More Wax Resist

This is two photos of the same pot. The one on the left has been glazed but not fired the one on the right has been raku fired. This pot has a honeycomb wax design painted on it. You can see that the glaze has not stuck to the areas with wax. During the firing the wax will burn away leaving the bare clay. Then when the pot is under a can after coming out of the kiln the clay soaks up the smoke and turns black. Photo (R) Tutti Fruiti

Raku Firing

Doing a raku firing is a long, smokey, dirty process. We start out with a table full of just glazed pots. It's impossible to imagine the results. They are always more beautiful than you thought possible.
We heat up the raku kiln (a modified freezer). It runs on propane and takes about 2 hours to heat up. Then the pots are put on a shelf in the kiln. The shelf can hold about three medium sized pots and two-three smaller ones. The pots fire for about an hour while they are in the kiln we prepare. We take newspaper sections and put them on metal sheets on the ground. Then we fill some metal wastebaskets, cans, or large pots with shredded paper. Spencer gets his welding jacket, gloves and helmet on. Someone else wearing long pants and sleeves puts on leather gloves. Then he reaches into the kiln and uses metal tongs to take the molten pots out of the kiln.

He puts them on the paper pads and someone quickly puts the can full of paper over the top. As soon as the pot touches the paper it bursts into flames. There's a lot of fire and most of all smoke. Once all the pots are out Spencer puts a new batch in the freezer.

The pots under the lids are "flashed," we lift up the can for a second to give the fire a little oxygen. We wait a few minutes and then turn on the garden hose.

Someone wearing leather gloves pulls the can off quickly and Spencer sprays the pots to cool it as quickly as possible. The lack of oxygen produces the flashes of color. When the pots is exposed to the air the flashes star to disappear. Spraying the pot with water sets the colors. If a raku pot were not sprayed the color flashes would all fade and it would just be one color.

Piggy Banks

The body is thrown on the wheel. Then the legs, tail, ears and face are added. There is a slot on top to deposit coins and the nose cork can be removed to retrieve coins. These pigs are glazed in piggy pink (Snowflake with red iron oxide added). They are white with little brown red splotches. We quality check to make sure quarters fit in and out of the banks.

Pitchers

Can be used as decoration, for a bouquet or to serve syrup, cream or dressing. Customize size and glaze. Photo (L) Snowflake with Chun over the rim, (R) (left to right) Chun with Peacock rim, Fern with Clear over, Peacock.

Sugar Dish

Any small lidded dish. Perfect for keeping sugar, cinnamon sugar or sea salt handy. Can be used for many things (cotton balls, elastics, paper clips, etc.). Customize color and size. Top Photo: (L) Clear with Fern (R) Clear with Amethyst. Bottom Photo: (L) Chun (R) Fern.

Bud Vases

Just big enough for a single flower. A great way to keep a flower on your desk, nightstand, counter or anywhere. Available in any functional glaze or height. Photos (L) Fern over Clear (R)Desert Sky.

Honey Pots

These have been a big seller at Little America. (You know the whole beehive state thing.)
There are two different styles: hive pots or lidded pots.

The hive pots are honey colored with a bee as the handle. They have been trimmed so that the top section of the hive lifts off like a lid.

The lidded pots can be any glaze color and can have a hive, bee or flower as the handle. Both can have extra bees around the lid or pot. All bees have two wire wings. We have some in stock or they can be customized. Honey dippers are included in the purchase.
Photo: Chun

Photo: (L) Clear (R) Peacock

Kitchen Ware

Canister sets are made to order. I have a set of 6; one for flour, sugar, brown sugar, powdered sugar, popcorn, and salt. The biggest holds a whole 5 lb. bag of flour. Photo: snowflake with chun rims, interiors and handles.

These are utensil holders. They are for holding your wooden spoons, spatulas, ladles etc. on your counter top. They can be made to match or compliment your canisters, or made separately. Photo: (L) chun (M) peacock with black rim and interior (R) fern

These are spaghetti jars. They are big enough to hold a bag of spaghetti. They also can be made to match or compliment your canisters, or made separately. Photo: both are chun with peacock dipped over the top.

Bird Feeders

We have two bird feeders hanging in our yard and the birds love them. The top photo shows some I added clay and painted to look like faces. The other photos show some of the styles we have done. (Look at the folowing Swirl Pot post to see more.) The bird feeders can be large enough to have three holes and perches around the base, smaller like the ones pictured or whatever you would like.

Swirl Pots

Swirl pots are created by pancaking two or three different colors of clay together while wedging the clay. Then the motion of the wheel while you are throwing swirls the clays together. Most of the time they are left unglazed so that the colors of the clay can be seen. Sometimes a black glaze will be put on the inside of a pot or the pot could be glazed clear. A clear glaze will usually make the colors of the clay darker. The photo on the left is of a brown and white swirl with a clear glaze. The right photo is a brown, white and red lidded swirl pot. The photo on the bottom is of a variety of swirled bird feeders .

Wax Resist

After a pot has been bisque fired and before it is glaze fired you can paint a design on the pot with liquid wax. When the pot is then dipped in the glaze nothing sticks to the wax design. Then the pots are fired and the wax burns away. The pots come out of the kiln with a bare clay design where ever the wax was painted. This works especially well on raku pots because the bare clay soaks up the smoke and becomes black.

The first pot has a band of bare clay that we painted glaze on to to look like drips. The second pot has flowers painted on it. A frog is on the third pot. The last pot has a honeycomb design painted around the top section.

Bowls

There are three catagories of bowls we commonly make. They can be custom made any size you would like. The sizes listed are what we generally have in stock.

Serving/Mixing
8"-13"
Photo: Clear with amethyst rims










Cereal 7"-8" diameter
Photo: (L) peacock with chun rim (R) clear with amethyst rim

Individual 3"-5" diameters(especially good for dipping sauces, toppings for tacos etc. or a small serving) Photo: (L) clear with peacock drips (M) clear with amethyst drips (R) clear with fern drips

All bowls can be sold as a set or as singles. Create your own miss matched set.

Glazes

The glaze firing we do in an electric kiln up to a cone 5. All are food, dishwasher and microwave safe. We currently have 8 glazes.

Clear is a glossy clear glaze. It can be added over other glazes to make a matte glaze shiny or to make drips.

Black is a glossy black glaze. It can be added to the rims or as spots or drips.

Snowflake is a opaque matte white glaze. Other glazes look good dipped over snowflake. It has a dull finish so it is not the best for the inside of dishes.

Peacock is a shiny bright semi-transparent blue. Where there are indents or carved designs in the clay the glaze is darker because it pools there. It has a tendency to bubble on its own so we like to combine it with another glaze.

Fern is an opaque matte apple green glaze.

Amethyst is an opaque matte violet glaze. (here it is pictured dripped over snowflake)

Chun is a clear glaze where it is thin. The thicker it gets the more color it gets. Where thick it is a gray maroon mix. It looks very nice on pots with indentations or carved lines because the glaze pools there and becomes darker.

Raku

These pots have been fired using, raku (ra-koo), an ancient Japanese method of firing. This process is begun by firing the pot to around 1800 degrees. While molten hot, the pot is pulled out of the kiln with special tongs. The pot is placed on the ground and a can full of shredded paper is placed over the pot. The paper immediately bursts into flames. The burning paper and smoke deprives the glaze of oxygen bringing out the copper and metallic colors. The can is lifted, the pot is immersed in water to set the unique flashes of color. The result is an amazing combination of color and texture that cannot be duplicated. Raku pottery is for decoration only and not intended for use with food or water. They can be made to any desired shape or size.

We have four different raku glazes that we are using at this time. (Of course photos do not do them justice.)

Multi Sans

(slight pebbley texture. Mostly blue green with flashes and swirls of copper, reds and even purples and bright greens possible)

Dynasty

(very shiny smoothe texture. Mostly blue purple or blue green with flashes of copper)

Crackle White

(smoothe white glaze with all over networks

of small grey to black crackles)

and Tutti Fruiti

(slight texture to smoothe finish green yellow to green gray with flashes of copper)