Dragon lady

I've been glazing for the last week straight, averaging 60 to 80 pieces a day; closed out Friday with 89. Wednesday, I had a little help, though. Denise came down to glaze dragons.

Actually, I dipped them in the glaze, she did the much fussier part: Waxing the bottoms, lid and base surfaces, and especially the eyeballs. I dip the head in clear glaze, then she waxes. After the wax is dry, the whole dragon gets a base coat, then the head gets a third coat, with a little snap to create interesting splashy patterns around the neck.

The last step, which is probably the fussiest, is cleaning up the bits of glaze still sticking despite the wax.

I am really grateful she likes helping out, and is very good at it. Basically gives me an extra day glazing when we do dragons and banks.

A week in review

Here's a recap of the last week's glaze marathon. Note the plethora of aquatic patterns: crab, octopus, otter, whales. Going to Anacortes in a couple of weeks, and want to be prepared. (As I told my friend Jon when I took beaver pottery to Corvallis Fall Festival--home of the OSU Beavers--if it doesn't sell, it's pandering. If it does, it's marketing.)

B-Side

One of my favorite things about glazing cookie jars and teapots is that they're round. I can put a paining on one side, then turn it around and put another on the back. (Or, occasionally, do a continuous painting all the way around. Peacocks are good for this.)

Here's a favorite from the current firing. Don't think I've ever combined these two bear images before.

An unexpected bounty

Denise, being a paper-maker, is always on the lookout for buckets. Buckets to soak paper scrap, buckets to rett plant fiber, buckets to replace the buckets that have crumbled from prolonged exposure to sun and elements. It's like the old Bill Staines joke about wood stove people and dead trees--in her vision, empty buckets show up fluorescent orange.

So when we came done to load the kiln yesterday, she immediately spotted the two 5-gallon pails, with lids, next to the Club Mud dumpster. I went over to investigate, and discovered that they were labeled (and I don't mean Sliced Pickle Chips, though that too). No, they were labeled, in Sharpie, Paper Pulp.

Somebody had left behind two full five-gallon buckets of prepared and blended paper pulp. We of course immediately hauled them into my space in the studio.

I asked around the art center this morning, and they hadn't put them out there. Cece suggested that someone had brought them in to donate, found the office closed for the weekend, so just left them. Since they don't offer papermaking, we were welcome to them.

Good news! Because I'd borrowed a couple of mould-and-deckles and a dozen couching cloths from Denise, and spent the morning, once I'd mixed glazes and mopped the floors, out in the cool kiln yard pulling paper.



Because I only had white pulp, I decided to add whatever color and texture was locally available: mimosa leaves and blossoms, Japanese Maple leaves and keys, Oregon grapes, yellow hawkweed blooms, bits of moss. Brought some dried rose petals from home, harvested off the bush just before leaving. Ended up pulling about 20 sheets, and did an impromptu demo for kids from Maude Kerns' summer art program.