It has been a busy week, here at Up in Smoke Pottery! We finally have caught up cataloging the first few firings. We have also packed up for Buffalo Days this weekend in Luverne, MN. We will be in the City Park from 9-4 on 6/6/09 for Arts in the Park. Hope to see you there. If I have done it correctly the photo box on the upper left side should be updated as well in case you want to see more of our work. I am also posting a couple pics of recent work.

May Pit Fire

Well, I squeezed in another pit fire this week. I actually completed it in under a day, the 30 mph winds assisted in the cooling and mostly like fueled the fire so it burned faster. I did not notice much change in the results, but I will know more in a few days when I wash the pieces. Next week we are planning to do a few saggar firing to stock up for the summer shows. I'll post a few pics when I get a chance. Thanks for looking

Buffalo Days

Join us at Buffalo Days in Luverne, MN on Saturday June 6th. It is their annual arts in the park festival. We will have booth set up displaying lots of our work for this year. I look forward to meeting all of you there!

Pit Fire Results

Well, we finally had time to clean and seal the pieces from the last pit fire. Here are a couple of the photos from the pit and some of the finished pieces. Thanks for looking.

Pieces in the flames, they appear white now, but the colors appear as they cool.

Here are some of the results....Remember all colors are derived from vapors getting trapped in the pores of the clay while it is hot. There are no glazes of any kind.

Well, the 1st pit fire of the year is complete. The weather complied just enough to let us do it. We had to dig a new pit since the vehicles could not cross the creek to our normal pit we have used in the past. This pit is a true pit and we needed to jump into it. It was so deep initially we hit ground water and had to fill it in to get a solid base. When we returned to open the pit, it had filled part way with water submerging most of the pots. We only fired about 35 pieces, of which about 30 survived. I think we were too rough loading it and broke most of those in the process. We did get some awesome reds on some of the pieces and several blue areas. The oranges were not as prevalent this time, will have to work on that. Over all not bad considering the weather, we have several nice pieces which I will take pics soon and post.
We also played with a salt box kiln. The results were mixed. I will continue to play with it and try to get the results I think it should produce.

Pit Fire

As you may have guessed we have not gotten out to the pit. Schedules and weather have not been cooperating. But, never fear, we have the van loaded and ready to go. We are going 1st thing in the morning. They are forecasting rain, anywhere between a 20%-80% chance in the afternoon. We are hoping to have the pit covered before the rain falls. We may squeeze in a barrel firing and maybe a saltbox. I'll let you know how it turns out.

Open House

First off want to thank everyone who made it out the open house in Cedar Falls, and thanks to Beth and Steve for having us there. It was a great time.
On our way back we stopped at the Prairie Moon Gallery in Luverne, MN. We updated her selection with a few newer pieces, she still has one of the best pit fire pieces I have ever done. If you are in the area, check it out before she buys it herself.
The weather is looking like we might be able to get to the pit, planning on next weekend if we can get across the creek. Hopefully we can and we will have some new work to post.

It been crazy this week and I believe the next couple weeks are going to the same if not worse. I am currently spending any/all free time in the studio trying to have enough pieces for a couple pit firings to fill the vacancies in some of the galleries. Speaking of galleries, Remember Friday night in Cedar Falls is the open house, come if you are able. Also we delivered a round of fresh work to Piper Gallery here in Sioux Falls. Check them out at http://www.pipercustomframing.com/

Mark you calenders, here is the official announcement of our open house in Cedar Falls, IA! Sounds like fun hope to see you there.

Here is a couple of newer pieces from the last couple firings. Couple of the foil saggar, and a couple blackware pieces. I am enjoying the blackware still searching for the ultimate end product but these have been a hit. Don't forget to mark your calenders for March 20 in Cedar Falls, IA. My wife and I will be there at the

Element Portraits Studio for an open house. Come and say hi and look at our work. There is a nice selection there currently and we will bring some more with us for the event. Hope to see you there!