It’s been a while since I updated. What have I been up to? Oh, lots! Paul and I have been working hard at Z House (that’s the name I’ve settled on for the gallery, along with Zizziba Studio for the studio building), replacing flooring, updating the bathroom and turning the place into a gallery. It’s starting to look good. I’ll post some pictures in a couple of weeks.

I haven’t spent much time in the studio the past month, what with all of our weekends and many evenings taken up by working on the gallery space. It’s almost time to move outside to the studio building. That is going to take quite a bit more work as there will be building permits and contractors involved.

June is going to be a crazy month for me with travel. I’ll be out of town three weekends in a row. My goal is to finish up inside the gallery building before those weekends hit, but that’s a lofty goal. We’ll do the best we can!

My friend, colleague and photographer extraordinaire Dudley came over to photograph me loading and unloading the kiln last weekend. He gave me a few shots as a preview and will have more soon. Amazing what a decent camera and a great photographer can accomplish!

Tiny bowl in mustard wood ash and blue shino	Daisy cup detail
Peek-a-boo frog	Happy frog!

Today’s kiln opening was like opening a great big Easter egg full of surprises. I got great results from yesterday’s firing!

Honey jar	Platter - measures about 11" across
Cup and snack plate	Cup and snack plate
Soup cups	Abstract mug
Frog bowls

Here’s a little post on staining bisqueware. The pots are made out of ^5 B-Mix without sand (do they make ^5 with sand? I don’t know). Anyway ~ that’s what these pots are made from. They were bisqued to ^06.

The pots have a lot of surface decoration, both raised and impressed. In order to get the most out of that, I like to stain the pieces, clean most of the stain off so it sits in recesses, then glaze over with a transparent. The stain I’m using in the pictures below is a simple Barnard/Blackbird clay mixed with water. The process is messy and labor intensive, but worth it in the end.

Painting the stain onto the bisqued pieces
All of the pieces have been stained. Now to clean them up!
Stained, cleaned and ready for glaze. The pointed petals of the daisies are rough on sponges - I destroyed one sponge in the cleaning process. Stain on, wipe off.
For extra measure, here are the pots that didn’t get stained. Their bottoms are waxed and they are ready to be dipped in the glaze bucket.

Most of these pots are in the kiln, being fired as I write this post. I can’t wait to open the kiln tomorrow afternoon to see the results!

Finally, a couple of free days with decent weather! Work has been piling up on the drying shelves and I’ve got a gorgeous free weekend. Everybody in the pool for today’s bisque firing!

Here’s a single-walled honey pot that’s in this batch: