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Fall is turning into a busy season, just as I like it !

Starting with September, there are several events of note. First is an exhibit at the Serra Mesa library on Aero Dr. The library is brand new, with lots of place to sit and enjoy a book, a magazine, or the internet. There is a nice air-conditioned meeting room where Clay Artists of San Diego meets periodically. And the main library roon has two big cubic display cases reserved for local artists. I was honored to be on exhibit for September and October. It's my first solo exhibit, I am very excited about it !

Mid-month, I'll be celebrating my birthday at the Coronado Artwalk set at the Ferry Landing. My first time there as well. I was told it is a good show. They have been certainly nice to me, one of my pieces made it into the postcard. Here it is.

This Fall, I should teach 2 more Raku workshops. One is already scheduled for Sunday September 25. I think we have a spot for one more person. The second workshop should be in November. Lee and I decided to make it a special Naked Raku and Horsehair workshop. It is still at the preparation stage, so stay tuned for a date.

Finally, this last item is what I am most excited about. On December 3 and 4, several studios around San Diego will be orchestrating a special pottery studio tour, with a little over 20 artists displaying and selling their art directly to you. It is your chance to meet and talk to the artist, see where he or she works. Maybe you can even get an insider tour ! For this event, I will be teamed with Merle Lambeth and Danae Fasano Dehne, who is hosting at her house in La Mesa, a few blocks away from Gets Centered Clay Studio. Merle, Danae, and I are all excellent cooks and bakers, so expect good food to go with the ceramics :) Stay tuned for more as we get closer to the date.

First load in the electric kiln

Very, very pleased with it ! After several rounds of glaze testing, it was time to jump the shark and apply my favorites on real pieces. I have had my electric kiln for a while now, mostly bisquing for Raku projects. Now that I think of it, August is its one year anniversary !
I started out with some old porcelain pieces I had around, made with Hagi porcelain. It's a nice porcelain to handle. The test tiles I did with it all came out better than with the cone 5/6 stoneware, for some reasons.
One of my favorite glazes so far is this red yellow speckle glaze I picked up in Book of Glazes from Emmanuel Cooper. Absolutely stunning, with reddish/brown crystals on a light yellow satin background.
Another glaze I was excited to use was a manganese crystal glaze that I adapted from a cone 10 glaze, using Digitalfire Insight software. I made two variations and they both turned out like the cone 10 glaze we use in reduction gas firing at Clay Associates studio. The tiny crystals create a deep shiny surface with a dark chocolate hue.  Definitely a keeper !
The top and inside of the floral arrangement vase consist of a layer of a clear red/black glaze followed by a layer of a rutile glaze called broken pearl to give an opalescent tint to the piece. You can see that the glaze picked up a bit of iron by the blue breaks on the inside.
The clear red/black glaze is more of a clear honey color, as seen in the bowl set. Very consistent glaze. When thick it becomes a darker brown with light gold specks. Here the bowls were sprayed with a medium application. I added a medium spray of the spearmint glaze from Roy's Mastering Cone 6 Glazes book, mostly concentrated around the rim. The effect is more muted than I envisioned. I can try dipping the rim next time.

7" high porcelain bud vase;
electric, cone 6;
red speckle yellow glaze

6" high porcelain wide rim vase;
electric, cone 6;
red speckle yellow glaze

4.5" high x 7" wide porcelain floral vase;
electric, cone 6;
clear red/black glaze, broken pearl glaze,
 manganese crystal glaze

4.5" high x 7.5" wide porcelain bowl set;
electric, cone 6;
clear red/black glaze, spearmint glaze