Happy Thanksgiving!!

After my last show I realized that I was almost out of everything crab. With 4 shows left in the year I knew I needed more. Anything with crabs on it are my best selling items. It's not surprising given that I live in Maryland. It is ironic, however, since I am deathly allergic to eating crabs.

I now do all my glazing inside my house. I have this weird space that's between the kitchen and the family room that doesn't make sense for long term furniture, but is perfect to setup two tables for glazing.


This is the first time that both of the tables have been covered only by one series. I've had a table covered, maybe even a table and a half, but this is all crabs everywhere. I do actually like having a lot of the same thing to glaze. It makes things go faster in the long run.




Even if I do have a few different things for the kiln, there are still steps that I do individually. First I wet sand any rough patches off my pieces. I get a lot more rough patches when the pieces are made with clay that has grog or sand in it. That means for me - more sanding with the laguna 60 than with the laguna b - mix or Kentucky Brown Bear. I also sand anything that I think could get sharper in the kiln - edges that are a little sharp after bisque can get really sharp after the glaze firing.

Next I wipe everything down with a sponge to clean it. Then I add any underglaze that I'm going to do in recessed places. Once the underglaze is dry, I wipe it back with a sponge. The last stage of prep is waxing bottoms. After this I let it all dry thoroughly. I want the wax to be completely dry and since I've just wet the pieces down I want them to dry out before I add my glaze. Glaze will look better when it goes onto a dry pot, you can get crawling if your pot is too wet when you glaze. I've had this happen and its just irritating to have a pot that is perfect except a spot in a recessed area has crawled and has no glaze.




For any piece that I have that has detail work I do that first. This is 137 crabs. For my crabs I do the legs and claws separate from the bodies because I need to use different brushes. In this case I did all the legs and claws first - 2 coats. Then I went and did all the bodies, also 2 coats.




Next I'll go through and add 3 coats of Mayco Norse Blue. Once that's dry I'll add my sweeps of Mayco Light Flux. Last I'll add clear to all the surfaces that represent sand to give it a nice smooth finish.