Post 50 Garden Visitors

We've had a couple of visitors to the garden recently that I though I'd share.

The first was a nice llittle carpet python that cruised along looking in the windows. It's mating season for them at the moment and there have be lots of sightings around in broad daylight. This one was about 2.5 meters long and in beautiful condition -  a beautiful creature, showing off its carpet pattern well. The cat was inside the glass looking out at the time and has gone very twitchy ever since.

The other visitor is a member of a community we hear more often that see. They usually sleep all day and you wouldn't know they are up there in the trees looking down. At night time, at this time of year, they tear around the trees at night with the males calling for and generally in hot pursuit of a mate.

They are amazing climbers and the trees they prefer are 'scribbly' bark eucalypts which have a very smooth bark. An insect gets under the bark and leaves a scribbly mark - hence the name.
We've got some pretty big ones at our place and they've all got Koala scratches on them - evidence of their climbing.

This tree is about 800mm diameter at 1 meter off the ground. If you zoom in you will see both the scribbly marks and the Koala scratches. Imagine how they have to hug these things to climb and not a crack or crevice in sight - gives a whole new meaning to free climbing.

Post 49 Another day another pot

I've had some time on my hands recently and have used it to punch out a few pots. I'm not yet attempting to make more than one a day; after all I'm not looking for another full time job! Where does the time go. I'm getting quicker but there's no compromise on quality.

The routine for mould made pots takes up to an hour to prep the clay and get it in the mould with the inside surface completed. I like to finish the inside surface so that it is smooth, blemish free and nicely curved. That done then there is work done to make the feet. I make these separately and attach later. This gives flexibility to modify the design and use different geometry. I did find also early on that with the feet integrated into the mould it was difficult to get a good result.

It takes about 6 hours before the pot is released by the mould and ready for post mould alteration or shaping. In the mean time there are other things to be done with other drying pots which has turned my mind to the 'production system' or the 'pipeline'. More on that later.

Post mould shaping, conditioning and feet attachment takes up to another hour and then it is set aside to dry for up to three weeks. Half way through that time when the clay is leather hard it is a final opportunity to correct anything that needs it. Sometime I use a small wood plane to make more than cosmetic adjustments to the style. It's a good time to do these things when the clay is more timber like in texture and less sensitive to contact damage. Finally when bone dry is when the preparation for bisque firing is done. This may involve a little sanding or scraping to get flat surfaces flat, curves without flat spots and radiused edges where they may be needed, like on the rim. At this point it demands some care in handling. So overall preconditioning for bisque firing takes perhaps another hour.

After bisque firing the pot can still be sanded reasonably easily and is a good time to make sure all four feet touch the ground. There is generally almost no movement in the clay during bisque firing. And then it is a matter of mix the glaze, wash the pot, mask surfaces to remain unglazed and apply the glaze. There goes another hour.

That's about 4 hours direct hands on the pot, not to mention working on basic common infrastructure, materials, kiln loading / unloading, housekeeping etc etc. The reason I've been thinking more about this is to work out the size of the pipeline. Now if I want to make 100 pots a year, two or three a week, that's going to take a little time each week. Then what about space. If they need to dry for three weeks, then to make 100 a year, means I will always have 6 or 7 or 8 pots drying, and the same number bisqued waiting to glaze.

With that thought and drying pots sitting on all sorts of horisontal surfaces, I set about for a tidy up and shelf build. The kids stuff in boxes got moved to the departure lounge (I hope) - ie the shed out the back.
The shelves -nothing fancy but just something adequate. Here you can see the result of my work, and 6 drying bagged pots, not to mention a couple of moulds. That esky is next in my sights!

The other shelf has a sliding door drying cupboard, storage space for bisqued and finished pots, glaze materials, scales etc etc. I don't know why my wife suggests I'm taking over the garage.

So yes where was I; more pots. Last one made yesterday was No 37 and last one glazed and posted here was No 26. The pipeline is full and there will be a few pots for sale soon.

Post 48 New toy

What do all good marketers say - "buy on emotion and defend on logic". You see I've bought a small kiln. Now I'm a two kiln potter!!!

So my defence of this latest purchase is the intrinsic value I will get out of being able to do small scale firings for glaze, firing schedule and clay body testing. Fire a small number of samples, evaluate and test again without having to wait for the bigger kiln to have a nearly load ready or otherwise fire underloaded. This little one is certainly too small to fire all but the smallest bonsai pots. And how did I get it past the Senate Estimates Committee - well what all good long serving workers would do - make a claim on prior unrealised accrued benefits. It worked for me.

It's a Woodrow Minifire kiln with a firebox that is only 300 x 300 x 150. It comes with its own controller and runs on 240v so just plugs straight into a regular wall socket. At 1800 watts it's like running a big room heater for the duration of the firing, except the 'room' is just that little firebox. No wonder it can get up to 1280C in there.

In the picture you can see I've mounted it on a small trolley so it can be wheeled away and stored, works well. It only weighs 25 kilos but there's just no way to pick it up. That little white plug on the top is the vent.

It's had it's first test firing - I took those clay body additive test samples of Post 47 through the glaze firing schedule. The little programmable controller works a treat.