And on and on it goes...

Fire, Gas, Electric

I have been pottering around over the last few months making this and that.  I'm finding that I am putting off more and more things I should be doing in my real job so I can spend time squeezing clay.

  I have the feeling that because my current job has been a little stressful lately, when I get to play around with clay it becomes a welcome release.  I wonder if I didn't have a busy time at work, would I enjoy the clay as much?  My guess is probably not.  Bitter sweet comes to mind.  Sweet, sweet? 

                                                                          

Not as yet.

I had the chance to wood fire, gas fire and use the standard electric kiln for these pieces.  It is always a gamble what will come out of the wood fired kiln and in this case I'm on the fence.

A slab built vase.  Happy to announce NO LEAKS.

I have begun using a wheel lately.  It is a magical thing.  The trick is to get a good teacher and expect to fail miserably for the first 6 months.  Again this water bowl was wood fired in the same kiln.

I do like the change of colour. I tell myself it is the sun rising.

Mark your name in Chinese even if you are Australian!  For some reason I think it looks a little mystical.

        Chop stick rests
I was recently married and the plan was to make chop stick rests for all the guests.  I lost patience and only made 30.  Annie taught me how to scratch 'married' in Chinese characters on the side of each one.

                                                        

                                                 

                                   I tried to make each one slightly different in cut and shape.

This particular glaze was gas fired.  I know very little about gas firing, least to say it has brilliant results.  I love this smooth glaze.  I have to thank my teacher for glazing them for me.  He won't tell me how he made the glaze.  Secret.

I wrote an earlier post about buying some glazes.  This is the first time I have used them.  

I was pleased with the result - I was hoping for more red speckles but it is good enough.

Cheers

My first coffee mug.  A touch small.  Perhaps tea?

                       Brilliant animals are bulls!  The young bull, old bull joke is a favorite of mine.

I tried to make an old bull.  More challenging than I thought!  4 days work.

You might notice a few bruises and broken limbs here and there not to mention a damaged horn.  I would like to say I incorporated these aspects into my bull design, being a fighting bull, but the reality is that it cracked and I had to glue some of it together after the glazing.

The END!