Hi internet, the big day has finally arrived.
We will be live streaming Veronica and Nathans wedding at 12.30 pm AEST.
If I have time I will come back and put a link in this blog post and do a test run at approximately 10. am AEST
If I run out of time the
Tomorrow I will be post the wedding photos in a gala Sunday Selections.
Now I am off to do the final set up for the big day (squee).
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I opened the kiln for a quick peek yesterday afternoon and it looked to be a successful firing.
You have no idea how pleased I am to be able to type those words internet.
I used three new glazes, I made a further two glazes using very old glaze ingredients. I didn’t have time to take notes whilst I was glazing, as I was way behind schedule and I fired to a lower temperature than normal.
In short I was leaving myself open to any number of ceramic disasters.
But the Kiln Gods were smiling on me and I am reasonably pleased with some of the work that came out of the kiln.
The glaze I used on these slipcast cups is one formulated by ceramist Ruth Langman and it is a clear gloss glaze that fires well across the mid range to higher range of stoneware temperatures. I programmed the kiln to fire to 1250 degrees centigrade but cone 9 was well down so I think the kiln is firing 20 degrees higher than the temperature gauge is telling me. I added one and a half percent of cobalt carbonate to the RL glaze and this is the result.
*Ruth Langman clear.
silica ————————— 31
Kaolin—————————10
Neophyline syenite ———-30
gerstley borate —————21
wollastonite ——————–8
I added 1.5% Cobalt Carbonate to make this blue.
I used a combination of three glazes on these plates WCC Black, WCC Green and RL blue
Ben’s WCC Base glaze
Potash Feldspar –30
Silica —————33
Whiting ————-17
Kaolin —————15
To make a black glaze add 5% Iron Oxide, 2% Cobalt oxide 2%Manganese dioxide
To make green add 4.5% copper oxide.
Here are the glazes on my slipcast cups.
I haven’t made a lot of blue work before. I have used blue as a highlight on my ceramic cups but I have steered away from blue because, because? Actually I am not really sure why I have avoided blue glazes.
Maybe because blue can be so overpowering and my environmental plates are all earthy tones suited to reduction firings.
But I think I might have to follow this lot of work up with some more blue things.
Now for a WEDDING update.
The preparations for the wedding are all on track. My grand son Isaac is recovering from his virus and I am recovering from the fright he gave me. My back is mostly better and my infection has cleared up.I didn’t fire as many plates as I would have liked due to the unexpected trip to the hospital. But I have five plates for my daughter’s wedding present that I am very pleased with, some serving platters that turned out very well (photos later) and a lovely large salad bowl.
I am now feeling quite excited about the wedding rather than stressed. Veronica and I tested the livestream channel on Tuesday and we will both put live stream links up on our blogs on Saturday morning so that you can watch the wedding either here on my blog or over on Veronica’s blog, Sleepless Nights
And now internet I am off up to the local hall to fill my trailer up with folding chairs so that we all have somewhere to sit on Saturday (squeee)
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In ten days time my daughter Veronica is getting married. I have been to the edge of hysteria and back a couple of times in the past few days, but as always it has been the mental picture of Tim Brooke Taylor running around shouting, “I am a teapot” that has saved me.
I am a potter after all and I know a thing or two about teapots. Fiddly bloody things they are. Tea pots require precision and patience, two virtues that I am not overendowed with at all, and when one’s only daughter is getting married in ten days time there is never room for hysterics. Mild panic and hyperventilation I can deal with, but hysteria will never do.
I had grand plans of making stacks and stacks of plates for Veronica’s wedding, lovingly crafted and beautifully glazed. I had visions of friends and family eating cake and commenting on how lovely it was to eat from handmade plates. Of course whilst not wanting stealing the limelight from the bride, I nonetheless discretely basked in the glow that was my due as Mother of the bride and erstwhile creator of fabulous plates.
It was a lovely daydream, I was even wearing a fabulous hat with purple roses.
But of course time is fluid in my world and suddenly all the time I had to make those glorious plates had vanished in the twinkle of an eye and my deadline was looming. It was November the first and I of course was plateless as well as hatless.
So I set to work and made some plates for my girl. Not the hundreds that I had seen in my dreams, but enough for a lucky few to admire from a distance, if they make it out of the kiln in time.
The kiln is cooling down as we speak and I should be able to open it tomorrow. If the Kiln Gods are smiling on me, all the wedding ware should emerge unscathed and uncracked and I can get down to the serious business of glazing the bloody things.
The deadline is now, rather tight.
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Hi internet, I have so much to tell you, so many unwritten posts are busily roiling about inside my head. But I am so pressed for time that all the words needs must stay inside my head and I worry that all the good ones will slide out my ears to slowly drip, invisible and unwritten into the atmosphere.
There are certain pressing matters that demand my attention. The most important of these being the fact that, my daughter,Veronica is getting married in 18 days.
Veronica is being very Zen about her impending wedding whilst I am starting to quietly panic.
In 18 days there will be a wedding.
Veronica tells me to relax, it will be fine and she humours me as I ask pressing questions like, do you have enough chairs, or more importantly do you think your ancient toilet is up to the job honey? So while my mind is full of details like hiring chairs and trestle tables, sorting out a way to livestream the event and organising a porta-loo. Veronica’s mind is full of her immediate concerns such as deciding if she can walk across the room without dislocating anything major.
I am trying to be calm.
But my baby is getting married in 18 days.
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