Unloading the kiln

Here it is! The magic is revealed as I unload the kiln. The end result of a month or more of hard work. This is a photo of the second shelf down. The posts  you see with the holes are called the furniture, on which the shelves rest.
My heart always beats faster at this moment. Will there be success? Are the colors what I wanted? Are there any flaws that will make it not refined enough to sell in the gallery?  I do everything my experience teaches me  to insure the best results. I like what I see here.
 However, there is always the element of chance in high fire ceramics. The clay is a large factor. Is there a hidden weakness that will result in a crack? Then there is the application of glaze. Did I put on the right consistency? Did I rub too hard at a drip and leave that spot bare? An important  question is whether or not the kiln gods are smiling that day. Yes, we  clay artists are superstitious folk.  I did have an unexpected crack. I can live with that. It is a good firing.

High Fire in my Kiln

Today is an exciting day. This is what my kiln looks like when  still red hot. It is full of glazed pots that have been firing for many hours. My kiln is an older model, electric, not a computerized model like is currently used.I am in charge of how I choose to fire. 
I  use a high fire porcelain clay body, which has a smooth surface after glazing with my choice of turquoise, blue, or clear glaze. This is my second, and final, firing.
The  first firing, called the bisque, makes it dry and hard enough, or vitrified, to apply the colorant.Some shrinkage occurs.There is still some porosity, hence it can absorb the glaze.Once it is in that form, I can dip each pot into the liquid glaze, containing various chemicals and oxides.Their melting point is a temperature of 2236 F. At that point, there is a small triangle, called a cone, resting on a sensor rod.When it melts, the lever falls, the kiln shuts itself off. The results will result from my skills, and the luck of the kiln gods.
I will leave it alone overnight. Slowly I will pull out the white peeps in front, crack the lid, and bring it to room temperature. Finally, I will see my results... 

Canola Oil

I seem to still be in Canada in my consciousness,  so I invite you along with me. This is a field of Canola plants, in full yellow blossom, close to harvest.  As I traveled along the open highway, I saw these flowers  stretching  for miles, or kilometers as the Canadians say.  
 Every day many of us  go to our kitchen and  use canola oil to prepare our  food. This is where it all starts, in  these beautiful fields of yellow blossoms. The ordinary becomes a totally different entity. That which we look at one way, suddenly becomes transformed.
Art contains all those elements of changing forms into other forms. Clay starts out as a piece  of wet earth. I take my hands and I shape it into what I hope it will agree to. Yes, it is really a living thing to me and so, will sometimes  follow, yet sometimes resist. As with all transformation, there is perhaps the element of luck, or my prayers to the kiln gods which may influence the outcome. Looking inside the mind of a ceramicist.
 I guess it is really about change. Just going far away and seeing those fields of brilliant color will change my views.About the Canola oil in my kitchen; how vast Alberta fields stretches as far as my eye can see; what I am going to create  out of the images swirling in my brain.
  

Playing with Fire

It is a hot day today in Sedona, AZ .It feels like summer is coming upon us. And heat is what I play with when making ceramics.This Raku jar is in my current show called Rock, Paper, Fire at the Jerome Cooperative. Notice the title, no accident there. I play with fire, and that means I must have some care,and yet some creative abandon. Kind of what we deal with every day, isn't it?

With Raku, I must reach into an extremely hot kiln with tongs ,while wearing gloves and lots of protective gear, and pull out my red hot creation.This piece then goes into a trash can with lots of paper as I watch the flames ignite and quickly close the lid to create a perfect reduction environment . Sounds technical, but out comes this beautiful jar with its lid entitled " Shimmer".

Of course this entire process of ceramics is extremely dependent upon the good will of the kiln gods, however they appear to each of us. I used to make a small figure for each kiln load. Why did I stop doing this I wonder?

I did said my prayer to these spirits this morning when I got up early to start my glaze firing. I could see the red glow of the heat when it finally turned off hours later.I won't even look at the inside of the kiln for 24 hours.Too much of a shock to the ceramics to let in cold air. Fire, heat, shimmer. It is all around us, inside us when we are filled with passion, about our art, our love, our life.

What are your feeling about fire and heat?