Learning About Test Tiles

There are many benefits to having test tiles for glazes. It allows you to test combinations of glazes easily and inexpensively, and serves as a permanent reminder of what a glaze looked like on a certain clay. Otherwise, if you’re like me, you forget very quickly.       How to make test tiles

I am not a potter, but I have the pleasure of hanging out with quite a few of them.  Now put two or more in room and inevitably you will hear the words "test tiles" bandied about.  If you don't wish to read the link above, they are quite simply prototypes for finding out how glazes will look on a finished piece.  They are the necessary research done prior to making a huge batch of "yucks."  Time, patience and note taking are required.

I got a free and much needed lesson in testing this week thanks to one of those distinguished potters.  I had a whim to make ceramic knobs for my kitchen, each one original and special and in a color palate I could only dream of, never mind buy.  My kind neighbor Maggie Black was eager to help me and after giving me a few tips left me to my own devices.

I had a ball rolling out the clay, cutting up shapes and then stamping them with pre-selected designs.  Perfection was not an issue because frankly I did not know enough to realize what goofs might stymie me later on.

It was actually a lot like making cookies.  They needed to be more or less the same depth and size (I knew they would shrink a skoosh) and I wanted the designs to be sorta related (lots of leaves).

Maggie popped them in the kiln and summoned me to come add the color.  Turquoise and yellow I announced.  It was then she burst my eager bubble and suggested, no, insisted, that I do some "test tiles."  Dread.  Time down the drain I began to think but she was slightly more accomplished in this endeavor than I!

So I dipped and cleaned and kept my selection to about 3 or 4 different jars...my memory is short.  And tried double dips, matt and shiny and did my best to hide my disappointment that this little project would be prolonged another week. 

So you can guess my next chapter, right?  Herewith the test tiles and it is no surprise than some of them are just butt-ugly.  You can be sure I was thanking Miss Maggie profusely from preventing me from sacrificing all my previous work in one impatient move.  

I played with these results, made notes, passed them by the other kitchen resident and made some decisions on how to proceed.  A long careful painting session, a few more random experiments (but not on the preselected, designated knobs) and we were back to the cooker, um, kiln.

This is the oven where the magic happens...and where surprises come out even with the best of testing.  It is always like Christmas to be present when a potter opens the kiln, frankly I don't know how they manage to wait for it to cool.  I'd need patience pills.

Oh boy oh boy oh boy.  Here are my beauties...and my continued thanks to Maggie for saying those dreaded words "test tiles."  Aren't these absolutely beautiful?

Time to get out the E6000 glue and attach the hardware.  This go round I was able to stumble across the hardware already made for projects like this (as opposed to roaming the hardware stores and creating my own from random pieces).  The base and screws can be found at D Lawless Hardware, and if you cannot cut your own knobs they also have bisqued pulls ready to paint and fire.  

So completely unique!  And I have enough finished pieces to make magnets.  And enough knob bases to do another kitchen....no stopping me now, unless I have to make more test tiles.  

Joking aside: those words and Maggie's insistence on using them have come back around and around this week haunting me into becoming a believer.  Stay tuned.  It's not only in ceramics that one needs to employ "test tiles."

GLUING AND SCREWING,

Cindy

High Country Tour de Art

I love to peek behind the scenes.

To look behind the magic curtain, lift the veil of mystery,

watch how the sausage is made...all terms for

getting to see where something is created.

Observing the mechanics of any process leads to new respect.

So let me invite you to this year's High Country Tour de Art, the 9th annual. On the fourth Saturday of the next six months area artists and galleries will throw open their doors to invite the public into the inner sanctums of creation.  It's a day to ask questions, exchange ideas, wander about and perhaps try something new.  

Wonder what the difference between "wheel thrown" pottery and "coiled" is?  Confused about the choice of acrylic versus oil?  And just where do those off-the-wall ideas come from?  This is your day to load up the car, download a map here (or get one at your first stop) and head out.  Any artist will be happy to recommend the perfect lunch spot.  If you are here all summer, it's a great tour for your guests or one you can do little by little over several months.

I'M EXCITED because I have a new potter in my studio AND a fun community project for you to join.

just a sample of Eric Reichard's great work

Eric is bringing in new work daily and after you check out his website you will want to see the real stuff.  Eric and Maggie Black (my studio neighbor) have worked together and it was her recommendation that brought this beautiful new addition to my work space.  Come check it out.

ALSO, join me as together we create the brightest, happiest painting this side of the Blue Ridge to be donated to the Seby B. Jones Cancer Treatment Center on the Watauga Medical Campus here in Boone.  Many of us know loved ones who have spent hours receiving chemo treatments. It's a tedious, scary length of time and whether you are the patient or the caregiver old magazines don't do much for distracting you from worry. 

Remembering the fun of participating in the Healing Ceilings Project I contacted our own Treatment Center only to discover their Art Committee was currently exploring the idea of how art aids the healing process.  They embraced the project and I have promised them that everyone slapping on some color, outlining an object or adding a design to this 36" x 24" painting will be autographing the back of it with love and good wishes.  

I'll be sharing more on this project as it develops but you don't have to be able to "draw a straight line" to help out.  The lines will be drawn, the colors are out and paint brushes provided.  All you have to do is add your touch, make a mark or paint by number.  Let's make something that takes time to look at, that will be so full of color and lines and designs and objects that anyone sitting down for their treatment will go off into a new world where there is hope and promise.  

Saturday, June 24, that's tomorrow!  Come on by 112 Clubhouse Drive, right off Hwy 105 in Foscoe. We are officially open at 10 am (you know I'm there earlier) and happy to see you until 5 pm.  If you get lost call me at 32-795-0816 and I'll give you a landmark.  

and guess what?  there is no limit to the number of times you can come!!  

See you tomorrow,

Cindy

For the Love of a Pot

I fell in love

with a pot, a particular pot and

it opened all kinds of new doors and led to an experiment or two!

I wandered next door to the pottery studio of Maggie Black and spied this really cool crock.  Love at first sight.  "So you make sauerkraut?" Maggie inquired casually.  "No," I thought, "But it looks like I am about to!"

I made my purchase and inquired of Maggie about recipes and such and left determined to learn the secrets of the kitchen term "fermentation."  Quite simply, before there was refrigeration there were limited ways to preserve crops when the bounty exceeded the table.  Salting was one way to preserve meats, brining or fermenting was a similar process used on vegetables.  See this link and this one for more details.

I enlisted my husband's help, he has an interest in probiotic foods so was willing to find out if this worked.  He finely cut up a cabbage and placed in the largest bowl we had.

We added the correct amount of the proper salt (do some reading please) and began to massage the kraut.  Some folks let it sit a while, others knead it until the liquids began to gather and the cabbage wilts.

We then packed it down in the crock...pack and pack and smush and crush.  We had some left over so we tried the mason jar method (go on line again), the knob you see in the jar is holding down a leaf to keep cabbage submerged.  My beautiful Maggie-made crock came with correct size weights which did a wonderful job of holding it all under the brine.

We put the lid on and began the hard part: waiting!  This is where tales diverge and everyone offers a slightly different version of "how to."  Some prefer the slow-method of using a dark, cool closet (such as our pioneer brethren had to do), others are tried and true warm-environment-shorter time krauters.  Since fermentation is a very scientific method of bacteria development (and mold avoidance) I highly recommend you experience the pleasure and confusion of reading a lot of the really wonderful web sites dealing with the subject.  I found lots of good advice and some yummy recipes that will interest you, as well as ways to temporarily use a jar while you seek your own beautiful crock.

bisque fired crocks in various sizes

Maggie Black Pottery

I am happy to report that our first attempt was a success!  My husband loved the sauerkraut and ate it every day (for breakfast if you can imagine).  Serve it cold or room temp so as not to destroy all those wonderful bacteria you just spent time growing - heat kills them off.  I had added some seeds for flavoring and you can find a wide range of ways to flavor the final product.  I am anxious to try red cabbage with beets as well as a vegetable medley.  I did garlic carrots and they were fabulous.

You just never know what new paths you will travel when you fall in love with a piece of hand crafted art.  Just having this pot was not enough...I truly enjoyed using it and look forward to many more experiments as I learn more about the benefits of fermentation.

Colorfully Exploring,

Cindy