Juliette Anagama

Fun little snippet of the Juliette Anagama kiln at Peters Valley.



I'm hoping to follow this thread to see what happens...

Back to Work

 

Well it was a beautiful weekend... Got to do nearly everything I enjoy; lots of garden time, lots of park time with the critters, lots and lots of time fiddle'n around and just enough time in the studio to keep things moving.

Man... I LOVE summer!

Customer Appreciation

Troy Bungart

Here's something I can't say enough...

"Thank You!"

There is no way I would be brave enough to keep pushing ahead with out strangers willing to take a risk and support my work by laying down hard earned cash to pick pieces from my Etsy shop.
I'd be lying if I said it didn't matter what people think... because it does. There's a whole lot of me wrapped up and sent out with each box.
I guess that's why it felt so good to read Troy Bungart's blog about a recent purchase.

Knowing that the work lands in hands that are going to enjoy using it, is really what it's all about.

Thank you for the kind words Troy!

Freak Le Boom Boom

With a blog named FetishGhost... I reserve the right to post stuff like this.



Cheezy Grins!
Don't worry... it's just music...

Thank You!

Life is good, you all are are the cherries in the cake... Mmmmm cake.
Thanks for a great birthday everyone!

charleston

Any guesses what this is?

Take Two

I'm a chronic refiner. If there's room in a kiln to fit a few previously fired and redipped glazed  works, (just to see what happens before the hammer swings) all the better. Hail Mary's are sometimes total gold, but more often than not, their busted.

These 2 were originally sitting in a cool spot in a soda kiln two springs ago. Underfired with potential. I couldn't smash 'em up until they earned their fate.

They've earned their stay...

A Flock of Crows

A flock of crows flew out of the kiln yesterday.

 

I wasn't disappointed with the results of this test load.

whew... I put a whole bunch of eggs in the basket too.

It could have been a(nother) disaster.

There's a range of subtle that was explored using slip thickness as the method for varying how darkly the black englobe wash settled into the topography of the stenciled relief.

 The new clear chun recipe worked really well and played nice with the Nuka that was used for the lip and interior.

Well, just wanted to see how my ideas looked when they were dressed in more traditional glazes and I'm happy. It looks like I found a new direction to wander off in again.

Happy Dance!

Spring StudioMate

As a potter I generally work in isolation. There's a few studio monkeys here and there, but the grown-ups usually have better things to do. This spring was different, really different, I had the pleasure of working with this pleasant smile bouncing around the studio.

Nothing like youth to remind you that you're a grumpy old man.
Thanks for the company Tara, it was a fun spring working with you.

Black Englobe

800 G-200
400 Talc
800 Ballclay
1000 EPK
1000 Flint
100 Borax

add
500 Black iron ox
130 Black Cobalt Ox
45 Manganese Dioxide

6 quarts of distilled water

I know, I know... who needs 6 quarts of this soup? But this stuff is that good! It flows really well off a brush and it works fantastic as a wash. Works great at cone 6 as well as cone 10.
Make enough to share with friends!

SDSU Texture and Crawl Test

I've been wanting to do this test since I recently started burn'n cone 10 again...

It's the SDSU Texture and Crawl glaze I've been using as part of my cone 6 glaze pallet, over a blue slip and fired up to cone 10.
It proved to be stable, now it's time to start overlapping it with the other glazes to see what it likes to play nice with and what goes volcanic.
Bwahhahahhah!

Carlton Ball Clear Chun Cone 9-10

 42.4  Feldspar (Custer)
1.8    Kaolin (EPK)
26.5  Flint (325)
2.6    Whiting
8.8    Gerstley Borate
8.8    Dolomite
1.76  Zinc Ox
4.4    Barium Carb

 This is a cone 9-10 Clear Chun for oxidation.

It's proving to be a Chun that plays well with stenciled slips and is stable with minimal crazing in the surface.
It has those beautiful little micro bubbles suspended in the glaze, but you've really got to get up on it to see the effect.

to get a nice Chun White effect.
 Add
2.6   Tin Ox

 And/Or add
0.5  Copper Carb
5.6  Rutile
0.2   Cobalt Carb

for a nice light blue chun

LH Horton Gallery's Regional Artist Group Show 2011

I've been pretty shy about showing my work locally. (It's a bit of a personal problem. Everyone has issues, this is one of mine...)

I love getting to put my work in front of the community that I live in, but quite frankly, most of the people I interact with daily don't even know what I do outside of the context of how I'm seen everyday. When I say I operate on-line under the name "FetishGhost", they get that look in their eyes like they think I must be some obscure porn star, and honestly, that suits me quite fine. I am good by the way, just not that good.

Most of the time, I'm either the gardener, or Nico's and Andor's dad, or the Violin Guy, but locally, I'm most definitely not known for my studio work.
None the less, I do enjoy getting to show.

The Horton Gallery is putting up an exhibition of 16 local artists this month.
There are easily many, many more talented artists than myself that I would like to see drawn out for a local exhibition. Apparently, I'm not the only one who's hesitant to show locally. There's a very healthy number of nationally recognized artists living and working in our community that are choosing to remain silent on the local stage.
That's not good and really needs to be addressed.
Hmmmmm.

Carole Epp

Here's something really special put out by one of our very own favorite artist/bloggers... She's constantly leading the pack and there is no end to how much I value her efforts. I love getting to finally see and hear Carol in her personal environment. Our studios are often sanctuaries that are kept fairly private.



Great job Carole! Thanks for the peek in.
I'd like to see more of you all do the same. Take the time to sit still long enough to stop and say "Hi".

Ken Matsuzaki

Playing with Chun

Question marks are what keeps things interesting when we play with glaze and fire. Tara brought this glaze into the studio. It's a Laguna Chun.

It's a semi-opaque glossy glaze that is transparent when applied thinly.
The first test went through the kiln gave a translucent finish.
This time through it did something very unexpected...

It's just a guess, but I'm thinking a reaction to the iron in the clay body and a long heavy reduction started bringing out the reds, or maybe it's just the cobalt acting in a way I haven't seen before, I'm just shrugging on this one.

Aelita Andre

Every morning at dawn, I stop to stand on a foot bridge going over the Calivaras river, watching the swallows play in the air around me.
Flapp, flapp, flapp... coast... flapp, flapp, flapp, weave...
It feels liberating getting to watch something that free.
Watching Aelita Andre play brings up the same joyous feeling. Go girl!

Mmmmmmmm.

Tonight, After I got off work, I got to kick back and enjoy pawing through the results of last nights firing. This is the second load of work to go through this week and I'm pretty happy with the results of the tests pushed through. 
This time, everything is brand new for me.
Different clay, different glazes, and different kiln. This firing was a fantastic gas firing done up at UOP with the clay club. (great job you two) This has really helped me make a few last minute decisions regarding one of this week-ends burns using Steve Pate's gas kiln.

I see so much potential, it's easy to lose track of where to set exactly  set my sights. 

I wouldn't have it any other way...

I pay to play this game so this just makes it all that much more fun.

Lucy Rie