My Love For Pots - Part 2
Of course my ego wouldn't allow me to think that maybe, just maybe, I wasn't going to be able to do this. After all, I'm a type A personality for whom the word failure doesn't exist? Well I was about to get some lessons in failure.
The best way to get your feet wet is to book craft sales, which I did with abandon. For the fall of that year (1996), I booked sales every third weekend, for a total of four in all, in small towns within 100 km of T-Dot, then I got busy.
It seemed a lot easier in a class room with a teacher (the best in Haliburton) coaching me, than it was in real life. My first kiln load of bisque ware pots was a disaster. Half the stuff was cracked and the other half mysteriously deformed. Okay, back to the drawing board. Remember, I'm working under deadline here with these sales coming up fast and furiously and real estate still happening. Fortunately for me 1996 wasn't the busiest year in real estate so I did have time to do some research.
After reading a lot of books on clay composition and firing temperatures and literally babysitting the kiln through 11 hours of firing to make certain the temperature didn't rise more than 100 degrees F an hour, I had my first load of acceptable bisque ware. Oh joy...
Now came the hardest part, for me anyway, the glaze compositions. Now there are two choices, one is to buy pre mixed glazes and the other is to mix your own. I chose to mix my own from raw material. I did have a couple of base recipes from the course but wanted to fire at a different temperature and wanted to add my own colorings. I don't have a chemical background and I'm pretty pathetic in math so it was a challenge. Math in real estate was a breeze in comparison to figuring out the minutest quantities of glaze material needed to keep a finished pot from crazing, or the glaze running off the pot during firing.
After a couple of near disasters, my first show.... to be continued...
The best way to get your feet wet is to book craft sales, which I did with abandon. For the fall of that year (1996), I booked sales every third weekend, for a total of four in all, in small towns within 100 km of T-Dot, then I got busy.
It seemed a lot easier in a class room with a teacher (the best in Haliburton) coaching me, than it was in real life. My first kiln load of bisque ware pots was a disaster. Half the stuff was cracked and the other half mysteriously deformed. Okay, back to the drawing board. Remember, I'm working under deadline here with these sales coming up fast and furiously and real estate still happening. Fortunately for me 1996 wasn't the busiest year in real estate so I did have time to do some research.
After reading a lot of books on clay composition and firing temperatures and literally babysitting the kiln through 11 hours of firing to make certain the temperature didn't rise more than 100 degrees F an hour, I had my first load of acceptable bisque ware. Oh joy...
Now came the hardest part, for me anyway, the glaze compositions. Now there are two choices, one is to buy pre mixed glazes and the other is to mix your own. I chose to mix my own from raw material. I did have a couple of base recipes from the course but wanted to fire at a different temperature and wanted to add my own colorings. I don't have a chemical background and I'm pretty pathetic in math so it was a challenge. Math in real estate was a breeze in comparison to figuring out the minutest quantities of glaze material needed to keep a finished pot from crazing, or the glaze running off the pot during firing.
After a couple of near disasters, my first show.... to be continued...
Labels: Life Stories
posted by Rositta at
9:07 PM
4 Comments:
Thanks for dropping by my blog... and what lovely dishes you've made! Now... how come you have to be THOUSANDS of miles away???? Ever think of doing a show down in south Georgia or Florida? (hey... just think... do them during the winter. You'd be a lot warmer... hmmmm????) ;-)
And, now I have to hop over to the other blog where that delicious looking bread came from. I have a feeling that the diet just went out the window! Gee, thanks.... LOL
Stay tuned for part 3.. the story continues in due course...:)
Wow! I'm impressed. I tried potting in high school, loved it, but then went to college and forgot about it. You've made me remember what it was like. Can't wait to hear the end.
Hi Jan, thanks for stopping by. The "story" requires some thought and digging out old photo's. Since in those days we used film cameras I have to scan them individually.
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