Studio


mwheel

Welcome to the Studio page. I have included a few photos of my workplace surroundings, along with some "process" shots. The studio takes up exactly half of the 30 ft x 30 ft barn, along with the attached kiln building, as shown below.

     

barn

                                                                                        kilnfiring1


The photo to the left is 5 years old or so - I have since taken the kiln apart and moved the burners to the front and  back as seen in the second shot. Each firng takes 11 or 12 hours. The final temperature is 2350F (cone 9 - 10).


                                  firingkiln                                     kilnfiring3


I fire all my work in two firings. The initial firing is called a "bisque" or "biscuit" firing, and is about half as hot as the final "glaze" firing. This strengthens the raw pieces enough to be handled more easily during the glazing process. 

It takes me about 2 months to make enough work to fill a bisque load.  As you can see from the first photo, The work must be very carefully, but densely, stacked for the bisque load. For this reason, I can get two or more glaze loads from each bisque load. The pieces in the glaze load cannot touch, so they take up much more room.


       kilnloadbiscuit2          kilnload


storeAlthough we try to keep the store as tidy as possible, the days just before a big show can make that goal difficult!





parks 12-02copy  I work alone, but pint sized helpers occasionally wander in.....