JohnnyK

Got the stitches out of my hand today and will be able to get my hands on the clay in about a week. The orthopedist said that throwing would be excellent exercise...

Great news today...my submission of the Three's A Charm horsehair Raku was chosen for a Juror's Award in "Sculpture" at the KVIE  PBS Art  Auction!

Hey, Pres, How 'bout this for QOTW: How do you see yourself in clay?

One of the things about taking college level Ceramics courses it the challenges you are presented with. In the last course I took on Raku the professor had a thing for Xian warriors...the terracotta army unearthed in China. One of our assignments was to sculpt a version of one of these figures...with a twist. We had to incorporate some aspect of our current life situation into the sculpture. I don't consider myself a sculptor, but I wanted to give it my best shot. Since my primary interests at this point in my life are ceramics, farming, and photography but none of the statues were suitable for the pottery or photography aspects, I chose the farmer idea. It was a real challenge, but a productive one. Here is a photo of my Raku "John Warrior" self-portrait. , and the challenge..."How do you see yourself in Clay".

I think the new format of the "Recent Posts" section leaves a lot to be desired. In some instances, the subject of the post can take up the entire section where we might get 5 answers to a question rather than 5 questions as it was before.  Many times, we are told that the changes are supposed to "make things EASIER for us". I don't think that is the case here...

I was just reminded how fragile bone-dry greenware is when I was transporting a stack of berry bowls from my studio to my garage to load into the kiln...broke 2. Will open the kiln this afternoon to unload 40 pieces and get ready for glazing and horsehair Raku...

In the process of designing and building a portable Raku kiln. Will be doing a bisque firing of the blanket buttons as well as some pots to fire when the kiln is done...

It's been 7 weeks since my spine surgery and I'm happy to say that the procedure was a total success! I'm back to doing everything that I couldn't do and more. No back or leg pain at all. Looking forward to firing up the wheel again!

Just completed a bisque firing of 25 bowls... waiting for the cool down so I can get to glazing. Will be running a glaze test tomorrow or Friday to come up with some ideas for glazing these Christmas presents...using Amaco's Potters Choice for layering...

Just completed a Raku course at Sierra College in Rocklin, CA...What a semester! Completed with an "A"!

Just finished a bag of Laguna B-3 Brown ^5 which is supposed to fire black...we'll see...and thanks for all the input on not firing above ^5...

Just found a dynamite use for trimming tools...cleaning the inside and carving the outside of Jack-O-Lanterns...

Just got a jar of Amaco's Honey Flux and am looking forward to seeing what kind of great layering effects I can come up with.

Just got my first Bison carbide cutting tool . It will be a little while before I get to using it since I'm in the process of getting my little farm ready to plant. Also working on glazing another 20 or so pieces before I start throwing again.

Just got notification that "Another Horsehair Raku Trio" was accepted for this year's PBS station art auction. They were happy to get the new contribution since last year's went over so well.

Just got the Call for Artists for the local PBS art auction in October...I think more Horsehair Raku and maybe regular Raku will be in the offing this year since the Horsehair went over so well last year...

Just had a trio of horsehair Raku pots juried and accepted for a local PBS TV station's fall Art Auction!

Just had an interview with a local online news source posted based on my KVIE-TV Juror's Award...Where would be the best place to post the PDF?

Just had spine surgery so I'll be off the wheel for a month or two, but will still keep up with the forum...

just opened the glaze firing and am blown away by the pieces. Some will be refired to enhance the look!

Just shipped my first commissioned Horsehair Raku jar with very positive review...

Just started a Raku class at Sierra College. Can't wait to start burning things!

Just wanted to say that I like the increase in the # of Topics!

Kinda lookin' forward to getting my new coils from Euclids so I can start testing the old Cress Kiln...

Major fail, but lessons learned...see Forum entry.

Met Mark today at the UC Davis Whole Earth Festival and had an in depth conversation about his product,( which were outstanding}, and his general philosophy of product pricing and customer interaction. Thanks for the insights, Mark!