Here are some of the projects I am currently working on. This first one is a bread cloche for a friend. I've never made one before so I thought this might be a good opportunity. The clay I am using is from Seattle Pottery Supply, that is where I get pretty much all my supplies, and it is called Vashon red. It fires to cone 6 easily and seems to have good thermal expansion qualities. I made some lasagna trays last year and they are holding up well to regular use. This is another experiment into cookware. I will not glaze this piece but I have applied some slip decorations. I use porcelain slip (cone 10) and some home made engobe's. I also am using some of my majolica coloring glazes....well they are not glazes but merely carbonate of one kind or another to equal part Gertsley Borate and a tiny dash of CMC gum. They work fine for all kinds of firings. For the lasagna trays I glazed the inside with Ron Roys clear glossy liner glaze, I believe it's page 72?....anyway I also throw in about 2% of some color and it's a good bake ware glaze.

This is part of a bread baking cloche I'm working on.

 This next piece is a work in progress. I'm doing a small back splash for my mother in law and we are going for an assortment of whites. I also have some porcelain tiles coming. The glaze I am using is another one from Mastering cone 6 glazes. It is a tweak from a glaze called Bone. In the book they use a calcium matt base and add 6 percent rutile. I never liked that yellow very much so started using 3% titanium and 3% rutile. That in itself is a nice glaze but a tad transparent so now I am using 6% zircopax and I like how it behaves and looks. Zinc being an opacifier it works better on red clay bodies.

Lastly the majolica ware is coming along splendidly. I am making the ware and working with another artist for the decoration. Stephen Carter, a long time puppeteer seems to favor Rapheolesco type designs but also brings in allot his own stuff.
We are using an earthenware body and Linda Arbuckles cone 05/03 recipe's. Check out the link for all kinds of tips. This is a good starting point. We are experimenting in all kinds of ways to deal with pin holing and colorant issues. But as you can see from this picture it is coming along nicely! (apologies for the cruddy image but I never got a chance to get it to the photo booth)

Majolica ware. sold coming out of the kiln.

inside view.

Despite the time of year I have never been busier! Teaching a Tile class and a Throwing class plus running the group studio is keeping me busy! Just trying to get enough work done for the spring wood fire and for the farmers market this summer. Later!