Spring Has Sprang…

That’s how they say it here in Kentucky. There’s lots of other things they say here in Kentucky like… I have ran out of gas. Lack of participles aside, it’s been a glazing week again and I’ve been able to open the window in the studio and let in the fresh breezy air. Maybe I’ll be able to take the plastic off the upstairs windows soon (when it stays in the 50’s at night) and keep them open while we sleep. Of course, sometimes during the day I get help and company…

Hopefully, I’ll get the kiln running tonight as I think I have a whole load but maybe a piece of two shy. It seems that I keep throwing up roadblocks to inhibit my progress. Yesterday, I was hurriedly whipping up some cabbage soup and sliced the very tip of my left thumb off (about the size of a ladybug). Not a huge injury but wouldn’t stop bleeding and wasn’t so hot about immersing my hand in glaze for any reason. Anyway, here’s a couple more shots of the dynamic duo…

Every now and then I see posts about favorite tools and I got one of mine out recently. Although I prefer the romanticism of tools that do not require electricity, sometimes those circuits are our friends and if the electricity supply in our future is in doubt then I doubt that whether or not I can use this tool will be high on my list of concerns. Anyway, a couple years ago I was doing a bunch of blue and white vases that required painting cobalt (not copper) stains onto bisqueware and putting a clear glaze over the top (or overtop as they say here in KY). The problem with some of these stains is that the solution falls out of suspension rather quickly and you end up mixing the little jar of stain with the brush so that you don’t end up with a brushload of weak diluted stain. Of course after mixing the solution with the brush the opposite is true… you end up with highly concentrated brushload. So a friend loaned me this indefinitely… it’s the Honeywell/Wein WP-MM Magnetic Mixer,

This is a very simple device that has a small motor inside of a housing with a rheostat knob on the outside. Inside, a magnet is attached to the motor and spins just under the surface. There is also a small plastic coated magnet about 1 1/2 inches long and about the width of a pencil. So you mix up your stain (I usually put a bit of glycerin in there), set the jar in the center on the mixer, plop the little magnet into the stain and turn the knob. The magnet in the bottom of the jar spins the same as the magnet that is spinning inside the housing and voila… the stain remains perfectly mixed and in suspension. Here’s an action shot, the stain is spinning…

Tags: ceramics, clay, porcelain, pottery