Papillion Pots

Wow, the middle of October...well actually the last third of October...it has flown by.  The Holiday Sale is coming up and I am wondering if I am going to have anything worthy of the event.

Now I am having trouble with my blog.  I want to post some photos but it just isn't acting right.

I hope this works soon.

 Remember him?  I made a few...two from Dark Brown and Dave's Porcelain like this one.  And two from Long Beach Blend.

 The "agate ware" were glazed with PV White and the LBB were glazed with Buckwheat and all fired to Cone10 in gas reduction.

I think they came out really cute.  But they ARE my babies and I am a bit partial to them.

I also glazed the mugs and the little bakers that I posted before.  I am happy with how the bakers look but I am struggling with finding a glaze that doesn't give me little bubbles...or that won't crawl when I use it on Flame-ware clay.  I hope there is someone out there who will give me some advice as to the glazes that fit the best on this clay.  I really want to be successful making bake-ware from this clay that has a high thermal shock resistance.

 These decorations are iron oxide.  Then I glazed with PV White.  I am really happy with them except that I keep getting these little tiny bubbles that break when you run your finger over them.  I can't eat out of that...or expect anyone else to.  How do I eliminate this problem?  Look how sweet they turned out looking.
I really don't want to just throw my hands in the air and bag it.  I want to SUCCEED!!!

I had some fun with little bowls that I altered to create business card holders...turns out they work great for the counter to hold recipe cards too.  And I bent some clay to make Cell Phone stands...that also work for recipe cards...my daughter wants one for her Galaxy Note...the kids use those Galaxy's for their school work.  It is a fun experiment that turned out really nicely.

I made some nice little boxes out of Dark Brown clay.  This one is glazed with Vivica's Strawberry.  I love how that glaze looks on the Dark Brown clay...I like it on Death Valley clay as well.

This one is glazed clear...because of the two-toned knob.  It is a tiny thing.  And I love it.

It seems like no matter what you do there is always fall-out.  Hence my statement before about pottery and life being a crap-shoot.

It seems like no matter how beautifully I form the large bowls.  By the time they come out of the final firing I have breakage.  This is a 6 pound bowl.  Very lovely.  Nice chattering on the outside.  I just don't get it.  I am looking forward to my own set up so that I can finally tell if it has to do with the potter or the several people who handle my stuff before things get fired.

This looks like a lovely cake stand from a distance but up close you can see that is sagged in the kiln...in the final fire.  I got a lesson in making the stand underneath wider where the plate rests in order to avoid this next time.  It was a test run anyway so I am not shedding tears at this point...

 But I am bewildered by the foot having stuck to the kiln shelf.  It was put in the "coolest" part of the kiln...an yet is stuck fast to the shelf.  I was so careful not to have glaze anywhere near the shelf.  That is a full 1/4 inch foot free of glaze.  I am sad about that.  Don't know what to do about it though.

I have a lot more that I am happy about.  I have a few "penny" banks coming out of the next firing.  Not too big but very simple and cute.  No...not pigs.  Others are doing those so well.  More like this...

These are green ware but they will be fired and glazed real soon.

Definitely Papillion Pots.

Well...as ever...
Onward and Upward!!!
Tari