Welcome to my blog

 Welcome to my blog. 

I've never written a blog before - so this will be a new adventure - I'm not sure quite yet what I will write, but mostly about art is what I am thinking! 


So Welcome! 

Comments

Post a Comment

Popular posts from this blog

Some info on Lead in Glazes

Have you seen the TikTok or Reels videos that show a person going into their local thrift store and checking plates, bowls, and cups with a little marker for lead? When they mark the piece if the mark changes color it shows that there is lead in the piece and they claim that it shouldn't be sold and they offer to get rid of it for the thrift store?  Let's talk a little bit about lead in ceramics and in glass.  Historically speaking lead was added to the components of the glaze as a flux.  Adding the lead meant that the silica that was used to form the glass part of the glaze meant that the glaze could melt at a lower temperature than without it.  This was good because it meant the kiln did not have to get as hot to melt the glaze on the pieces.  In addition, if a artist was using a low-fire clay then during the glaze firing it did not have to get as hot, and potentially over-fire and melt the clay. Lead was also added to glass for the same reason that it was use...
Read more

A Lesson (Hopefully) Learned

Image
 Well, this is a bummer.  This photo was posted a few days ago on Facebook.   I knew going into the firing that the plate on the left had a crack, around the ridge but the other plate was completely ok going into the kiln.   After the initial sting of finding them cracked,  I was off to find a reason why this happened and how to keep it from happening again.   What appears to have happened to the first piece was either there was a bit of water left on the piece that settled into the spot where the lip rises and that moisture created a spot of unevenness in the drying process.   For the other piece, that crack appears to have come from uneven heating in the firing.  I had the plates stacked, which I've done many times stacking pieces: tiles, bowls, smaller pieces inside of others, but I think somehow there was an uneven heating causing this crack.   I completed this firing in the test kiln which is a small kiln that ha...
Read more

Teaching a New Class

Image
  Yesterday, I taught a new class on Idea Generation.  The class was based on a system of steps that one could take when looking at:  a piece of art, a piece of music, embroidery, recipes, games - basically just about anything in the arts and sciences, and turn it into a piece of work all of their very own.  There were six people that attended the class, including some SCA friends, as well as a young member of the SCA as well as someone who just joined the SCA three days ago and this was their first event. Honestly, this was an incredible turn out, being as though the class was not listed with my name or a description of what the class was about. In addition, it was listed as tentative due to uncertainties when it was time to register the class!  We had a great time, the class lasted a little less than 45 minutes - which was the target time that I was aiming for!  Overall a good experience - I'm glad I had such interest in the class.  I might take this...
Read more