Georgia National Fair Award 2007

Below is a picture of a horsehair vase that I entered into the juried competition of Fine Arts during the Georgia National Fair. I won first place in the Amateur Division for Fine Crafts:Pottery and Glass category. I certainly wasn't expecting this but am glad now that I entered.

Raku & Horsehair Firing of 10/13/2007

I spent Saturday morning doing some more raku and horsehair firing. It was a beautiful morning and unlike the last time the temperature was a whole lot better and only got into the middle 80's rather than than the 100's.

I got the first firing stared just after 7:00 and did 9 firings while firing 21 pots. Most of the firings went pretty well. The first firing was real good but the 2nd wasn't quite as good. The lp tank ran out of gas when the firing was about 75% completed and then when I finally got them fired the all 3 pots had big cracks in them. The 3rd firing was a little better and after some adjusting of the pots in the kiln and changing up the firing schedule a little bit the rest of the firing were okay. I have been trying to fire at least one horsehair pot with some raku and the trick is to get a high enough temperature to melt the glaze correctly while not getting the horsehair pots too hot to crack it.

I have added two sections to this blog which explain the raku and horsehair firing techniques which are located on the right side of the blog.

Below are pictures of the pots that I fired. I hope to do another firing in a couple of weeks as I get ready for the Dublin Service League's 44th Annual Antique Fair & Marketplace which this year has dedicated a special section called the Artist's Attic will contain art from 30+ plus artist from the local area. See the link in the Links section for more information.

Raku & Horsehair Firing of 08/11/2007

I spent Saturday morning firing raku and horsehair pottery. The weather was awful hot and humid when I started setting up at 5:30 in the morning and it only got hotter as the morning went along. When I got the first firing going at 6:00 I was already soaking wet. The temperture was around 90 at 10:00 and around 100 by the time I quit at 11:30. I managed to get 5 firings done while firing 16 pots. 3 of the pots were test purposes and the other 13 came out pretty good. The pictures of the 13 pots are below. I hope to be doing a firing each month for the next 3 months in order to get ready for the fall and winter shows.

Raku & Horsehair Firing of 05/19/2007

I spent Saturday firing raku and horsehair pottery. The weather was almost perfect as it was a little cool for thistime of year, there was not a cloud in the sky and there was some wind but I will take some wind if it will help keep the weather a little cooler. I started setting up just after 6:30 and had the kiln ready for the first firing a little after 7:00. I fired until just after 3:00 and fired 22 pots in 8 firings. I had 2 to crack too bad to sell and wasn't happy with a 3rd one but the others came out okay. On one of the horsehair pots I sprayed 100% soy sauce on it after applying the hair and another I sprayed 30% soy sauce mixed with 70% water. I'm not sure how much I like those but someone might like them so I will see what reaction I get from them when I put them up for sale.

These 5 pictures were taken by my a friend of mine named Cid Couture-White as I was doing the firings.







These are the pots I fired.









On this first pot I sprayed a solution of soy sauce and water and then sprayed ferrice chloride.
The second was sprayed with 100% soy sauce.






The candle holder on the left was sprayed with ferric chloride before it was placed in newspaper and covered with a metal container.