from now on... från och med nu...

...i'll be writing both in english and swedish.
...har jag tänkt skriva både på engelska o svenska. hör av dej, om det är någon av dom gamla posterna du skulle vilja att jag översätter!

quartzpaste, continued...

last week i fired some little glaze tests for the quartzpaste (fritware) body, and a couple of them look alright! as you see, some of them weren't quite so good... so that is exciting. the blue one is the same glaze i've been using for the earthenware clay, but it seems to be a good fit on the quartzpaste! the other glaze-tests were just varying proportions of borax frit, kaolin and quartz. fired to 1050 degrees C.
förra veckan brände jag några små glasyr-prover till "kvartzpastan" (fritta-leran), och några av dom ser ut att ha blivit bra! en del, som ni ser, mindre bra... så det är roligt. den blåa är samma som jag har använt hittils på lergods, men den verkar passa bra på kvartzpastan utan några krackeleringar. dom andra är bara olika proportioner borax fritta, kaolin och kvartz, brända till 1050 grader.

i also made a little thing that i really enjoyed! i haven't fired it yet, but soon i will. i just made a little thin tile of the quartzpaste body, covered it with black, and scraped away till i had a picture. i'm looking forward to making more...
jag gjorde också en ny liten grej som var jätteroligt. jag har inte bränt den än, men gör det så snart jag kan. det är bara en tunn liten platta av kvartzpastan, täckt med svart, och sen skrapade jag till jag hade en bild. ser fram emot att göra fler...

for those of you in Gothenburg...

yes, already: Christmas sales begin

the Christmas exhibition at Sintra starts on Saturday already, so i've submitted some things for it as well. as you can see, i've gotten really quite commercial and have made christmas-tree decorations! what next...?

thanks to my very generous friend...

... i have been able to make some progress with the frit-ware tests! Isabelle, at the Owl & Lion gallery in Edinburgh, gave me a little test-kiln and a whole load of other useful stuff this summer when we were visiting Scotland!!! it works really well, and has been brilliant for testing different recipes. it was harder before, since no-one else in my studio fires to the same temperatures, and i didn't want to fire a whole big kiln with only 5 little tests in it.
so a million thank you's again to her.
now i just have to get a good glaze that doesn't chip etc, and then i'll get back to making turquoise birds and bowls again :-).

result

i was a little bit disappointed when i opened up the kiln a few days ago. i had been in a bit of a rush when i was glazing and packing, so the glaze on some of the bowls was way too thick and (of course) stuck to the shelf. i can save the small ones thanks to J's dremmel machine, but the big one will the hares will probly have to go to the place where all the other unsuccessful pots go: we have a special bin and hammer in our studio, where (with some satisfaction) we crush and break and destroy things that haven't turned out so well. so next time i'll try not to be in a hurry...

but a few of the other things turned out alright. i'll take some proper pictures of them before putting them out for sale.
soon it's time for Christmas sales, both at Sintra and our studio, so i have some ideas for that...

waiting, waiting, waiting...

i've got a kiln-load firing this very minute...
i can't wait till it's ready and i can open it up!
i'll let you know how it goes tomorrow.