Salt pots, woodfired

Salt pots, woodfired, originally uploaded by woodfirer.

Very small, pinched salt pots

Group of bowls

Group of bowls, originally uploaded by woodfirer.

I have been photographing these bowls to see if I can arrive at an acceptable result with my own eye and my own camera. It is a question of eliminating the shadows and having enough light where it is needed...
Somehow the professional photos I have had taken tend to be rather cold and reserved..

Spotted bowl seen from the other side

Spotted bowl, originally uploaded by woodfirer.

These are more pictures of the bowls from the firing last week.

Spotted bowl

Spotted bowl, originally uploaded by woodfirer.

, originally uploaded by woodfirer.

Spotted bowl

Spotted bowl, originally uploaded by woodfirer.

Striped bowl

Striped bowl, originally uploaded by woodfirer.

Bowl with feather pattern

Bowl with feather pattern, originally uploaded by woodfirer.

New work

Pinched bowls and pinched salt pots from the latest firing.
The salt pots will be delivered to the Kunstindustrimuseets Shop in Copenhagen tomorrow.

The bowls are all about 10cms wide and 8cms high. The saltpots are only 5 cms high.

Kiln unpacked and pots transported home.....

'
Round coiled and pinched porcelain pot - 9 inches high


Now it is half past nine in the evening and I have started to unpack the pots I packed straight from the kiln earlier today, when I had hardly a chance to look at them.
I live nearly two hours drive from Guldagergaard and the kiln.
All in all my work turned out well - perhaps the little salt pots
were better than the larger bowls, and this tall pot (18")



which I was expecting so much of has weird fine hairline cracks in the glaze - they don't go right through, but they have attracted all the carbon trapping which has underlined them in a rather unfortunate, bruised-looking way. I must solve this problem. I thought it was caused by the work being fired raw, so everything was bisqued this time. The cracks are almost in a brick-like pattern. It could be that they are cracks in the terra siggilata layer- that would explain the carbon trapping getting in underneath and around the crack.... Next time I will restrain my urge to put terra siggilata on everything and see if I can be free of this particular effect!




Sten Lykke Madsen and some of his work from the firing.

Kiln opening tomorrow

I hear from Guldagergaard that the kiln is already down to 200 degrees centigrade, so it will be comfortably cool to open and empty tomorrow, starting at 11am.

Gregory Miller and Janne Hieck visit

Last night Gregory and Janne (and Keiran aged 4) stayed the night, as Gregory was giving demonstrations yesterday and today in connection with his participation in the exhibition "Kansha" at Gammelgaard, Herlev.


Gregory


Janne


Some of Gregory's 100 teabowls


Our house is looking its best, festooned with wisteria and clematis.

There was not really enough time to hear all I wanted to hear about Gregory's recent stint at Penland.
As they live near the northernmost tip of Jutland, and I live on Sjælland, we do not meet up that often.

The firing is over and the waiting now starts: opening - next wednesday.......
Here are some pictures of the team I was on shift with last night (8pm
- 2am)


Richard Saaby stoking


Peter Durlev splitting wood


Peter and the kiln

2am shift again!

Ingri stoking 3am.

Just finished the 2am - 8am shift which I had together with Ingri Kern. We both think that this is the best stoking shift to be on - before the sun rose we heard the nightingale, saw a hedgehog, and then had the blackbirds' dawn chorus and geese flyng overhead.
The kiln rose from 1025 to 1111 centigrade during our shift and cones looked as if they were softening according to the schedule.



Dawn chorus: Guldagergaard, Skælskør, Denmark

Wednesday

The 2am - 8am shift was fine - the blackbirds started singing at 4am and by 4.30 it was light! The long summer days are already here in Denmark. I will have the same shift tonight but this time we are two. Last night I was alone as the kiln was only just lit.
It is now at 1070 centigrade and just going along nicely.

Here you see Jesper stoking in his sensationally orange braces.



And here is the evening's salad waiting in the kitchen in a soda fired bowl by Elisa Helland Hansen.



And the potatoes in a bowl by Kazu Oba

Firing starts

The kiln is packed and the doors are being bricked up - I am taking the 2am - 8am shift so am going to sleep now - at 9.30pm.

Sten Lykke Madsen's birthday at Guldagergaard

Yesterday was Sten Lykke Madsen's birthday. The other artists-in-residence made him a "kagekone" - cake lady - as a birthday surprise.
On the left you can see a huge work he is making which will be shown in the group exhibition "Keramiske Veje" in October, if it comes out of the firing well......

Now at Guldagergaard

I have been working hard since returning from holiday in Spain on the 1st May, and today I have come down to Guldagergaard to take part in a firing of the crosss-draught kiln.
We are six or seven participants and are packing the kiln tomorrow and starting the firing around midnight. We will fire until friday night. (This picture is from 2006 - the kiln now has brick chimneys, and a roof!)


Spain in late spring was beautiful: we stayed in the village of Benirrama, Val de Gallinera in Valencia.