Hello, 2018

If I said good bye to 2017 last week, it is only fitting to say hello to 2018 this week, right?  Don't get your hopes up, I still hate New Years.  

Might as well lead with the finished product.

Tah-dah!  Soup tureen.

I did that with the variations in the glaze on purpose.  Didn't want you to think that I'm a total slob even though that is more or less the case.

It has been stupid cold here for the last week and my studio is not well insulated.  This means that as long as the heat is running and pumping out warm air, it's ok.  But the instant that the fan cuts off, all the heat immediately leaves the building and the people inside are cold. 

This is a picture of the fountain across the street.  I mention all this to explain why I didn't spend a lot of time in the studio this week. I also had to go back to my real job, so I didn't have much free time anyway.  Compared to the end of December, I didn't do much pottery work.  

I did get all my bisque ware glazed and fired the kiln.  I have several commissions that I wanted to get completed as soon as possible, so my focus was on that rather than making more pots. I do need to get on the make more pots train ASAP though.  Perhaps this week that can happen. 

The soup tureen is obviously one of those commissions.  I can't wait to get in the studio and make another one of these!  I am tickled with how it turned out.  Firing the ladle was a bit of a challenge since I wanted it to be glazed all over.  This is what I came up with.

Pretty clever, huh?  It's ok.  You can be impressed with me.  I sure am.  I was very nervous about this falling over during firing or something.  

I love kiln before and after shots. 

Here are a few of the other things that were in this load. 

Third honey pot.

I enjoyed making those. If they sell, I will work on making more.

I have an order for 4 bowls and 4 mugs like these.  I hope these will be acceptable.

 A few more shots of the mugs. I think they are cool.

 I'm trying to make mugs to go with that small tray.

In other weird news, I am STILL trying to get more of the Mediterranean Mist glaze that we all like so much.  I bought more this summer, but when I mixed it up and tested it, it was not the same color.  When I inquired about this at Carolina Clay Connection, I was informed that there was a problem with the glaze they had been sent in the summer and they arranged for the company to ship me some replacement glaze that should be "right."

Well, what they sent is the same as what I purchased.  You can see that they are definitely different in the bucket.  Good glaze on the right, bad glaze on the left. 

Good glaze on the tester on the right, bad glaze on the tester on the left.

Sigh.

So the saga of blue glazes continues.

This time last year, I ordered merchandise bags.  Since I was almost out of the medium size bag, I ordered some more.  This is how they arrived at my house.  Is this not the most interesting packing job you've ever seen? 

I used a different company, so I got bags that are a different color (oh well), but I was able to get some that are in between the medium size and large size bag that I had.  I think they will be very nice to have even if they don't match the others.