Glazing! Cont. from yesterday...

Ok. Now comes the glazing. I make all my own glazes from scratch. I have several buckets of different glazes. FIrstly, I have mix them up since things settle to the bottom while the buckets sit there on a shelf twixt glazings. I use a metal paint mixer on my drill.

Then I dip the waxed bisqueware into the glaze....

Now, you can see the glaze in a total mess on the bottom of the piece.

So, I wipe all that off after the glaze has dried a bit.

So, I glaze everything, taking great care to wipe off the excess glaze so it does not stick to my shelf and destroy the piece and my shelf.
Then I let the glaze dry. You can see where the wax was applied to the teeth and horns, nice and clean!

Then I load the kiln. I have a total of 9 shelves, but 2 live on the bottom, so they don't really count. I can usually sneak in a narrow shelf that I can load with tags and lids.


Voila! Three hours after I started glazing, the kiln is loaded and ready to fire...

Not everyone made into the firing. Because I can stack things inthe bisque firing, but not the galze fire, there is almost always someone left out. Good thing they are patient.

It will take about 8 hours to reach cone 10 then another 20 hours or so to cool down to where I can unload everything.

after the bisque...

Unloaded the bisque firing. Lost 2 pieces because I was impatient and loaded them too wet... Sigh.... otherwise, all went well and I ended up with a whole buncha stuff to glaze. First, before glazing I wax 'em! The wax keeps any glaze from soaking into the bisqueware, very handy if you do not want your pieces melting into your shelves. Also handy if you have part of your mug that you do not want glazed, like the horns or teeth of a demon or the eyes of a particular critter. So the bottoms, horns and teeth got waxed tonight. Tomorrow I will glaze everything and load up the kiln for the glaze firing.

just to let you all know what goes into ceramics production...

So ceramics need to be fired twice (Yeah, I know, some people do it all in one firing, but that is too unpredictable for my tastes). The first of the firings is called a bisque firing, this takes out a good amount of the moisture, but is not hot enough to vitrify the clay. WHat you see loaded in the kiln is what is called greenware. That just means that the clay has been thrown and allowed to air dry. It is freakishly fragile at this stage and still makes me nervous to handle it. I fire it to cone 04 for my bisque firing, around 1925 degrees F. This is considered low firing. When someone says they use a low fire clay, it is in the range of cone 06- cone 1. It is the most common firing range for ceramics, but also leaves the piece relatively weak.
In a bisgue firing, since the clay is not vitrified or glazed, it is fine to have pieces touch each other or even be placed inside one another. Therefore I get a lot more in the bisque firing than I do in a glaze firing. I pack those bisques tight!
In my little Skutt Electric Kiln, this firing, done on a slow speed will take about 13 hours and about 65kwH of power. I then have to wait for it to cool down, which takes about another 18 hours or so depending on the outside temperature. SO at some point tomorrow, I will take pieces out to wax and glaze them. more on that tomorrow!

The Ochibos are coming!!

They are coming by the Hundreds to the MakerFaire in San Mateo this May in the lovely south bay area. You really should go to the Fair this year, I promise it will be so worth it.
When not at hte maker fair, they can be found resting and relaxing at OchiboEtsy!

Monster o'Mine

This is big. This is huge.

Monsters bags and backpacks are coming to your planet. You must take them to your leader. And also to the mall. And to your school. And to your office.

New monster stuff!

New monster plush on our Etsy store. We are constantly adding new ones so keep checking us out. Also added regularly are new neckwarmers, jewelry, and cloths all handmade by us. And now introducing, Willy, Bongo, Flo and Tangerine!

"there's one in all of us"

I realize that this blog is probably supposed to center around crafts and art, but the new poster for Where the Wild Things Are is out today and it makes my little monster loving heart squeal.

Big. Furry. Monster. Be still my heart.

(found at the meltdown comics blog.)