27 January 2009

more cullet glass


He's a rock star.

Again, I don't know what this glass will do in the kiln, but I'll be interested to see. In the meantime, I might try and affix some of this stuff to some eyes after firing (though that seems like cheating).

26 January 2009

Face Jug of the Month Club

So, I had an interesting idea:

http://cgi.ebay.com/ws/eBayISAPI.dll?ViewItem&item=190282610007

The auction is for a subscription (the only one so far) to my Face Jug of the Month Club. Every month or so, I'll send along a new face jug to the winner. I'll include my usual mix of creepy things and even creepier things. . . .

It'll be fun to see how things turn out.

In the meantime, here are some in-progress jugs:



The crazy shiny eyes are cullet glass, the kind that makes reflective road stripes reflective. I found a pile of it on the way home a few months ago. . . I just wish it would shine that way after firing, but there's no hope.

07 January 2009

melting clay for eyes

I spent a pleasant hour or so watching Peter Lenzo work this morning. He is a meticulous glazer.

The devil jug in the post before this one, which I still like after a few months, and which is therefore looking down on me now as I type, has got a melted left eye. I know that it's obvious, but what surprised me is how well it turned out.

To come up with a melting clay, I ran a series of experiments. I started with a base of Highwater Clay's white earthenware and added frit (Ferro 3195) in varying percentages (by weight).

For the electric kiln, cone 6, 80% clay and 20% frit worked best.

So I guessed that for the wood kiln, cone 10, 90% clay and 10% frit would work well. It did, by and large -- it produced the eye in the devil jug below, as well as this guy's eye:



But the same mix also produced this unmelted result:



A mystery.

01 January 2009


This blog has been neglected, among the various vagaries of our lives. Fortunately, we don't have any readers.

We're going to put in another wood firing with Michel Bayne in a week or so, but I still haven't had time to make it out to the shop. Today is slipping away, and tomorrow is booked. Such is the way of things.

Included in this post are a couple of my favorite pieces from this year. Note the heavy Peter Lenzo influence. (He's told me I don't need to pay any licensing fees.)