Category Archives: kiln

sayaku. the complete and total worst.

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one of the bushes burst.  yup that’s right.  the 3 bushes are not out of the kilns yet but i peeked in on the medium bush (which had become one of my favorites) and the top had fallen in.  i was soaking it for a long time so that the water wouldn’t make it explode, but at the end of the day it was stupid short cut taken in construction that caused the damage.  i’m not sure if it will be repairable, but i went ahead and fired it hoping it will be.  given the time crunch, i ended up with two parts of the bush with very different amounts of dryness.  the bush was a sweet leather hard, and if there had been more time for it to dry with support it might have been ok, but popping that leather hard bush into the kiln with a heavy, built up area that was still a lot softer and speed drying it just didn’t work.  it collapsed.

rough, but that’s the way it goes.  the kilns fired off, and tomorrow they will be cool enough to unload.  tuesday morning in nice light i will spray them with glaze and fire them one last time. other than that i am in full mixed media mode, trying to prepare for installation friday.

tired and inspired.

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i’m super tired.  i loaded 3 bushes into bisque kilns today.  bisque fires with 2 long ass 24 hour holds.  i have this schedule i’m working with and i’m being superstitious with it now.  like it worked the first time so i’m sticking to it.  i need to do more inquiring and refine it to make it my own.

i did the math yesterday and i made all five bushes in 22 days.  while working THAT fast isn’t really my ideal, it feels good to have had a goal and worked my tail off to make it happen.  barring any complications, i think my installation at 10 x 10 will be a success.

for me not getting intimidated is a big problem.  i’m easily discouraged.  i’m trying to take my work horse kind of nature and turn it in a more positive direction.  i think i am always kind of searching for somewhere to stop.  somewhere to settle in and do something for the rest of eternity.  finish, rewind, repeat.  of course then i get massively bored and try something else, always lurching off in some kind of awesome direction, but not really being able to pull it together at the end of the day.  i don’t know where i picked up that habit, but i’m working on getting rid of it.  a is really good at moving forward (maybe too good at times, girl).  i’m always amazed at her ability to intuitively know how to move toward her next better goal and really do amazing shit.  she is on her way to being an art star, mark my words.

right now feels really right.  for the last few years, in the back of my mind, i have been thinking “i wish i was doing this…” and now i am doing it.  i am trying to keep options on the horizon so that what i do today makes a bridge to what i want to do next year, or in five years.  i suspect this is the way to live life.

anyway, my studio mates have been enormously generous this week, helping with heavy lifting, kiln firing, spray gun lending, and ass loads of other shit (like the pillow case-tea towel-raw glaze-lashing strap maneuver into kiln no. 8).  i don’t know this studio very well yet, my shit is majorly heavy and as previously discussed i get discouraged easily, so i could not have done it with out them.  seriously.

sunday

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i am so sad about my clay shortage because i could have really cranked out work today.  but i did unload the big bush.  no cracks!  tall bush is firing away.  i emailed orton about the timer question and got a reply back today.  the kiln has to be programmed in minutes, so what i thought was h.mmm is just m.mmm or mmmm.  mystery solved.  thanks jim at orton!

i finished one small bush and added some coils to the medium (?) bush.  going to be standing by until tuesday when highwater opens.

j moved into his studio today, so the a.i.r. space is full. j and j were cleaning his space up and (lacking clay) inspired me to tidy up my space.  in the last few weeks the floor of my studio has grown a layer of dust and scraps about an inch thick.  looking quite good now, yeah!  also got a impromptu handle lesson from s.  kind of walked into that by mistake but love the teaching atmosphere that was going on.

i’ve forgotten to take pics again but coming soon.

hmmm…

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confusing moment today and a minor set back.

first of all, i loaded the tall bush today.  this time i loaded into one of the kilns which i tend to like less.  it has a different computer than i am used to, an orton autofire, and i understood that it needed lengths of time input in minutes.  j was standing by, lending me moral and technical support.  when i went to enter in the 24 hours soaks, there wasn’t enough space on the screen.  it was set up like this h.mmm.  h is hours, m is minutes.  finally j pointed out that a 3 digit soak in minutes could still be long enough so i programmed in a 999 minute soak.  this was after putting in a call to the kiln service and getting no answer.  i also sent off an email to orton, since i didn’t have much luck finding a users manual in the studio or online.  i talked with jamie a bit about what kind of schedules she uses.  at this point i’m still a little unclear, like, why hold at 90 degrees, or 140, instead of 100 or 150, when your going up in incriments of 25?  and why stop and do a major hold at 180 vs. 200 when the boiling point is 212 degrees.  ???  i’m trying to take r’s advice and just talk to everybody, see what they do and then work out my own preferences.

so tall bush is officially firing.  i am working on one more major bush and then i was going to use a big round mold to pop out a few more bases, when, after rolling out the slab for one,  i realized that highwater clay had closed for the weekend and i was out of clay.  totally out.  well, save about 8 pounds which will maybe be enough to finish one of the in progress peices i have going on.  maybe enough.

yikes.  i was planning to work a lot this weekend, and then focus on firing and glazing, but that’s going to have to change since i can’t get more clay until tuesday.  yikes.

i guess this will give me a chance do so some research, and work on the non clay aspects of this installation.

also, i borrowed some plaster slabs from j and starting playing with some slip i had laying around, trailing on the plaster with a 60 cc syringe in octopus like shapes.  ceiling hangy things?  christmas ornaments? we’ll see.

wednesday 7 pm-10 pm:big bush officially firing.

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finally saw s in his studio and asked for his advice on what kind of firing schedule to use to fire the bushes.  i had also written to my former professor and asked r.  i didn’t really feel comfortable trusting my research alone.  most of the studio work gets fired at standard schedules, but they would be a bit too fast for my work, since it so big and also still quite wet.  s went through a detailed schedule with me and even programmed the kiln on his way out.  one of the reasons i am doing this residency is to learn  technical skills i’ve never gotten.

so r helped me put the big bush in the kiln (unfortunately they wouldn’t both fit) and i started the first of two 24 hour soaks.  it might be a a little overkill, especially after picking up the bush and realizing that it was far lighter than it looked but at least this way nothing should crack.  knock on wood.

n and friend were in the studio tonight.  it’s such a different atmosphere when other folks are around.  i don’t always get as much done, but it’s nice.

notes: it’s freezing.  i biked today and my bike is in great shape, post tune up.  also, dinner tonight: organic veggies and my new favorite grain, kasha.  yum!