Art by Fuzzy

Pottery, Photography, Design - Brandon "Fuzzy" Schwartz

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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:

Wheel Thrown Tumblers
Wheel Thrown Tumblers
Sunburst Yarnbowls
Sunburst Yarnbowls
Mugs with Brushed Glaze
Mugs with Brushed Glaze

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!

Summer Pots: Finished and For Sale

About half a year ago I posted an image of some pottery that I was working on.  I finally finished that batch of pots and shot some photos a few weeks ago.  I literally had to dust off my photo booth since it had been so long since I photographed pottery.  So I’ve been busy…  Here’s what I came up with:

Wheelthrown Plate
Wheelthrown Plate
Wheel thrown Brown Bottle
Wheel thrown Brown Bottle
Stoneware Vases
Stoneware Vases
Pam's Iron Vase
Pam’s Iron Vase

Stoneware Plate
Stoneware Plate
Large Mugs or Steins
Large Mugs or Steins
Lightning Bolt Mugs
Lightning Bolt Mugs
Handmade Plate
Handmade Plate

Handmade Mugs
Handmade Mugs
Faceted Vase
Faceted Vase
Dripping Glaze Bulb Vase
Dripping Glaze Bulb Vase
Drip Vase
Drip Vase

WN Charger Mugs
WN Charger Mugs
Steins
Steins

[Read more…]

Last Glaze Fire of 2010

Well, here are a few photos of the latest items to come out of the kiln.  Plenty of mugs, a few vases, some bowls and a few other pieces.

wide bottom vase
wide bottom vase
wheel thrown mug blues
wheel thrown mug blues
wheel thrown drip vase
wheel thrown drip vase
triangle plate
triangle plate
tall sunburst bowl
tall sunburst bowl
sunburst bowl
sunburst bowl
straight sided vase
straight sided vase

stoneware soup bowl
stoneware soup bowl
stoneware mugs
stoneware mugs
short wide mugs
short wide mugs
short mugs
short mugs
Pam's Iron stoneware mugs
Pam’s Iron stoneware mugs
Pam's Iron Mug Set
Pam’s Iron Mug Set
mixing bowl
mixing bowl

handmade mugs
handmade mugs
flare mugs
flare mugs
Cone Mugs
Cone Mugs
toothbrush holder and soap dish
brown bathroom set
bathroom set for two
bathroom set for two
altered vase
altered vase
2 bathroom sets
2 bathroom sets

If you missed it, there was a previous post about glazing and firing.

[Read more…]

Like an Early Christmas!

I opened up the kiln today after yesterday’s glaze fire.  Early Christmas?  Early Christmas!

glazed pots - December 2010

glazed pots – December 2010

I spent almost all of Saturday preparing and glazing and kiln washing.  Everything went pretty smoothly.   I mixed up 10lbs. of Coyote’s Saturated Iron on Friday so it was ready to go.  That, along with my previously mixed Pam’s Blue, gave me two buckets of glaze to dip and pour.  I used a little bit of Coyote Red Gold and one vase has some Espresso Bean but other than that, just about everything else is part of the Pam’s Iron Collection.  (Pam’s Blue and/or Saturated Iron).

glaze fired pottery

glaze fired mugs, vases, bowls

I was happy with the way everything turned out.  No major flaws, no glaze drips, no visible glaze defects, no worries.  The Pam’s Blue running down over Red Gold effect that I achieved last glaze firing came through pretty well in the two bowls that I tried it with this time.   The Saturated Iron came out exactly the same as the pre-mixed pint I used previously.  It might have been just a little thick for dipping because I had to brush off some excess.  This usually left some darker areas compared to the reddish brown in most areas.  Could be something to experiment with next time.  I hope to shoot some decent photos of these pieces tomorrow or the next day and get them posted here (my apologies for the terrible lighting and yellow cast of this photo).

I had a small Holiday Pottery Sale at Ligonier Elementary the past few days.  I got some positive feedback when I stopped and talked to a few people today.  I might have even made enough money to buy more glaze materials!

In unrelated news I’ve been tweaking the design of the blog theme.  I’ll continue to fix things as I discover them.  If you have any feedback for the appearance of the blog I’d love to hear it.

Custom Ceramic Sink: Finished

This is actually old news…  but the large ceramic pieces that I’ve been working on are complete.  I was asked to create a bathroom sink by a family that is building a new house.  I had never thrown anything so large on the wheel before but I was excited to try.  The first few attempts turned into large bowls because they weren’t big enough (mostly because I didn’t start with enough clay).  I finally got the diameter that I wanted but then the shape wasn’t quite right and the bottom was too thin.  On my fourth or fifth attempt I finally got a shape and size that I liked.  Then I made an extra just to be safe.  I did some measuring on a store-bought sink and then calculated for shrinkage and cut a hole for the drain.  After bisque firing, glazing, and glaze firing the hole was almost the perfect size.  I don’t know much about drains or plumbing but I hope the installation goes smoothly.  Below you can see a few photos of the finished products.  The sink is about 15 in. in diameter.  The bowl is probably closer to 12 in.

Large Stoneware Bowl
Sink with Soap Dish and Cup

Sink Bottom
Stoneware Sink

As you can see I’m a little closer to where I want to be as far as photographing my ceramic pieces.  I also got to try out my new tripod that I got for Christmas.  I think I pulled the finished pieces out of the kiln in mid February but I’ve been busy working on the Ligonier Elementary yearbook for the past few weeks.  Last weekend I rearranged my clay studio and put up some more shelves.  Be on the lookout for some pictures…

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