Guy Ballard

My creative side hit a dry spell last night. I started out trying to make a couple shallow bowls that I could glaze just the inside bottoms. I could seem to get them to work. The rims wanted to fall.  I tried 3 different times and each time it was the same thing.  I am thinking that the clay may have been a little too soft. Then, I made the old standby that you see here. It will replace the pot that I destroyed earlier this week when I tried to underglaze the pot while it was just bone dry.   

Today, I finished my store and posted some products. The Link is here.  http://www.amazon.com/handmade/Red-Arrow-Ceramics Now Let's see what happens to them. Last night, I broke a bowl that was bone dry while I was trying to decorate it. A reminder that you have to be extra careful while your work is in this phase of completion.

In addition to the pieces that I made ready to bisque fire, I had several more returned from the kiln.  One of the pots was glazed with 660 and it turned out really nice with the exception that it might be a little heavy.   Another 2 handbuilt boxes were returned that I had glazed with Mayco Black Walnut that I had purchased online and never used before. You could tell that it ran and covered much of pieces in a blackish glaze. Not one of my favorites. And the last piece returned was a candlestick experiment with underglazes and a thin almond glaze over the top. I don't know what I was expecting from this piece. Finally I dipped 2 small bowls in the 660 for the count of 10 and they are ready to fire.  I want to see if they turn out better than the 3 blue bowls that I fired a couple of weeks ago.

My just finished phone amplifiers came out of the kiln this week.  They work pretty well and I have already received requests to make a couple more with bigger openings to accommodate phones with rubber protection around them. I also received my invitation to join Amazon Handmade.  You're Invited to Join Us! Congratulations! Your talent and beautiful products have impressed the Handmade at Amazon team. You are officially invited to be an artisan in our invite-only community! I am going to start the registration process a little later and you will find the link to my Amazon store in the side panel.  

I picked up three blue bowls all different sizes and all having a little different blue glaze on them. The disappointing part of this glaze was that it had a haze to it, rather than a clear blue sheen that I expected. This is the part of ceramics that is still a mystery to me. Then the white box that I tried with the underglazes would have been really cool but the sheer white glaze that I put over the whole box had a big white drip run on the top. Ugly. I am going to find out if I can reglaze the top. I will chalk this glazing session as a learning experience.   In the meantime, I threw two bowls and trimmed a big bowl.  This one bit the dust!