Yeehaw, my kiln still works!
Neon-Cat
After my recent great meltdown I was a little anxious about firing my kiln again although it checked out fine for me and Arnold Howard and his Paragon team by phone and email assured me it was probably OK.
Ha! It works just great!
It's been a rough year -- it took me a long time to save for the kiln and a seeming eternity to save enough to get it hooked up and wired to city code. It wasn't until recently that I had any ceramic supplies so in the meantime I made do working with native river bank clays and some soluble salts after the kiln was good to go. There was not a normal clay or flux here to speak of, just a few oxides. It is nice now to have some EPK, ball clay, Custer, etc.
At the risk of embarrassing him I am going to say a public thank you to Bill Merrill (Peninsula College, WA) who so kindly sent me a huge and heavy care package containing an assortment of 3-4 pounds each of basic clays and fluxes. His package was delivered right after I was able to shop for a few things myself. Bill's generosity warmed my heart. He's a great guy and very experienced, informative, patient, detailed, and reassuring with the answering of questions if you ever have need of a clay consult.
I gotta say, too, a big public thank you to Logan Johnson who's helped to keep me calm and working and laughing through all my new artist crises of conscious -- Logan is great with clay questions, tips, and chat, too.
The guys and gals from Claycraft have been good to me, too -- much appreciated!
Anyway, I have posted a few new photos on Flickr (http://www.flickr.com/photos/neon-cat/ in the set 'River Bank Clay, "RiverWild" Series, 2009' or in the Photostream).
I've nailed down the composition of a yellow-firing native clay body I like, continued with my iron color studies, run some experiments on dispersive and agglomerated clay bodies, played with and researched the consistency and workability of clay bodies, and continued to test newly discovered native clays. Although hooked on native clays it is fun to think I can also now use more normal clay bodies and start some traditional glaze projects should the mood strike me.
Wishing you all a joyous, creative day!
Marian
Neon-Cat
www.neon-cat.com
neo...@flash.net
http://www.flickr.com/photos/neon-cat/