#3hoursinstudio

With so many social media options available, what do you choose?
One of my favs for 2014 was Instagram. Nice filters and now with a fresh revamp, they are a quick and easy way to grab the essence of the studio day and share a little. Hence my 2014 hashtag #3hoursinstudio. It is also the name of my photo album on the dreaded facebook that captures an hour - 3 hours effort in the studio. I haven't named this years theme yet but no doubt it will come to me.. Anyhoo hop on either of those for daily updates. I will continue this page as my Journal space and general rants, not that there are many of those.

If yu still need to book for my workshop 'Mark making on Clay' at the Gallery 1855 pls get in touch with Niki e niki.vouis@cttg.sa.gov.au — at Gallery 1855 in Tea Tree Gully.

And see you at The Stirling Market Sunday 25 January in my usual spot on the lower lane outside the bank.

Meanwhile the ARTAG group from Gallery 1855 are working on an installation piece that will be really cool installing in our favourite room at the gallery complete with jail cell! We are all contributing in our medium of choice to a group piece about the impermanence of things, mostly relating to the gallery and its location as one of the first buildings in the area in what was once bushland. And more recently in connection with the Sampson flat bushfires our reflections will be very serendipitous…

my beginnings of the installation pieces...

And a little trip up the 'The Nose' for a hike Monday night, at Parra Wirra Recreation Park, just stunning in the rain and fog. This place never ceases to amaze me! cheers Darren for the trail guide ;)

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oh look springy time is sneezy time...

oh look springy time is sneezy time…

Sunday last was marketeering day in the hills and druid avenue was ablast with pollen! the oak trees are getting all springy and sending flying chunks of pollen all over the streets and by days end all my stock was covered as well as ma hair and every receptacle in sight.

the crowd was pretty good and due to another event in town things hotted up fairly quickly, then the 'lunchtime lul' and time to grab a bite to eat a coffee and watch the passers by…

Had loads of visitors and a lovely meet up with a fellow instagrammer ;)
Lovely to have neighbour Rajan back out of hibernation and Timbo the glass guy back from OS and brilliant assistance setting up and packing down again by my new neighbours from the riverland, they have all manor of dried fruits and the last of the pumpkins this wkd!

My terracotta fellas made the outing and some went to new homes as well as lil birdie and raku action for the day…
It's now winding up to making for chrissy sales and refilling shops around town and very exciting a trip interstate very very soon…
Monday was post market wipe out day, so exhausting then winding up into another weeks work. Happy days all, trying to stay balanced with running and brain winding down times plus studio time to recharge…
I saw a couple of seconds of Michael Kilne in the studio today, that is before the interwebs got stuck, hopefully something of the future checking into some studio time with other clay heads :)

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journal update...

a raku firing video to get yu started

click for a link to my statigram feed ;)

I feel like I'm always playing catchup these days and in an attempt to journal update here's last weeks efforts. I'd been madly making raku bottles for last wkd's open studio and only managed to fire a few of them as it was difficult to get a firing rhythm happening with visitors etc, the kiln would cool down and it would take an hour to get it back up to temperature so not many raku firings occurred but we did manage to get a few Obvaras through with some lovely results. I found after a bit of experimenting with time some gorgeous results from a truly smelly concoction.

firing last week in my rocket raku kiln...my usual turquoise glaze coming out not so…but some lovely reds again

our tree audience for the day and cranky skies…

obligatory fire and studio buds for the day...

  

and then last wkd stirling market sunday another fine winters day with lots of peeps out enjoying the sun and I took my heated jacket out for a market test run….soooo nice you wouldn't believe what a difference it makes, I found the company online and they just happen to be in Adelaide what lovely service the guy even brought out samples for me to try on. So if you're interested look up all purpose heated clothing

anyhoo it's off to the studio for me and do some warm up throwing pots, it's been a while since I've made some nice bowl shapes so check in later on the dreaded facebook and instagram or twitter

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the first of 2014...

The first of 2014 and may there be many more...

Saturday started early with the light up of the pilots well before brekky time, then on with the checking everything, the gas tanks, the pressure, the climb and as always the log.

I have come to rely on the past logs a lot as I aim for consistent colour and a heavy atmosphere. I headed down to the local garden centre for as the guy called it an 'armful of firewood' which in my firing focussed brain totally confused me. I know what he meant now but at the time ….huh?? Just think of a limb and fill it with wood you'll see where my brain went! snorts…. really i wasn't that tired, just in fully focussed mode. I know the day after firing is the tell tale sign of how well the firing went, am I exhausted? did I pay enough attention to every sign form the kiln during the firing?
And the result, well here's the pics, a lovely cone ten always shows up in the chun response. A touch of red from a soda test piece refire and some interesting cone 6 refire results in there too.

I did send a verbal sorry to the neighbours about the smoke,
I would normally be loading some wood later on in the day and the smoke is barely noticeable, so maybe the wood was very fresh? anyhoo I ended up opening the dampers to deter so much smoke. notes for next firing, start later and stoke later that way aiming for some more carbon in the work. There is a notable difference with this clay body too TMK is a porcelainous stoneware and the results are very smooth and silky, it looks like there is barely a touch of iron on that body so even though it is lovely to throw with I prefer a bit more iron in the body and will continue to use SWE and LGH for those results.

A peak in just as I cracked the kiln and a nice thing as big sis was there to open the kiln with me and grab the pots as I unloaded. Anyhoo off to market with some new pots, the new market in town Flinders Street Market is turning out to be quite a surprise and it can only get better, I'm there Sat Mar 29 and Stirling Market Sun Mar 23, hope to see you!

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