After the fireworks of yesterday, today the bisque firing is a bit of a bore. Electric and turning on switches.

White-breasted Nuthatch. This seems to be the favourite position - upside-down, head up - churr-churr.

Not got a really good pic of this brilliant bird yet. The cloudy weather and lack of light. American Goldfinch.

We put out the last pots to get dry into the few minutes of sunshine before the next heavy downpour.

Male Hairy Woodpecker feeding one of its young.

Today a few odd jobs to do and starting throwing some pots for the next firing; taking surplus water from the glazes; waiting for the pots to be dry before packing the bisque kiln. Also made another test with fine rock powder from the stone cutters yard. It might work (99% Pennsylvania blue stone), composition unknown - to me - but try anything once.

Now the wild clay and wood-ash are dry, this morning spent sieving the clay through fine mesh and making up the new glaze - wood-ash, feldspar and clay.

Not so much done today except turning a few pots, drying the new wild clay and inspecting the new (first firing) gas kiln - the far-side one. We'll be doing the bisque firing in the electric one as soon as the pots are dry. Today off to buy more clay and perhaps some equipment

Due to careless talk by a Pennsylvania farmer, we set off in pursuit once again, this time with success! Part of the quarry now made into a 10cm marked test bar to measure shrinkage, we start a series of trials before it can be finally judged.
The wood-ash should get dry today and can then be made up into a glaze - 45% ash, 45 potash feldspar, 10 clay.
Will also need more pots thrown to have enough to fill the kiln.
(For those of you who like, what he calls raw cheese, but I prefer REAL cheese, here's our farmer's telephone number:
(570) 278-3120 and ask him if he'll ship)

This morning the ash was cold so sieved it roughly, then mixed with plenty of water and changed it twice to wash out the soluble salts (potash, mainly). It has now been sieved though an 80 mesh and has been left to settle until we can siphon off most of the water, then dry it and it is ready for use in a glaze.

Tags: woodash glazes
Current Location: upstate NY
Current Mood: accomplished

An all day clay hunt came up with zero result apart from a view of Ricketts Glen State Park (above). Why?
Well I think the first thing I've realized is that this is an area of anthracite and not soft coal so all the associated clays have been turned to coal shale. The coals further west are too distant to search for blindly like this, but there are no detailed geological maps available, it seems.

Today we are sieving and washing woodash burnt the day before yesterday and now cool.

Tags: clay hunt, upstate ny

Here's a clip of this morning's trial, moderately successful, but too long and too much gas.
This afternoon big bonfire to make ash glazes from the ash - then off for the wild clay search.

Yesterday we cobbled together a test kiln out of old bricks, try fire today - then ready to go clay prospecting.
Also made up a white mat Leach glaze.
Meantime this morning watched him (and her) feeding and squawking at me.