Couldn't think of a title

Here are some pics from the latest firing in my tiny kiln.

Ashglaze is almost there..... more sieving and a little tweaking of the recipe so it will be smoother and just a little less runny....

A clear ashglaze with a swirl of green ashglaze on a plate and the green ashglaze by itself on the unomi.

Here'e one on witch I experimented with combining a commercial glaze with my ashglaze.

Tenmoku with ashglaze on a small budvase, breaks into blue where thin.

A birdhouse, this one is earthenware and has a commercial glaze.

When I bought my second hand wheel I also got a bunch of left over glazes, just thought I'd use them to empty the buckets. :-)

Wish you al a beautiful sunday evening!

Blesses be,

Monique

Thanks for your comments!

The comments are very much appreciated as I am sometimes feeling somewhat lonely in my struggles (and successes!).
So thank you very much!
Right now I'm recovering from more failures in my glazing experiments this last weekend and still have no clue why my kiln just shuts itself of.
This time it didn't even make it to 1180C!
So I'm sulking a little bit more today and tomorrow I'll probably find out that it's not all that bad and find my energy again.
That's why there is only text today, pics later in the week....

Hi Michael,
I play the tongue-like drum both with my fingers and with a mallet (not at the same time though, hehe).
however, I made a soft mallet to avoid the tongues from breaking. I created the top of the mallet with several layers of chamois... nice and soft but gives the sound just a little more power than when you play it with your fingers.
I would love to let you hear it but I have no idea how and have no equipment to do that.
It has a more 'metalic' sound than an original tongue-drum made from wood.
It also seems to be important that the drum sits as free as possible, I usually put it on/in a ring of foamboard (as the bottom is rounded) so the sides are free to let as much vibration as possible go through the drum.
Do you have any pics of your dumbeks? I'd love to see them!

Hi Tracey,
Thanks and I will try that glaze tip you gave me!

Hi Kim,
Thanks for stopping by. Those are the pieces I love best too!

Hi Undauted,

Isn't it fun, the sgrafitto?  :-)
And yes, I am enjoying experimenting very much! I think it's in my nature, as soon as something works out I'll stick to it for a while but at some point I'll start experimenting again.
Although this road is more complicated so I might just stay here for a while, I'm not done with experimenting with glazing in a long while I think!

That's all, now I'm off to read your blogs.. :-D

Here's an update on my latest adventures.

These came out of the glazefiring last weekend.
I tested my ashglaze with additions of oxides.
I guess you can tell that I didn't realize how much oxides
can make a glaze very (!!!) 'runny'. :-o

I like the way an ashglaze runs but this was to much to ask for, hehe, there's hardly any glaze left on the rim and a big pool of glaze inside the cup!

I do like the color and don't want to loose the runs.

Does anybody have any suggestions on how to go about this?

I would be very grateful for some tips!

Here's another one with the same problem, a little less bad though.

I really like the color on this one, you can't see it in the picture

but where the glaze is thinner is sort of breaks in to little brown/red spots.

Right now I'm trying these glazes again but have made the glazes a bit thinner.

Hopefully al goes well...... 

Here's a glazetest of another ashglaze but without any oxides, just the ash, clay and Gerstley Borate.

I like the subtle color and runs. It looks more yellow in the pic than it really is....

This is something I didn't expect but I like the surprise!

It's a body for a doumbek, (I will put a goatskin head on it later).

I've had it for a long time, it was bisqfired and just waiting for something...but what?

Then, while glazing I spilled a lot of RIO wich I use to put the numbers on my testtiles.

(I knocked over the bowl, I can be sooo clumsy sometimes, hehe)

I then thought; what tot do with this mess, I soaked it up in a cloth and smeared it on this doumbek body. Later I wiped of the access and covered it with a clear glaze and look what happened!

Looks like the clear glaze did something to the RIO, it just vanished partially!

It has a kind of 'old' look to it now which I like very much.

I think there are ideas bubbling up now...... hmmm... what about other oxides?

More experimenting in the near future!

Are you still here??

I know it's a long post....

Now some pics of my throwing endeavors. 

Small budvases (250 grams)

A plate with (sort of) matching bowl. Oh well, at least the rim has the same deco. :-)

Another 'pair'.

Can't help it, I'm proud of there ones!!

This will be a windchime (after its fired, glazed and assembled...someday....)

These I named 'Tapas bowls', pretty handy for your sauce and little forks or something like that.

You're almost there, just 2 more pics....

Cute little 1 kg planters, I had fun making these! That's the important thing right?

Well, that's it for now.

Any suggestions/comments are very welcome!

I wish you al a beautiful sunday and a lot of happy potting!

Blessed be,

Monique

New glazing adventures

Just started up my tiny kiln with new glaze tests.
I am now going to fiddle with pictures and blogging, stay tuned!

New plugs

OK, new and better plugs should do the trick according people who know about electricity.
The kiln is firing a bisc now, hopefully all goes well and I can go back to testing my ashglaze recipes!

Fingers crossed!

Happy Easter everyone and don't eat to much chocolate!

On the other hand, I received an email the other day from a friend witch had a quote (don't remember from who) " No matter what, chocolate is the answer". So dig in!!!  

Change of plans

I fired my tiny (30x30x33 cm) and ancient kiln for some ashglaze tests.
I got this kiln from somebody who had it for 2 years and never used it, before that it belonged to a school were is was never used so I could have it for free!
The only problem is that I had no papers or guide how to use it.
As I said, it's ancient (aprox 30 years old!), no computer.... so it's been a lot of trial and error.......
I now have learned  that it's max temp is 1200C and I was going for 1250C for the ashglazes.....bummer!
I will have to switch clay and think of sollutions for my ash glaze testing.
A steep learning curve!!

Right now the kiln is loaded for a bisq but when I wanted to start her up I noticed that the plug was a bit melted.........oops......that hasn't happend before and I used a new electric cable!
I'm now wating for a friend to return my call, I need help on this one...

( I hope you understand my story in my version of English. Understanding English is easier then writing. Another learningcurve, hehe)

Here are some pictures of the kiln en tests;

My sweet and ancient kiln, no name yet, any suggestions?

Some ash glaze tests, some melted, some didn't.

Some pictures of greenware, waiting for a glaze, hmmmm, might take a while :-)

Any comment or suggestions are much appreciated!

(on pottery as-well as english :-))

Happy potting!