Great firing weather

Finally all my tests dried out and I fired the test kiln up to cone 10, including the clay test bars from North Devon. Here they are in the glorious sun, weighed, measured and ready for boiling.

Boiling? Yes - key stage in porosity testing so that I can get a better idea of how they will behave in larger forms in a glaze firing. ND1 is the clay from Doug's place + sure it's a little overfired, but really surprisingly good. I also put some glazed test rings in to get an idea of glaze fit and got some absolutely spectacular shelling.

Also, now my grog is fired, I'm making some larger pots for the next woodfiring.

Testing times.

Cloud, rain, cloud rain, rain rain, sun(!), HAIL....etc ad infinitum. I've been trying to crush clay for grog but the weather has been against me. I've spent most of the time dragging buckets under cover and out again but did manage to make up all the shrinkage bars from the clays that I collected on my last trip to Devon. One of them is a clay I got from near Doug, which was by far the easiest to use. Very little residue and almost useable as dug. The others are highly compacted and often difficult to crush, but their plasticity seems very good.

The bars will be used to measure shrinkage (drying and firing) and also porosity once fired to top temperature. The test rings will be glazed to check crazing or likelihood of shelling. I think that some of the clays are very high in silica.

Trumpet blowing

Just back from the Art in Clay event at Hatfield this year and, despite the appalling weather, it was a great weekend. I did a presentation on my project, which was well received, sold some work, managed to enjoy the Saturday night BBQ without getting hypothermia and.....won the Peer's award. Every exhibitor gets to vote for someone at the event and this year it was me. I am very chuffed.

There was some great work on display over the weekend + it was good to catch up with everyone, including fellow bloggers Doug, Hannah and Andy. Free stand next year so it's already time to start thinking about 2013.