I had originally intended to finish these drums in time for Jeremy’s birthday, which falls in the last week of February (I began these in January). I was too worried about cracks along the neck, which you can tell just by looking is going to be a major stress point, so I left them wrapped up in the greenware room until the last possible day.
Miraculously, they survived the first firing. I had already made test tiles, and Jeremy said he liked straight “purple haze” best. I liked the deep red of klear over emu, so I made this one with that combination. Someone warned me that the glaze might drip, so the klear is just dripped with a turkey baster.
Usually I like just dipping my pieces into the 5 gallon glaze buckets. You get an even coat, and since most of my bowls have huge feet, I have a ready-made handle. These were too big, so I set them in a wide shallow basin and poured the glaze over the top. It was a huge mess. After wiping off the bottoms and feathering the thick parts by rubbing them gently, I set them on the glaze cart and hoped for the best. The Tempe art center has a great tech, but I still worried about the stress on the neck joint.
And they came out with no cracks! No dripped glaze either (it’s very bad if your piece ruins a kiln shelf because you got the glaze too thick.) Now all that’s left is for Jeremy to attach the (commercially made) heads and see what they sound like. (Don’t hold your breath. It might be a couple months before that happens.)
1 comments
Very cool!