Holiday Sale!

Holiday Sale!

Before I get to the (hopefully) resolution of my element dilemma, I wanted to share that from Black Friday through Cyber Monday, you can get 10% off anything in my Etsy shop! Just use the coupon code Turkey10 during checkout!

Okay, on to business. So in lieu of spending $60 per element, when I know that my other elements will probably be failing soon, as well, my wonderful (and handy) hubby and I learned how to heat, twist, and connect pieces of my existing elements together to create a (for now) working element. It took a few hours longer than I had wanted, but in the end, if it saves me $240 for a little while, then it'll work for now.

Eventually (maybe in the summer?) I'd like to convert the kiln to gas, which will not only save money in the long haul, but will allow for experiments in reduction firing, raku, and possibly soda/salt firings.

I also have narrowed down some ideas for both my shop, as well as the medieval faire, so now all I need is some free time - HA!

Always Something New

EDIT: This post was originally meant to go up November 7...however, I accidently posted it on my personal blog instead. So here it is, albeit a bit late.

I know it's been awhile, AGAIN, since I last blogged. But for the sake of excuses, I'd rather have something TO blog about, than to chat on about nothing in particular.

I promised pictures of my next idea - I've got something even better - the finished product! Here are some recent pieces I'll be adding to Etsy soon:

These are two pregnant women in yoga-like poses, gazing down at their blossoming bellies.

Another two pregnant bellies, this time with just the torso and a hint of appendixes. Both glazed, one clear, the other a Blue Rutile, though I was disappointed that no blue showed up.

Two more bellies with carved designs and smoke fired. The profile of the tree of life one is below:

This is an idea I'd like to expand on - women in labor.

And here are some necklaces that I played around with:

The mothers above are my original designs of attachment parenting concepts.
And lastly, I promise to try to get past my fear of screwing up and start getting my hands messy more often. I have a ton of ideas brewing in my head, none of which are even remotely close to the ideas in this post. Some are great for the ren faire, and some I'm hoping are great for anytime. But the point is, I won't know until I try. So try, I will.

This last picture is of my colored porcelain (mixed with mason stains) soaking in water to become slip. I really want to try sgraffito and other slip methods with these. So here's to not giving up. See you very soon!

It's Elements, My Dear Watson...

So that time has come. The moment I've heard about, read about, feared about. An element has failed me, finally.

I noticed it when I tried to turn on my kiln for the last firing, and did not hear the normal "humming" sound that indicates the elements are warming up. So I flipped the switch back and forth a couple times, tried the other switches, which DID hum, and finally gave up and fired without my lowest element. Luckily it was just a bisque firing so I knew it would reach temp okay, as long as no other elements decided to kick the bucket, as well.

So today I got brave and decided to make sure it was the element, and not the switch, by checking the continuance of the element with an ohmmeter. It was definitely the element. Checked online for prices for a replacement, and even considered buying enough to replace all of them at the same time. HA! $60 a pop, at 4 elements...almost as much as I paid for the kiln originally.

So, I did the next best thing, and decided to take out the element of the extension for my kiln, which I've never used, yet, and save myself money for the time being. But a stubborn, rusty screw, and one last snap of the wire, and now I have a too-short element. I tried warming it to twist it with another piece, but keep breaking it, instead. So I'm waiting until my hubby can take a gander at it and make it (hopefully) work. I'll also see about splicing some of my other elements as there is at least one other very dark spot that is likely to go bad soon, as well.

It's days like these that I wish I had fallen in love with a much less expensive hobby.

New Items Up!

You can now view all the new items in my Etsy shop!