Art by Fuzzy

Pottery, Photography, Design - Brandon "Fuzzy" Schwartz

Time To Vent (the kiln)

This past weekend I spent most of Saturday installing a vent system for my kiln.  I attached the Vent Master to the wall and then put some metal tubes up through the ceiling of the garage, across the attic a few feet and then out the back of the house through the soffit.  The hardest part was squeezing up into the corner of the attic while trying to stay on the boards that I laid across the joists.  And I didn’t fall through the ceiling or impale my head on the nails sticking through the roof so I would say that it was a successful venture just staying alive.  But I got everything connected and sealed up so the next time I fire I should be able to vent the kiln without running a tube out through the door.  I guess we’ll see what happens…  And if you didn’t notice, I learned how to put hyperlinks in my post!  If you aren’t sure what a soffit or a joist is you can click on the words to find out.  (I had to look them up to be sure that I had the right term myself).  Below you can see some pictures of the new vent system:

Random Happenings Of The Past Month

Well, here is my monthly post…  Apparently it’s already November.  The school year is flying by.  Cross country finished a few weeks ago so now I have a little “extra” time during the day.  I’ve been keeping myself busy though.  We had a new well dug at our home a few weeks ago which left a couple piles of dirt in our front yard.  I hauled those away and got our yard ready for winter and organized the shed over the past week or two.  Amanda and I took some engagement pictures and some family portraits in the past week.  I’ll post some examples when I get them processed.  Here and there I’ve been able to pick up some clay and throw a couple pieces.  Every Tuesday I’m still going to my Content Area Reading class at IUSB.  We have to do a research project but I got to pick any topic.  I am researching whether I should mix my own glazes.  I’ll post the results when I find out more.

Apart from all that I’ve been watching the Wolverines and Lions lose on a consistent basis, avoiding politics, and a couple days ago I took a class to become certified in CPR.  So I can’t say I’m bored…  I’ll post some pictures in my next post.  Thanks for reading.

October already?

West Noble 2008_xc_shirt_design

West Noble 2008_xc_shirt_design

Well, it’s been almost 2 months since my last entry….  But it seems like it’s only been about 3 days.  The first few months of school have raced by.  I’m teaching Reading Recovery half the day and working in the computer lab the other half.  We have been testing in the lab for most of the year so far which isn’t very exciting but it keeps me busy.  I’m coaching the 5th grade Cross Country team again.  In fact I was called upon to design the shirts for the middle school runners.  Actually they wanted me to use a design that they found so it was more copying than designing.  But it looks pretty good to me.

I’m also taking a class at IUSB towards my reading certificate.  On the weekends I catch up on my sleep, watch football, and work on pictures – sometimes all at the same time….  So basically this post is just a post to explain why I haven’t posted any new posts for a while.  But soon I hope to put up some stuff that I’ve been working on.   Stay tuned, Christmas Break isn’t too far off….

A Successful Firing

It was like Christmas in August….  Last night the kiln was finally cool enough that it wouldn’t burn my face off when I peered inside.  It was the first time I had fired my kiln up to cone 6 (about 2232 degrees F) but everything seemed to work like it should.  I started it Sunday afternoon and I stopped it manually at around midnight after almost 8 hours and 2235 degrees.  I would have let it stop on it’s own but the witness cones were already bent and I didn’t want to “overcook” by first load.  But on to more important things, like the results.

I was happy with almost everything.  I used Amaco’s Buff Firing Clay and Warm Brown Stoneware with some of their glazes and a few Coyote glazes that I ordered a few days ago.  So I was mostly just experimenting and finding out what the glazes would do.  Here are a few pictures I took quickly after I pulled everything out of the kiln:

The only problem was with the small green pitcher.  The Gun Metal Green glaze I used on the outside started flaking off.  It seemed to be okay on the other pieces that I used it on so I don’t know what happened.  All the other glazes look really great.  Some of my favorites were Amaco’s Oil Spot, Blue Rutile, and Seaweed and Coyote’s Goldenrod Shino and Pam’s Blue.

Running out of Freedom

ready for the kiln

Summer break seems to be coming to a close.  But there are still a few days left to squeeze in some fun.  I have been busy lately trying to get a full load ready to bisque fire in the kiln.  My wife helped me load it last night.  I crammed everything in that was dry.  As soon as I get home I’m going to fire it up.  Then I hope to glaze for a day or two and glaze fire at the start of next week.  This is the test run for the cone 6 clay and glazes that I have.  I’ll post the results when I get them fired.  I’ve been using Amaco’s warm brown stoneware and buff firing stoneware.  I have a few Amaco cone 6 glazes and I might order a few of the Coyote cone 6 glazes.

My wife and I also took some senior pictures a few days ago.  It was our first attempt at senior pictures but we got a few nice photos.  I’ll try to post some of those soon.