Update from Newfoundout Potter

Hello everybody,
It's been pretty quiet here so I thought I would give an update on what I have been up to. Took some time off after our Journey's End celebration in Oct and spent a lot of time just looking at pottery and sketching. Worked on some pieces with slips and shellac resist. I'm still trying to find a semimatt, semi-transparent glaze that works well with slips. Right now I just use a clear celadon - but it's too shiny and would like something a bit more opaque. Those that I have found do not give a warm brown colour on the red rust side but more of a black brown with iron slips.

Have continued with my appliqued pieces - one inspired by a vase that I saw by a British potter of Rapunzel - it was done with slips and underglaze pencils but I thought the hair cascading down one side of the vase had potential for my pots. Of course I had to put fish on the pot as well. Unfortunately I have not been able to find that pot again, just to see how much I was influenced. My Rapunzel turned out rather medieval looking and very formal - not at all like the very free form vase that I remembered. I did get cracking on the inside of the rim where I had thickened it. I thought that I had the problem licked by using paper clay and adding it as a soft coil on the inside - the the ends of the soft coil then has no definite join which was where the cracking would occur. This time the cracks were on the underside of the coil and the pot wall.

Did another one based on the sisters theme. For a change I like the way the glazing turned out. To get the two toned effect around the tree I first spray on the blue and rub it off on the tree and leaves. Then I spray a light coat of Stony Yellow on the the tree, so the blue background is just lightened a bit but basically remains blue. Called it "Sisters - In Their Sunday Best". As a child I always remember dressing up on Sunday - with dresses that were always a size too big as they had to last.

I have been reoxidizing from cone eight to 10 as Steven suggested and it seems to have reduced the blistering in the fake ash and to brighten the colours.

I am planning to fire my wood kiln in June - can't believe it's been two years since my first and only firing! So will be making pots for that this month. Hope to get better results this time as I will have some soft wood and not just ironwood that builds up huge amounts of coals that are slow to burn up. I will also be adding an inside layer of hard brick here and there to the walls to see if I can hold in the heat longer as last time the sections cooled very rapidly and needed constant side stoking.

Would love to hear what everybody else is up to.

Eva