Art by Fuzzy

Pottery, Photography, Design - Brandon "Fuzzy" Schwartz

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.

Summer Pottery – Mugs, Vases, Bowls

I glaze fired a number of items way back in July.  Then I got busy doing other projects like making a backdrop for photographing ceramics, redesigning a website, and getting settled into a new school.  Finally, you can see the finished pieces from that summer glaze fire below.  I haven’t really been in the clay studio much since then but I’ve got some ideas rolling around in my head for the next time I get some time at the wheel.

All items are glaze fired to cone 6 and are either Warm Brown Stoneware from Amaco or Speckled Stoneware by Laguna.

June Glaze Fire Results

Last month I glaze fired close to 20 pieces after mixing some glaze from dry powder.  The Pam’s Blue that I mixed turned out more blue-green instead of the blue-gray that I got from the pre-mixed pint.  It might be applied a little thin but I still like the result.  I got to test a few new glazes such as Espresso Bean and Saturated Iron by Coyote and Frosted Turquoise and Iron Lustre by Amaco.  Some of them turned out nicely.  Most of the items were functional ware: mugs, bowls, etc.

I finally got all the pieces photographed about a week ago and I finished cropping and sizing the photos last night.  Now, as I’m uploading these pictures the kiln is cranked up and bisque firing some of the stuff that I’ve thrown recently.   My wife wanted a set of bowls with handles, I’ve got a set of four mugs, there are some vases and other tall forms and  a few lidded vessels.

New Ceramic Supplies

I love Spring Break!  I recently did some internet shopping at Clay-King.com and Axner.com.  Both are good places to get ceramic and pottery supplies.

glazes by coyote and amaco

coyote and amaco glazes

Clay King was having a pretty good sale on glazes.  I ordered a few of my favorites (Coyote: Red Gold and Leopard Shino) and a few new colors to test (Coyote: Espresso Bean and Saturated Iron and Amaco: Frosted Turquoise and Iron Lustre).  I also ordered 10 lbs. of Pam’s Blue dry powder (by Coyote).  Finally!  As soon as I mix up the Pam’s Blue I will be able to dip and pour instead of brushing glaze onto every… single… piece…  This should drastically reduce the amount of time it takes to glaze a load of bisque ware.  I guess at first there will be a lot of blue mugs and bowls but if everything goes smoothly I hope to order some more glazes in dry powder form and mix up some large quantities.

hydrometer, sieve, glaze chemicals

hydrometer, sieve, glaze chemicals, kiln posts

Speaking of mixing glazes…  I needed a few more items to get the job done.  Axner had some pretty good prices on most of the stuff I needed so I ordered a hydrometer, sieve, kiln posts, and some other dry chemicals.  I hope to mix some of my own glazes in the future so I’m starting a small collection of dry chemicals.

In other not-very-exciting news I installed a more permanent light above my wheel and made a small shelf behind the wheel where I can put freshly thrown pots to dry.

In the somewhat-exciting department I have a few mugs and bowls drying on the shelf.  I just threw a few more before track practice today which need handles but I’ll try to put up some pictures before the bisque fire.  I’m trying a different kind of clay so I’m anxious to see how it fires.

Last Glaze Fire of 2008

In my previous post I mentioned that I glaze fired another load just before Christmas.  It had a lot of small items that I used mostly for testing glaze combinations.  I’m starting to get some combos that I like.  So far I like combining Pam’s Blue (Coyote), Red Gold (Coyote), Textured Turquoise (Amaco), Temmoku (Amaco), and Blue Rutile (Amaco) in various ways.  If I can talk my wife into it I want to order some larger quantities of a couple glazes so I can do some dipping.  That way I don’t have to spend half my life painting 3 coats of glaze onto each piece with a brush.  Here is a picture of all the goods:


I took a little break from the clay studio but now I’m back and working on something a little larger.  If it actually turns out I’ll put up some pictures.