Pottery, Photography, Design - Brandon "Fuzzy" Schwartz
Here are a few samples of a shoot we did way back in October.
All photos were taken downtown Goshen. Overcast and a little chilly.
Or Happy… Year? I guess  2013 isn’t exactly “new” since a month has already come and gone. Happy Day After Groundhog Day? Happy Super Sunday!
And it has been far too long since I’ve even glanced at this poor blog. So I’ve decided to give your retinas a treat and share some work that I finished last year. The first pots with my new brown and “white” glazes!
tan mixing bowl
The mixing bowl. I really like the form. I think it will become my standard mixing bowl shape where I can explore some surface decoration. I’ll try to post more about what went “wrong” later. The glaze didn’t turn out as white as expected.
Here are some of the highlights of the load I pulled out of the kiln in late October. Actually, you can see some of the mugs in the Zombie Run post.
But here is some of the best non-sculptural work:
All functional ware. All wheel thrown with Warm Brown Stoneware and glaze fired to ^6.
Pretty good results overall. I like the combination of the Waterfall Brown and Licorice glazes (both from Mastering Cone 6 Glazes). I also mixed up a small amount of the Glossy Clear Liner to use on the inside of some pots.
As for form, I feel like I’ve got a pretty good variety in this load. I’m still refining a lot of things but I’m making progress.
I’ve got a bunch of pots downstairs drying that I hope to get finished for Christmas. I’ve also got some more posts to publish on the blog here. Hopefully soon! Thanks for reading.
Previously: Part 1 (Making the Sculptures)
Part 2 – Fixing and Finishing (The Rest of the Story)
In the previous post I got the two sculptures loaded into the kiln and held my breath throughout the entire bisque fire. When I finally opened the lid and got down to the bottom shelf I found this:
before and after bisque firing
The male sculpture was in pieces. The spot where I had attached one of the logo slabs was too thick and must not have thoroughly dried. Even after preheating the kiln for a few hours. See, the kiln is supposed to hold at 200 degrees F for a few hours, just below boiling to drive out any excess water. But if there is still water inside any of the clay when the kiln reaches 212 F the water turns to steam and… kapow.
I’m a sculptor!
Well, maybe not. But I learned a lot while working on a special project over the past month. In fact, this project seemed to be a master class in problem solving.
Zombie Run!
My task was to create two statues to use as trophies for the West Noble Zombie Run which took place on November 3rd. So I started by brainstorming some ideas and doing a few “clay sketches” to see what might work.