After over a two year hiatus, I am finally getting back into the studio!  We have moved to Greensboro, MD and I have a new studio!  It's great to have a new space and even though it's not complete, figuring out the best way to set it up is going to be an ongoing - yet fun - process.

It's been fun unwrapping all the artwork that has been packed away for a couple of years, and the watercolor bug is definitely pulling at me; there is just nothing like it.  Thinking backwards to keep the whites their whitest and the paper from getting muddy.  I love the clean hard lines you can achieve with watercolor, the incredible blend of colors that a drop of water can provide - and even the bloom- embrace the bloom! It is unique.  I will be digging out the watercolors as soon as I get my Art desk re-covered; the heat in storage was not kind to the vinyl.

In the meantime, I've had a few requests for paddle art - so I will be digging out my paddles and acrylics and getting back to the business of being creative.

I'll do my best to keep you in the loop!

As you can tell from the pictures below, the color of the glaze before firing is no indication of what color it will turn out.  When choosing glaze - and trust me, it can take longer to glaze than you think - we typically pick colors based on charts provided by the glaze manufacturer.  The color still can vary from the intended color based on what clay was used, how many coats were applied - whether the piece was dipped in glaze or brushed with it, temperature of firing, and most of all, what different colors are applied.  

Most often, we'll use custom color combinations we've tried in the past - such as the "Apple" glaze pictured in the red crab bowl below (first successful on a large Apple), or the "Santa Glaze" so named because it was first tried on a Santa goblet. But we are always looking for new combinations to add to the "custom" collection.

This is also a good opportunity to compare how much the pottery shrinks during firing - even from bisque fire (half fired) stage, to final glaze fire.  Total shrinkage from wet clay to final fire can be 14-16%

After collecting a shelf of unpopular pieces, I debated tossing them or re-glazing... See my results below:

When I originally glazed the bowl on the left, I was hoping for the light blue on the smooth bowl on the right.  After firing to cone 5, the bowl came out green.  I decided to fire it to Cone 6 with no additional glaze and it came out dark blue!

I normally fire to Cone 6 (around 2,300 degrees F) or Cone 04 (around 1,900 degrees F) if it's a bisque/low-fire glaze.  We use glazes that range from Cone 06-6 - those formulated for that full temperature range typically lose some of the color brightness/intensity achieved at 06, when fired to cone 6.  

With this in mind, we tried firing to cone 5 (with specific cone 5-6 glaze) to see if we would retain more of the "published" glaze color - and while some did not show much difference, others did not impress at all. 

As a result, we're re-glazing and re-firing to cone 6 today.  Some will have additional glaze added to achieve a truer color, some will have different glaze added (because the original result was "ick"), and others will just be put back in to fire again - hopefully to achieve the color desired in the first place.  

While Pete is convinced that "reglazing doesn't work", we have had some success in the past.  I'll show before and after pictures either way!

Hi Everyone, It's Meg here.  Annie forwarded these pictures to me from the studio today.  It looks to me like she's gearing up for Spring & Summer when she'll have pieces in The Treasure Chest in Oxford, MD.  All of these pieces are slab built.  I especially love the turtle shell pattern in the bowl above - endless possibilities for a bowl like that!  I also love the Crab Flag - it'd be a great dish for Memorial, Independence, or Labor Day parties - or for any summertime parties for that matter!  And the coasters - I have a feeling they're going to be popular!

We will try to get pictures of these once they're fired so you can see before and after pictures!

This is the first week that I've gotten to spend a week day in the studio since before Christmas!  I've posted pictures of some of the cooler items that I made.  Stay tuned - Studio time should pick up soon!

The studio has been slow over the holidays but check out what we used for the top of our Christmas Tree!  

Just a couple of the pieces that came out of the kiln last week!  This year my "day job" has been a very busy