Art by Fuzzy

Pottery, Photography, Design - Brandon "Fuzzy" Schwartz

Pottery in Progress: July 2012

Say No to Cracks!

oval dish crack

oval dish crack

I’ve decided to try a couple larger forms of the wider variety. I made some slightly-square baking dishes and a pie plate. The pie plate developed a tiny crack in the middle which I might have helped along by stretching the bottom too much while trimming it. The baking dishes also developed some small cracks in the corners inside. One was barely visible and it even survived the glaze firing. The other went all the way through to the outside during the bisque firing so i probably won’t even try to glaze it.

Then there was an oval dish that I tried to make… I followed the steps in the book Wheel-Thrown Pottery (DIY) but the dried pot had a crack so big I could see through it! I don’t think I added enough clay when I re-sealed the cut mark and it just pulled right apart.

large baking dish-in progress

large baking dish-in progress

I think I could have decreased the likelihood of some of these cracks a couple ways. First, I think some of the pots were a little too dry when I altered the forms. I also might have let them dry too quickly. I always hear to dry things, especially large flat things, very slowly. But the plates I’ve made have never cracked… and I’m impatient… and I wanted to fire the kiln! So I might have rushed it too much. Put this one under the things-I-already-knew-but-still-had-to-learn-the-hard-way category. I put handles on this large baking dish and I have two other pie plates drying… very… slowly. Maybe I can avoid the cracks this time…

Work in Progress

I’ve been making some test items at the Clay Guild in preparation for the crystalline glazing. But I’ve also been working on some things in the home studio.

after the cut

after the cut

before the cut

before the cut

I threw a couple tall vases. One looked a little funny to me, so I cut off the top part. Now… maybe I like the way it was before? The picture “before the cut” is actually after I cut the top part off. I just put it back on top so you have an idea what it looked like before. I think the top part was too small. I didn’t like something about the proportions.

cups with texture

cups with texture

I’ve also been making a lot of small cups to experiment with. The cups in the photo have textures which were all created from parts of the sprinkler that I took apart.

Today I hope to throw a few more cups and maybe some tumblers. And try out my new stamps. And finish another blog post about the clay studio… I better get busy.

 

Glaze Tests – Spring 2012

My first attempt at mixing my own glazes!

After reading most of Mastering Cone 6 Glazes by Ron Roy and John Hessleberth, here are my results. (Finally!) I decided to focus on just one base glaze, the Glossy Clear Liner and then add some colorants to get some idea of what they do. Below are some photos of the finished Warm Brown Stoneware test tiles after being fired to cone 6. Click the images to get to a bigger, more readable version.

glossy clear liner 1

glossy clear liner 1

For Group 1 (above) I started with the Glossy Clear Liner on the left and then add some Red Iron Oxide and Rutile. The upper left corners of each tile were double dipped. The cups have the first glaze in the lineup poured inside and the last glaze brushed on the outside.

All percentages should be regarded as approximations. I’m pretty sure my measuring was accurate but I was working with small 200g batches.

glossy clear liner 2

glossy clear liner 2

Group 2 has the Glossy Clear Liner base glaze plus varying amounts of Cobalt Carbonate, Rutile and Copper Carbonate.

glossy clear liner 3

glossy clear liner 3

Group 3 has varying amounts of Cobalt Carbonate, Rutile and Red Iron Oxide.

After this first glaze mixing adventure I feel like I learned a lot. It was interesting to see the results but I feel like I learned how to make the process a lot more efficient. I recently mixed some more test batches and it seemed to go a little quicker. I also used larger increments when adding colorants. This first batch changed the colorant by 1 or 2% each time which doesn’t produce much difference from glaze to glaze. Now I hope to run some tests on my results and pick out a few to concentrate on. I’ll have to order some more materials to make some bigger batches.

I’ll try to post the results of the glaze fire that I just finished soon.

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.