Art by Fuzzy

Pottery, Photography, Design - Brandon "Fuzzy" Schwartz

May 2012 Glaze Fire Results

It’s about time! I’m finally getting results of the last glaze fire uploaded. I fired these at the end of May just in time to take a few pieces to school for an End of School Year sale.

Everything is Warm Brown Stoneware fired to cone 6 in oxidation.

The firing went pretty well. I only have to re-fire one or two pieces due to minor glaze defects. The Sapphire Blue glaze was still a little thin. I made a few more pendants and tried some different shapes and sizes. About half were made of the Warm Brown Stoneware and the rest were Buff Stoneware with Grog which is lighter clay with dark specks. I also made some little sticks of clay with my website address stamped on them. I can give these away like little business cards or add them to orders or scatter them across the countryside.

Not pictured are two yarn bowls and probably another piece or two. The yarn bowls warped a bunch but my grandma still liked them and took them home with her. There was a third but it broke while I was glazing it. I think the walls were a little too thin for yarn bowls. The other yarn bowls I’ve made had thicker walls and didn’t break during glazing or warp much, if at all.

Soon some of these items will be available on Etsy! My store isn’t up yet but I’m in the middle of writing descriptions and getting images ready. When it’s ready you should be able to find it here: http://www.etsy.com/shop/ArtByFuzzy.

In other news, I’ve been busy in the clay studio. I’m also ready to start my class at the clay artists guild! I’ll try to post some of the things that I learn.

Glaze Firing – April 5, 2012

Here are a few images of some things that I pulled out of the last glaze fire:

Not pictured are some small pendants, test tiles/cups and about 3 other items that I re-fired to fix some glaze problems.

I hope to post some images of my glaze test results soon.

PBL and Boberosa Mugs

So… Back at the blog. I’m finally getting some photos of recent mugs uploaded. I had a pretty successful glaze fire on March 18th containing mostly logo mugs and a few other random items. All wheel thrown cone 6 stoneware.

PBL Mugs

These are all larger mugs, more “stein like” really.  All had Saturated Iron poured inside and dipped at the top while the rest of the outside was dipped in Pam’s Blue (both Coyote glazes). I really like this combination and apparently other people do too.

I took the liberty of trying different options on the logos. I used brown and black washes on some, all brown on some, black wash on a pair and the Saturated Iron glaze on the rest. The washes came out a variety of ways. A few seemed more purple than brown, maybe too thick or too thin? But the logos with the washes seem more defined than the logos with the glaze.

Boberosa Mugs

Again, I tried a few different options. Some mugs have Orange glaze over black wash in the logo imprints. I also did some bare clay logos with black or brown washes.

 PBL Experiments

I didn’t have enough Sapphire Blue glaze so I tried some different glaze combinations with glazes such as Really Red, Pam’s Blue, Alabaster Satin, Peacock Green and the black and brown washes.

A Few Misc. Items

A few miscellaneous items to fill the rest of the kiln including a yarn bowl and some pendants. A local customer found my website and asked if I would make her some custom pendants for aroma therapy purposes. I’ve made ornaments that were very similar so I said I would give it a shot. They were pretty quick and easy to make. Except I ruined a few trying to get the hole at the top and glazing each one with a brush was a little tedious. Maybe next time I’ll wax the backs and put some fishing line through the holes so I can dip them. The lady really liked how they turned out and bought 12 of them. Hopefully they work well for the aroma therapy.

I’ve got about 6 more WN large mugs and 6 PBL short mugs to glaze with my new batch of Sapphire Blue. I’ve also been mixing some test glazes from the book Mastering Cone 6 Glazes. I’m hoping to get a glaze fire finished before I go back to school on Monday.

The Rest of the First 2012 Glaze Fire

The previous post was about mugs with logos.  There were a few other items in the first glaze fire of 2012:

Not pictured: a small teardrop shaped vase, a Charger mug that turned out terribly, and a large mug with some stamped patterns.

I got a little tired of making mugs at one point so I wanted to try a different drinking vessel. I decided to make some tall handle-less forms. I’ll call them tumblers unless someone else has a better name for these tall cups. I feel like tumblers should have straighter sides.  I haven’t actually tried drinking out of them yet but I like how they turned out. My wife wasn’t as impressed and thinks they look like they should be used by kings and queens of the medieval times. Maybe if I dig a moat around the house?

I also wanted to make some yarn bowls to put on my shelf in the Stone Soup Emporium. I made three but I broke one before I could get it bisque fired and one has been donated to the Jefferson Elementary silent auction tomorrow. I’ll probably make a few more. I like how the glaze turned out on the inside of these two.

One of the best parts of the glaze fire was doing a little experimenting and enjoying the results. A while ago I wrote of mugs with poor attachments. A few were salvaged and survived the bisque fire so I decided to experiment with some glaze application. I dipped the two mugs in Saturated Iron to cover the outside. Then I brushed a patch of Eggshell on both sides of one and Alabaster Satin on both sides of the other. On top of these white squares I brushed a quick design with a black wash. The wash and glazes melted together a little bit and I think it adds some interest to each mug.

This weekend (hooray for presidents!) I hope to start cranking out another batch of logo mugs. I’ve been absent from the clay studio for the past week or so except to reclaim some clay and haul a couple boxes of new clay down to the bench. Here’s to getting dirty!

Logo Mugs

I recently glaze fired a bunch of drinking vesels.  Mostly mugs and cups with some sort of logo emblazoned across at least one side of each. Overall a solid firing with a few spectacular pieces.  All wheel-thrown stoneware fired to cone 6.

Little Chargers

A majority of the vessels were of the “Little Charger” variety. I had some orders from before Christmas and I made a few extra mugs and a couple handle-less cups/pencil holders.

(Big?) Chargers

A staff member or two suggested that I make some mugs with the charger-riding-a-horse logo that the middle and high schools use. I ordered a stamp and tried it on a few different forms with a couple different glaze combinations.

PBL and Boberosa Gun Dogs

This glaze firing was the beta test for a few new logos. Partners Bulk Logistics is a fantastic trucking company and the fine folks at Boberosa Gun Dogs train and board hunting dogs.

Notes

  • The Coyote Glaze “Really Red” is appropriately named.
  • I wish Coyote made a “Really Orange” which was just as bright.
  • Brushing on glaze is STILL a pain compared to dipping and pouring.
  • My favorite logos resulted from applying glaze to the impressed logo lines and then wiping off the excess glaze to reveal bare clay around the logo.
  • Going from Red Gloss (more of a dull, cool red) to Really Red (brighter and warmer) was quite a jump. I love the Really Red but I think it overpowers the Sapphire Blue glaze which it is usually paired with. Maybe I’ll have to find a brighter blue glaze.
  • Glazes used:
  • Coyote – Really Red, Sapphire Blue, Eggshell, Alabaster Satin, Pam’s Blue, Saturated Iron, Orange, Red Gold
  • Amaco – Red Gloss, Frosted Turquoise (not pictured)
  • Mayco – Stoneware Copper Wash, Stoneware Iron Wash (referred to as “stains” in the descriptions)

There were a few non-logo items in the glaze fire. I’ll try to put up a short post with these items including mugs, tumblers and yarn bowls.