Wood fired vase and pendants

The noborigama wood firing over the Thanksgiving weekend was a success for me. My carved Southern Ice pendants turned out fantastic! The one above and the one below had some bronzing flashing slip painted into the details The photographs do not show the bits that turned bronze.

Well, you can see a bit of the bronze in the heart.

In the following pendants, I brushed on a bit of pumice celadon glaze and then wiped away some of the glaze from the high points. The pooling of the glazed in the carved areas really made me happy.

The one above was placed higher up in the kiln, in the path of the flame and got a nice amount of contrast as a result.

This pendant was below the path of the flame and so, did not get as much color contrast. It did get some nice peach colored flashing.

One of my favorites. Higher in the kiln, and so more contrast in color. The thinner areas where the celadon has pulled are translucent. Love it when you can see the shadow of your fingers behind it when you hold the pendant up to the light.

I really liked this pendant, and so, I decided to keep it. I think that the design can be adjusted to look either like a bird or a dragon.

And finally, a wood fired vase that survived! Yay!!! I used a different clay this time, so it survived. And I like the shape of the vase better.

I've got a sale this weekend, so I will be taking photos of that and posting them later.

of dragons and a kitty

More dragon ring holders. I find that I can only make about 3 before my concentration fails me completely. One of these will be underglazed red, I'm not sure about the other two. The red one will be a gift, the others will be for sale at the BHC studio sale on December 11 and 12.

And here's an update on one of the kitty pendants. This is for #1 of The Poupounette. It is meant to be a sort of memorial pendant in honor of dear Yuu-chan who crossed the Rainbow Bridge this past autumn. The symbolism of the rainbow is well defined. The kimono is wrapped right over left which is how Japanese people wrap kimonos on the deceased.

I know that I will be making more pendants like the Yuu-chan one. Two are in the process of being painted right now. And I have been asked to make a few for friends whose kitties or parent's kitties have passed on. I will post photos of those in the future. Right now, I'm still in the prototyping stage. I need to make sure the underglaze doesn't burn out at cone 10. Perhaps I will have to give up my cone 10 snobbery and go to cone 5 (a lower temperature). We shall have to see.