Wednesday, November 25, 2009

Piper Custom Framing

Just delivered a load of new pieces to Piper Custom Framing, Jon and Beth do a great job down there. If you are in the area check it out. Or you can order online from them as well. Just click on their link on the left.

Thursday, November 19, 2009

Made in South Dakota

Up in Smoke Pottery is now available online through Made in South Dakota. It is part of the State's Tourism department. The site itself has lots of interesting and unique South Dakota made products. Here is the link to my store, I do offer free shipping at this time.

www.upinsmokepottery.madeinsouthdakota.com

I also am putting a link in the links category.

Thursday, November 12, 2009

Firing Results



Here are some of the results from recent firings. Couple from the Pit at the beginning of the month and on Wednesday we did a quick "burn ring" pit. It is a hybrid of a pit and barrel firing. If the weather cooperates we will try to do a couple more of those firings also I will need to test my new clay body. If you have any questions/comments let me know.


Monday, November 9, 2009

November firing pics



Here are a couple photos of the firing we did couple weekends ago. We forgot the camera on firing day, so we didn't get any before shots. Once I get them all cleaned up and waxed I will post a couple more photos.

Wednesday, November 4, 2009

November firing results

Well we did it. We ended up firing on Sunday afternoon. Started by digging a new pit. We eliminated the dung, salt logs, and saggars in this firing. We played with increasing the ratio of bananas, also played with baking soda vs salt. We also had several other "test" in this pit. Luckily we are just firing for a little stock so we did not need a big turnout. The baking soda did not produce or facilitate the colors as the salt did. The bananas did not do as they had in the past. The stoneware did not handle the firing as well as it had in the past. We will add the dung and salt logs back into the mix next spring. We have a few finishable pieces which I will post some of the pics later this week. On the bright side, the new pit design worked wonderfully, burned evenly and created a even bed of ash for the pots to finish in. We had a chance to bury pit #2 so it can return to the prairie landscape. And best of all the cows stayed away this time!