What's Been Happening This Week?

We fired another bisque last weekend, so this week involved a lot of glazing.  Seriously, it took me all week to get all my things glazed.  In a few weeks, my production is going to slow way down, but I've been cranking out the work lately.

The glaze shelves were full, so I loaded up a glaze fire on Saturday afternoon.

The  most important kiln loading tool that I have is this 2 by 4.  First I set up the posts that will hold up the next shelf.  Then, if the piece fits under the 2 by 4, it will fit under the shelf. No guessing.

Speaking of tools...Lisa asked the other day, "Is there a way to extrude a handle or two without having to use the big extruder?"  Why, yes.  Yes there is.  Here's a tiny handheld extruder.  I've never used it, but we've got it. She then decided that the piece she was working on didn't need handles.  Maybe I should give this a try to see how well it works.

I've been working with some cone 10 clay this past week.  Here are a couple of casseroles.

Small bowls with lids.  Really. These are small. This is a close-up.

Pitchers. These are relatively tall.

Here's my next project.  A customer came in on Saturday looking for a butter dish.  She described what she had in mind, and I know that Allen had made similar ones in the past, but we didn't have any in the gallery.  She wondered if she could bring hers in to see if I could make one like it.  I took a few pictures and measurements...

...and I stared on my first attempt before I left yesterday afternoon.  

The bowl on the right will be the lid. I'll turn it over, and trim it up and put a handle on the top.  That lid should fit snug on the tray.  I made the tray the same way that I would make a lid for a jar.  It's been a while since I made any lids with flanges like this, but it more less came back to me when I tried.

When these are leather hard, I'll check to make sure they fit and do any necessary trimming to make that happen.  Then I'll cut the bowl off the bat, trim it, and add the handle.  It's going to be really hot in the studio today because the kiln fired over night, but I might just have to go work on this.  I'm excited to see how it turns out!