First fired pieces

Somehow I made this piece too small for purpose but it still ended up looking quite good.

Some good results in the latest wood firing - using Len Castle recipes for tenmoku and chun glazes.

I've started selling drinking vessels at the local coffee shop. The purpose built shelf, the rough rendered brick wall and the lighting seem to suit them.

Here I use clay picked up on the exposed shore at low tide at Blackwattle Bay a few minutes from home. I'll fire some of these in the next wood firing.

Will they take the heat?

I used some found clay without realising that Castle had already written about it. It didn't vitrify but it did crack.

When I've used it before it has gone a terracotta colour bisqued at 980C and then black when wood fired in the ports to the base of the chimney behind a bag wall. The red colour it has raw suggests it may be similar to ochre clay you know as kokowai. A richer more patient man than me would probably get it analysed and then do test firings at different cones.

The 'white' clay I got from a stream feeding into the Manukau Harbour, vitirifed at 1000c and turned a rich terracotta. There was no need to take it any higher as she was really cooked. I do enjoy the experimentation involved in such learning curves.

I'm really lucky that I get to do wood firings with people with decades of experience. They use the unpacking phase to determine what happened during the firing and to attempt to explain discrepancies between pyrometer readings and cone observations. Their experience and knowledge gives them information from observation and discussion that makes each firing feel as if we have a greater feeling of control. Slowly an understanding of the way the kiln is likely to behave builds up.

Meanwhile away from the Bourrie Box this week I'm doing a line blend test on the Cobalt carbonate added to the clear stoneware glaze my tutor formulated. It worked well at 1.2% and I'm going to try it at six steps from 0.3% up.

One of the regulars at the coffee shop that sells my wood fired beakers is a professional photographer. He took this shot which captures the borealis effect: