The Pottery Studio is Open!

Various experimental pottery pieces

Success! I think.


Part of the incentive for permitting the building of a 3-car garage for my husband, was that I would get to park my car in it during the winter, and I could have a pottery/art studio on the second floor. Well, as with all things my husband puts his mind to - it has come to fruition. He has his classic muscle car now safely housed in the garage, and I have a functioning pottery studio (minus a few last minute touches, like water supply and flooring... But, I have two wheels and a kiln, and a hose with water (and many 5 gallon buckets for toting up and down stairs with slop).

And, now, the kiln has been fired! That's honest-and-truly ceramic bisque!! And all of it hand-made by me and a few kids in the neighborhood. All that's left is do fire it up for a glaze firing, and we'll be in business. The business of having fun, anyway.

Speaking of fun - how about those monsters? That's my daughter's handiwork (and a friend or two). They came up with some creative looking creatures ;).

I'm hoping to start a club, where friends can come and work on their art/pottery. I haven't figured out how to work it, though; the kiln firing requires me to be present, sleeping in the upstairs of the garage if necessary. I don't know yet what the costs of firing are, and it's a small kiln! I had ~15 pieces in there, and that was half of what I wanted to fire. We also desperately need a reliable source of water, drain, and water-resistant flooring (probably sheet vinyl). I could also use another table...

I'm looking forward to some quiet time to glaze these pieces, and do a glaze firing. I'm still learning about glazes; apparently there's a world of fun cone 5/6 glazes that emulate high fire glazes like I'm used to at the Columbia Art Center. Until I find a scheme that I really like, and that I want to reproduce, I will probably be buying a lot of pre-made, expensive glazes. But I'm looking forward to experimenting with some recipes soon.