Visiting Kyra this week for the first time since coming back to Uni for 3rd year was wonderful. It is so easy to get sucked into simply being in the studio, making, making, worrying about the degree and more making - forgetting that actually we are so lucky to do what we love every day! Being in a real environment is so refreshing and inspiring :)

Before the summer we learnt loads of skills such as how to use cones in the kilns, how to throw setters, how to clean floors properly - with a wet suction thingy and mop, how to load and programme kilns, how to make glaze, and how to pack vases.. I wasn't organised enough to start a blog about our experience then, but this is a new academic year and I'm going to try - so here goes:

- We had some rather large cups of coffee and a nice extended chat!

- Then we learned how to recycle clay: 

˚ The clay which is mostly small shavings from the pots which Kyra has turned has been soaking in buckets with water so it has a pretty slip like quality, this is taken out and spread into really long sausages on top of the work bench.

˚ Once these sausages have hardened enough they are cut into about 30cm sections and bent into archways to dry even more - the idea is that the arch provides a greater surface area to volume ratio so the clay drys out more evenly and quickly.

˚ Once the clay is firmer it is broken into hand sized lumps and fed into the pug mil - this is like an extruder but with an electric paddle inside so the clay gets all mixed up. You have to keep feeding the clay into the machine as soon as it is on so the sausages that come out have as little air in them as possible.

˚ Once the sausages have come out they are then broken up again and re fed into the machine to ensure the clay is properly mixed - we did it three times with this batch of clay - it was really fun :)

˚ After all the clay has been through 3 times it is then cut into sausages of all the same length and these are doubled bagged, dated and stored - often for over a year! (They get a bit mouldy but the clay is still fine to use)

- Next we labelled our glaze ingredient test tiles from last term and organised which ones needed more firing - before the summer we put all the different ingredients that you can use to make glaze such as potash felspar and whiting into little wells in clay tiles and then planned to fire them at different temperatures to see which ones are fluxes and what they all do at different temperatures - we will have the results for next week :)

Test tiles with glaze ingredients

- Finally we glazed our mugs which we threw and turned before the summer. I learnt that you never hold a mug by its handle even when it has been biscuit fired! And to glaze mugs well you dip them with tongs (holding the pots not too close to the edge otherwise you can crack the rim and with the 3 prong bit on the inside so it is less messy) into a big bucket, then you can use your finger to wipe off excess drips and finally a brush to give a perfect finish. We then brushed on black underglaze in sweeping strokes which was so fun to do :) 

The Pug mill

Archways of Limoges porcelain clay 

Mugs which we threw before the summer

Handles which we pulled to attach to the mugs before the summer

Melody dipping the mug in glaze

The mugs with the brushed on black underglaze 

Kyra Wiping the glaze off the bottom so the mug wont stick to the kiln shelf