways. turn your head to the left and you can see that a joining point in a greenware piece opened up and continued to go as it was subjected to a whole lot of heat shock in the front chamber of their kiln. what a shame that it couldn't just freeze in that position- it died some time later.
the class did an interesting thing with the loading of the first full chamber. (this is a noborigama with a large "stackable" firebox, two chambers and a secret ante-chamber)- at about cone five, I think, one of the studio assistants, the honorable and extraordinary Josh Copas took a special shovel and scooped up a few loads of fluffy embers and ash from the pit of the firebox and threw them onto the ware in the first chamber. this would be a photo of that-
that whole chamber was loaded with the intention of being stoked not just in the regular small stoke aisle, but also in amongst the ware. "throwing" the coals was an exciting extra... especially in the somambulist early morning as I tended my own kiln long before dawn, wandering into Aarvo Part playing in the kitchen.next post- fry oil in a soda kiln
No comments:
Post a Comment