Smokin'!

Incense burners, that is! Just out of the kiln and ready to smell up the house! And now, our incense holders come with hand dipped incense samples from Dreamland Incense.

Green and Gold Feathers

Just out of the kiln, the glaze effects were unexpected on this mug. The feathering within the green drip is so stunning and the bamboo glaze below it has never let me down. It is available is our etsy store.

Going Home

These found a lovely home as soon as they came out of the kiln. We hope they have many happy years with their new family. We will send them out filled with wishes of joy and happy memories.

Rebloom

Another take on the Blossom Mug - sweet and delicate.

Stamped Teal Hand Drum

This amazing ceramic drum is a creation of Alex LaPella. The body is stoneware and was thrown on the wheel, then the design was stamped into the body while the clay was still damp. After trips to the kiln for bisque and glaze firing, Alex fabricated the steel rings to fit the drum, wrapped them in fabric, then strung on a goat skin head. Like all of Alex's drums, it is tunable and the head is replaceable. We NEVER glue on a drum head, so our drums can be tuned no matter the environment. Watch for this drum to appear in our etsy shop.

Wiring Harnesses and Relays

That title sounds scary! But what it means is, we replaced the wiring harnesses and relays in the kiln this weekend and test fired a batch of tiles. I am anxious to see the bisque fired tiles, but I know the true test will be an excellent glaze firing.

We are beginning to collect what we need to build our kiln at home. Alex has been drawing and redrawing kiln plans for 2 years and we believe we have what we want now. Thanks to some frineds on the building industry, we may be able to build our gas/wood kiln for LESS than we would pay for another large electric kiln.

Blossom

A blossom stamped into the thumbrest defines this potbelly mug. Just listed and already SOLD, this little beauty is feeling the love. Don't worry, there will be more to come.

Today is the day I replace the wiring harnesses and relays in the kiln. I have had a few misfirings and it is a job overdue. Hopefully I can get it done quickly and do a little test fire. I am anxious to get the misfired pieces back into and out of a working kiln so I can dance around the studio in excitement again!

Potbelly Pleasure

A caramel potbelly mug is the perfect pairing for your morning coffee. The potbelly shape keeps your coffee or tea warm and the side is bumped in inside the handle so your knuckles don't get burned. Buy it here.

Swirly Love

I love opening up the kiln on a glaze firing. This pendant's colors were so unexpected. The silvery sparkle where the glaze pooled is something I've never seen before. I hope I'll be able to replicate the results on something like a plate, but there are no guarantees.

Favorite Coffee Mug

Alex made this coffee mug for me to drink my coffee from each morning - unless he gets to it first! It is my new favorite coffee mug. It is big (about 20 ounces) and beautiful. Even better... it fits in the cup holders in the cars! And the glaze job, my part in this, is nearly as perfect as the form! Woo hoo!

Autumn

The heat of summer makes autumn so enticing. Cool breezes, falling leaves, and a world bursting into technicolor are worth dreaming about. Remind yourself of autumn days with this lovely, side-drilled pendant, made be me and available here.

Love these!

I just love my rocking bottle and the little handbuilt vase I paired it with. The rocking bottle is handbuilt with a thrown neck. Both pieces are glazed with a cobalt glaze that break to an olive green.

A Step Forward

I have been working on this line of pendants for a few weeks now and I am beginning to get the results I had originally hoped for. While I did toss a whole batch in the trash the other day, over all, I think they are beautiful. Now that I have a line of small items, I am struggling with photographing them. I have photgraphed them indoors and out. I have used a flash and I have tried without. I have used flourescent light, incandescent, and sunlight, both glaring and diffused. And most of the photos go straight into the trash!


Since we had a break from the cold yesterday, Alex and I decided to take the boys to the park. They were suffering terribly of cabin fever. I always take my camera, but as we walked out of the door, I turned back and grabbed a bag full of pendants. I hoped that along with shots of the kids feeding the geese with their hair on end from the static electricity in the slides, I might get a shot or two of the pendants.

The sun was low and the light was really harsh. Everything was making long, hard, shadows. While Alex played with the boys, I crawled around on my hands and knees propping pendants on tree roots, stumps, and park benches. Finally, I got some good shots and now, FINALLY, I can add some pendants to my etsy store, www.intothefire.etsy.com.

Pendants and More Pendants

The pendants are piling up around here. I have 45 earthenware pendants in various stages of completion and about 40 stoneware pendants waiting to be fired. Some of the earthenware pendants are in the kiln now. Seven are being coated with glaze now. A few are still waiting for me to decide how to glaze them.

After thinking about the stoneware pendant problem, I think I've come up with a solution. I made a few and I've been burnishing the backs of them. When I finish burnishing, the backs are shiny and silky smooth. They should feel nice against bare skin. Now it won't matter that only the fronts are glazed. I'm so glad and I hope I'll get results more like the glaze test tiles from an earlier post.

Somethings Just Don't Work Out Like You Plan

I had such a clear vision for my ceramic pendants. I knew EXACTLY how I wanted them to look. I wanted them to have the same characteristics as our glaze test tiles. I wanted that variation of color, the drips, everything. I wanted spectacular.

The first thing I did wrong was make them from earthenware. I LOVE my stoneware glazes,but I was thinking I could get similar results from the earthenware glazes if I was careful. I chose earthenware because I can glaze the backs and stilt the pieces in a low fire kiln. That way the side against your skin would be cool and smooth. I also do far more earthenware firings and I didn't want to wait until the next stoneware firing.

I'm not saying I don't like them at all - I'm just not exactly thrilled with the results. I still have 40 more to glaze so surely I'll get it right before they are all done! And, probably, these will grow on me. Sometimes it is harder than others to let go of my vision.

Stoneware Drums

Alex has been constructing drums for a show this fall. He throws most drums in two pieces and then joins the parts together while they are still maleable. Today there are at least seven drums in the works!

Alex uses stoneware clay to craft his drums, which makes them durable and gives a great booming sound. A lot of ceramic drums are made from earthenware, which is much more fragile. He uses both traditional knotting systems and tuning pegs when he strings the heads on the drums. The knotting systems are beautiful, but drummers who aren't familiar with the system usually prefer tuning pegs to adjust the tightness of the drum head.


We are testing new glazes before we begin glazing the drums pictured above. This process is time consuming because we added in 11 new glazes at once and we want to test how the glazes react when they are butted up against each other, when they are layered, and how they stand alone. I was once a math whiz, but I can't figure out how many possibilities there are!