Thursday, March 22, 2012

Cherry Blossoms

I just love this print. It says SPRING to me. Our cherry tree on the side yard has blown itself into full bloom and the wind is sending down a lovely rain of lightest pink blossoms. Standing beneath it and tugging on a branch to get a shower of flowers over the dog and myself was a guilty pleasure that I indulged in yesterday morning. And then in the afternoon I had to drive 20 miles in order to deliver 2 canvases to Shelby for their MYSTERY ART event that starts on March 29th and all along the highway was a wonderful palette of brilliant redbud trees (in a shade that I covet for my pottery of chrome-tin violet), shy dogwoods with the faintest pale greens of leaves cupping the tender white blossoms, rolling spring grass green hills and dark greeny black pine shadows behind. More on the Mystery Art later, but enjoy the color in your world today!

Wednesday, March 14, 2012

Glaze Refire

It's been crazy around the studio and in life lately. Our daughter got married in California, so we have been cross country hopping and trying to recuperate from time zone changes and squeezing our bodies into those extremely comfortable tiny plane seats.
I have been having a problem with pin holing in two of my favorite glazes, but it almost always happens on my mugs. I have tried refiring before but it's not usually been successful, in fact, it usually gets worse. So yesterday I tried refiring a collection of pinholed mugs and some bowls that I didn't like the glaze results and eureka!! The thing I changed was firing at 2 cones lower and doing a fast fire instead of a slow fire. The true test will be if it's repeatable.