Rae Reich

I made a thing. 

This week I haven't done anything out in the shed but trim some fermentation jars (and feel guilty about it).  Instead I've been hunched over a computer and camera trying to get everything squared away for my business and website.  I have my photo booth almost all squared away, need to pick up some posterboard tonight and really start photographing everything.  Wish I could just make things and let them disappear on their own, hah.
Anyway, here's a picture.  I was using this mug to dial in my camera and lights.
 

Not so much on the workbench, but finished and on the wall.

I like them.
Audio is nicer also and of course no PJ’s a plus. Kudos to mentioning the compression out to in. You are probably only the third person I know to mention it and it has saved countless newbies from the unexplained crack. Food preparation is a bit of science also. This video has made me hungry, go figure.
someone I watched who was a throw to the stick person actually hinged the last two inches of his stick  so when done he could flip it horizontally out of the way. Seemed like an easy good idea.

I think it's the same, I make kimchi, sauerkraut and kombucha and they don't need to be air tight, they just need to be covered.  I mean some people are really afraid of a bad ferment,  but ive never had a problem smelling or seeing if something was off!  I think airlocks are just in the interest of extra safety.  
Once lactobacillus takes hold in a lactobacillus ferment (kombucha, kimchi, sauerkraut, etc) or aspergillus in an aspergillus ferment (sake, tempeh, miso, etc), it's really hard for any baddies to get a hold.  
But for miso, a weight is placed on top of the beans to keep them under the liquid (tamari), and this keeps them from being a host for fungi.  So the byproduct of the digested beans kind of acts like the airlock.  Same with kimchi, although it never lasts long enough in my house to grow anything but delicious!

Ok must be a different process.
My daughter in law makes fermented vegies , sauerkraut amd a femented drink and needs/uses jars with airlocks to keep out unwanted gremlins but a positive. Pressure may do same.
I guess the water airlock ones burb on their own...

This week I will be making some three pound fermentation vessels.  I think I need to make a dozen or so jars for my wife and her group of friends.  I'm hoping to also get through 30 mugs this week.
Made a video of me making the fermentation jars, or at least the first exploration of the form, can watch if you are interested in seeing me throw cylinders poorly, haha
 

Yup, they are stainless steel. So just as food safe as the pots. 

As I mentioned in the Events section, I have a big show coming up soon. Lots of good stuff coming out of the kilns now.

Been making bells for the past few days.  I love the sound of giant bowls when I ting them, so might as well make a big bell and hear it whenever the wind blows!  I have a small wind chime I got at a second hand store, and it sounds really nice, but it's all tinkle tinkle, and I like the bonging and donging of a deeper bell.  Hope it all works out, this is a video of me making my third one.  I am gonna make some more tonight, it's fun.  Probably gonna make a bunch of mugs first though, i need about 20 more mugs for a full mug bisque load.
 

I made some new stuff for spring. 

And here's the other two pictures dang upload limit

Was kind of busy last week with trying to bisque a lot of the stuff taking up space, I got a lot cleared out, some winners some losers.  Here are some of the winners, a new glaze combo I really like.  I call it rotten melon 
 
 

Nice work!
I never post anything here so here is a sampling of the weekend reduction firing. There are many talented artists at the studio (Clayspace ceramic arts center) that now excel at getting their favorite reduction, Carbon trapping, even ice crackle!
cool stuff and a fun mask almost sans eyeballs. Great group firings, time after time in an old Alpine updraft with some fancy digital stuff hooked to it.
 
 
 
 

This is a finished one of the oil bottles I posted a greenware photo of a few pages back, flashing slips, cone 10 soda. 

I'm generally just being funny...
 
I actually wasn't sure what it was.  I had never heard of a strawberry planter.
 
@Hulk Those are very nice works.  Far better, than my second batch of glazed wares...
I like the bottom of the bowls.  They resemble those plastic speckled bowls, faded in popularity, but have now come back, partially due to Rachael Ray using them, on her show as "Garbage Bowls".  My family had a large one growing up, but we called it a "Puke Bowl", partially due to it's coloring, partially due, to what it was used for, when someone was sick...

really nice things, hulk, congrats!    i was taken back to the year 1961 by the first bowls.  the bottoms look exactly like the punch cards i used to work with to get the repairmen  paid when i worked at Michigan Bell.  

a few more
  variegated over bmix is bluer
  teal blue
  Lakeside Pottery clear blue really shows thickness differences - I've got some work to do here
  Aardvark light blue gloss
  variegated over red is greener
  faux celedon

Unloaded second glaze firing Sunday last, looking forward to th' third!
From top left, clockwise
  Some bmix bowls, teal blue, light blue gloss, variegated glazes; chattering highlighted with underglaze and/or glaze, clear over. Clear glazes crazed on every bmix piece except one, ; the other glazes behaved well, except the light blue crazed some over bmix
  Some red clay pieces, teal blue, variegated, white, faux celadon and clear glazes, chattering highlighted with underglazes
  bmix  bowls, light gloss blue over bmix
  Closeup of variegated over red clay; looks bluer over white clay. I love this one - from Bill van Gilder's book (the blue teal is from his book as well*)
  Closeup of faux celadon over bmix, same highlighted chattering; this is variation of Marcia's recipe
 
The lessons, so far, fairly typical
  sieve them glazes
  adjust sg and jellyness of glazes to hit thickness without running and dripping
  cone pack on each level
  be able to see the cones when approaching target temp
  be careful loading and unloading
  toss flawed pieces into recycle pile - don't let them take up time, nor space
  don' expect glaze that fits this clay ok to also fit that clay :|
  test test, learn learn, repeat
 
*I'll post recipes if anyone's interested

Ready for the road. Glazed, packed, and loaded in the car & an old pic of the kiln. Yee haw!! Workbench is now empty.

Thank you, Pres.  The temptation to comment (here) can be resisted, if one tries!!!  Not necessairly so easy, but it can be done. I am laughing becasue I am involved in another group that has a terrible problem with getting members to post their comments where they are supposed to, and to stop responding in the wrong place as well. 

Tools, that a good'n, e.g. banding wheel - which was just thinkin' (uh-oh) yesterday has moved from someday to need it now* - which most all can be done on the wheelhead, but anywhere one wishes to move the banding wheel to, e.g. at eye level.
I'd like to try a Giffin (or Bailey's version? discuss?); that said, my nerves/damage don't do tap centering, however, line up visual, then turn/scribe, move, repeat is gettin' faster for me, typically one or two moves does it.
 
*now that I'm glazing/waxing dozens of pots at a go instead of a few at a time...

For teaching, I wish I would have known about the Giffin Grip earlier.  It's invaluable, in my classroom.  I want the students to have experience trimming, but we don't have time, for them to get good at tap centering. 
I had never heard of the Giffin Grip, until my second teaching job, where they had one.  I said, "What is that, and why am I just finding out about it?!"
When I took the job, at my current District, I bought one, within the first year. 
 
Also, Xiem makes a bevel cutter, which is amazing for the slab boxes, my students make.  Prior to that, students either eyeballed the 45, or I had wood templates, they set on the slab, and then ran their knife along to cut the angle.  The Xiem tool is WAAAAAAY easier and more intuitive.

Finally got the side bowls on, I'm pleased with myself.
Now to see if it survives drying and firing ha
 
I also made myself a new wedging table today, my old setup was a little too high for me and was making my back hurt.
 

i gave up using red clay because of the mess.   i could not get it out of my many wrinkles without bleach.   white clay is so much neater,   (unless you put the throwing water on top of the wheelhead and accidentally hit the pedal.)   do not ask how i know this.