Enjoying the Saturday Market in Tofino

Loving Tofino! Love the beaches, love the people, love the market! Just wanted to post pics of some of my summer creations...

Love this new shape...

I imagine the tide coming in a washing over the prints people, and dogs have left behind...

This is another new shape for me. I digg it.

I'm gonna be creating some more sets like this... really happy with how these turned out. (and they found lovely new homes too ;)

Bowls, bowls, and more bowls....

Sold out of my Surf mugs... I better get to work ;)

TILES!!!

This is the welcome I got when I started making tiles. Tile after tile was coming out of the kiln cracked and in pieces....

I was using reclaimed, high fire clay. I was wedging it, and slabbing it, and working with it much as I would have for any other table-work project. Where was I going wrong?.... The lady at the supply store was kind enough to inform me that tiles are the hardest thing I will ever make; (which surprised me a little) she was also kind enough to help me out with some tips. A little reading on Google never hurts either! I changed my process, and started having success! I bought some low-fire clay with more grog (sand); no wedging, just slabbing, and the final roll out onto dry wall. I did all of my carving, and then cut it out.

The owl and the snail, I sandwiched between drywall and didn't touch again for weeks. The heat was turned off. After a few weeks, I uncovered them, but laid plastic on top. The idea is that slow, even drying will prevent warping, and cracking. Once they were all dry, they went into the kiln for 24hours! Usually, I bisque for only 11 hours. They were preheated at 200 degrees for 7 hours, to make sure they were completely dry, then slow bisque fired to cone 03, 1987 degrees! The shelves had a fresh coat of kiln wash on them and the larger tiles were propped up with smaller tiles, so that air could flow underneath them.

These are alphabet tiles I made with the scraps. I'll probably glue some magnets to the backs.

I brushed a low fire glaze on, and waxed the bottoms. I fast glaze fired them to Cone 04, or 1945 degrees; with a 1 hour preheat at 200 degrees.

These tiles are made with high fire, reclaimed clay. It was wedged, slabbed and rolled out pretty thin. It was slow bisque fired to cone 06, with a 5 hour preheat. I brushed on low fire glaze and waxed the bottoms. They were fast glaze fired to cone 04, with a 1 hour preheat.

This is my new drying rack for tiles. It's just a cheap wire shoe rack. These are the first 2 tiles of the 9 tile mural I'm working on. These dried for 2-3 days on the dry wall boards, and are finishing drying on the racks. If you're new to tile making hopefully this will help you along.

new stuff

this is a set of bowls, for soup or cereal or whatever.... with a larger bowl for serving and a smaller bowl for dip or condiment. All hand carved and stack-able, this set feels like an accomplishment.

 I've been playing with this very round shape, and pouring layers of glaze on them. I've been letting the glaze drip and run, free form. To the left is the back of the above picture. The dark patches are from using slip I made from local clay. feels pretty cool!

here's another one... smaller than the first, could be used as a vase, or perhaps for bamboo...

 And I'm still making mugs.... and mugs and mugs....