Prototype microgama.

Today, after a long set of circumstances ended up at my studio today.  I decided enough was enough and started building a kiln shape with local bricks from the brick yards that used to be in my town (the streets under the eiffel tower were once paved with bricks from mt. union).  Some of them are silica brick so I'm not expecting much for the firing due to thermal expansion and spalling.
I do however have a healthy supply of bamboo that I have been dying to test out for kiln arch forms.  Super old school Asian trick.  It is super slick.  Expect more.  Requires heathy supply of good sized bamboo.  Good thing that right here in the mountians of Pennsylvania, on the banks of the blue Juniata river.  I have the most wonderful patch of it fit for a mammoth panda bear.  What luck!
This comes from my phone.  The image is with a flash after it got dark. We shall see how it looks via blog.
Cheers.

Daylight is burning.

Well,

Hello there. I was taking a lunch break and saw that my internet connection wasn't just 'local'. So I firgured I should write. Busy, busy. Making pots, moving scrap metal; your normal everyday me stuff. The weather is beautiful but very humid and hot for the time of year here in the mountains. Check out youtube. There are some new videos there. Just got into my first juried exhibition since college! Its at the Carbondale Clay Center in Carbondale, Colorado. Pretty cool.



*i feel like i should just post this as my connection may disappear at any moment.

How cellular phones revolutionized the interwebs.

Still no real solution to my internet connectivity issues.  I have been downloading apps on my phone to try and find one that works with my blogspot.

Early Summer.

My computer and my internet have not been getting along as of late so I have not been able to adequately update this blog and my website, or do any clerical business on the interwebs. That being said there is much that has happened and much that is in the works. We did another wood firing at Juniata College at the beginning of April with success dispite the torrential rains that happened that week. I believe there were some major storms all over. We ended up having to bail-out the front of the kiln. Chaos, per usual. There will be an update on the website for some of the goodies out of that. I started running around and pitched my tent at a little first-time annual pottery festival. "Pots in the Park" was the 20-21st of this month (May). It was to benefit the start up cost for a ceramics center in Oil City Pennsylvania. I don't have too many pictures of that event but I'll try and get them on here as well as firing photos. In the mean time check out my youtube page. My Dad has been messing around with a Windows video program and came up with some little informational videos. They have entertainment value as well! More to be added there too.

http://www.youtube.com/user/drobnock?feature=mhee

Or Something like that.

in no particular order, as that is apparently not working.

A new cup form for slipcasting.

I am still waiting to pour the foot mould.

now we are walking.

After some time I have come upon fired test pieces. I used two clay bodies and three glazes. There are more pots to be fired but I need more white glaze. I think its going to come to mixing my own recipe but I need to have materials sent in or I need to go out into the wilderness and forage for bags of feldspar...

Probably best going to someone who already found some.

Must make more mugs. Also work for the April anagama firing is underway, I think we will have enough work for a good firing.

And then the other foot.

Stayed up all night the other night babysitting my first bisque firing to make sure the new wiring was going to hold up and that it wasn't going to burn the place down. Mostly success, nothing caught fire, pots bisqued. The next step is a glaze firing. I also received the clay that I ordered from Alligator Clay Co. It has a purple color to it next to the orangey clay from Georgies. It is also chock full of sand or very fine grog. I am excited to see the difference in the fired clays and how their characteristics are different from each other.