Finished Chandelier Project

Time to update my posts! Life has been busy-teaching making pots and family. Finally the pics of the finished 7 piece project.

MAJOR CHANDELIER PROJECT INSTALLATION-Stage One

This long term project is now coming to fruition. We installed the main chandelier and are now working on the smaller chandelier. This project has had the most technical challenges of any I have worked on. One of the final challenges will be to take professional photos of it. The snapshots here only partially reveal the colours and incredible translucency in these LUMINARIES which are individually handmade and carved from translucent procelain with stained glass inserts. The supporting structures were custom machined and assembled from brass, copper and stainless steel. Each panel is individually suspended for ease of removal and assembly. Stay tuned for more news about LUMINARIES.

Check out my main website: www.smeraldopottery.com
More of my new pots and some Raku Stars I made for our Christmas sale.

2nd Potters Present Show/Sale- big success!

Check out Carol's main website at http://www.smeraldopottery.com/

On the right are Carol's stoneware pieces except the huge green jar which was made by Paul, a student and the raku pots on the left made by Judy, an instructor.

We sold 71 handmade pottery ornaments with the proceeds going to Cancer Care Nova Scotia.

Carol's Raku pots are all the way down the left side and Judy's are on the right side of the table in the photo to the right. The far shelves hold pottery made by members of the Thursday day class which is primarily a mentorship group of emerging potters.

Nadine, the APS owner catered with delicious food and mulled cider.

The cascading glaze test pieces in the 2 photos below are some of the explorations conducted by advanced students.

The POTTERS PRESENT Show and Sale on 28 and 29 Nov. was a complete success again this year! With the world wide economic woes we were a little concerned, but BUY LOCAL prevaled. Everyone pitched in to transform our working/teaching studio at Atlantic Pottery Supplies into a gallery/gift shop. It was like magic-the magic of a good old fashioned down home kitchen party which lasted for 2 whole days! 2 instructors and 14 students participated and lots of other students, intermediates and beginners helped, looking forward to seeing some of their own work on sale next year. We had a fantastic fun time.

New Home for New Kiln

The Kiln Building is finished and test firing was successful so with a few minor alterations we were ready for the inaugural firing on 16 Nov. 2 firings later and we are really excited! The new kiln from Randy Brodnax in Texas, fires like a dream and is very efficient. Having it in a sheltered building is fabulous. It was -8C when we fired and neither we nor the tanks (outside) froze up. The fume hood/chimney worked extremely well. The pots! Ah, the pots look wonderful. Photos to come next.

HOORAY!!!! MY WEBSITE IS UP AND RUNNING. This has been a long term project which is now live. Have a look. There is a lot of pottery for sale, RAKU and PORCELAIN, and also my 2nd creative passion-PASTEL PAINTINGS. View the video for a first hand preview of my last exhibition and listen to the music that inspired it. www.smeraldopottery.com

Next blog should have pictures of my NEW KILN SHED and KILN. WOW, what a month.

HOT FROM THE KILN

Sad to say that we are still firing in the old raku kiln. The good news is that the new kiln shed is much more than a shed and as with all such fabulous projects, it is taking longer than anticipated!! Surprise! Surprise!! We are down to digging a ditch to bury the electric cable for lights and building the stairs down the steep embankment to the site so we can hand truck the new kiln down the stairs to the site and a few other little details.

These are a few of the latest raku pieces. They are sprayed when hot (1700-1800F) from the kiln with ferric chloride and horsehair painted as they cool. The lidded jar on the right has a translucent porcelain finial.

What do my website and the kiln shed have in common? They're both NEARLY FINISHED.