Kreeger Pottery

Just a few….

I guess the food blogging will have to wait because the kiln is almost cool enough to unload and I have some actual new pots to write about. It was a little cool at the bottom but everything except one pot looks like it got hot enough.

As I said earlier, because of the larger pots I didn’t get a whole lot of pots in so I ended up using the rest of the space to test out a new glaze and some ideas. I’m happy with the results…or at least as happy as a potter can get when one unloads a kiln. Why is it that it’s never good enough? Do I expect every pot to work?

The big pots and platters are still too warm in the back of the kiln so maybe this will be a double posting kind of day. Here are a few pics to start off the day.

This is a bowl with the incised lines filled with black slip and it has a new what I thought was a blue celadon on it. Even though the glaze isn’t what I thought I like the result.

At the last minute I decided to glaze a couple pots with the black on it with a white glaze on top. I know…so cliché…but I like the result. The circles are obviously done with wax resist. I like this piece and I like how it relates to the earthenware wobbly vases which were made to relate to my salt-fired work.

Evangelina has already “borrowed” this pot and put it to use.

Again, the celadon on the B-Mix body. I really like this pot even though the glaze isn’t what I thought it would be. I’m glad that I have more decoration on my work than I used to. If I was relying only on the glaze I’d be in some trouble unloading this kiln.

I’m curious to see what happened in the back of the kiln. I wonder if the celadon issue is a thickness of application problem, a firing problem or a mixing issue. I haven’t used a celadon glaze since the studio and college and I remember the glaze being so simple to work in the kiln. I fired the kiln with a nice 45 minute body reduction and then left the kiln in a mild reduction for the remainder of the firing…I guess it was a Skidmore style firing. Anyone have any celadon words of wisdom?

More pots later today.

Posted in Uncategorized on 09/14/2008 12:01 pm | 2 Comments

Loaded….

…& pilots are on. After a great dinner I was actually able to come on home and finish loading the kiln. I just turned on the pilots after soaking my cone packs in the oven. Hopefully, that extra pre-heat will help them from exploding during the ramp up.

Since most of the kiln is taken up by larger pots and I stacked it just about as loosely as is possiblem it was pretty easy. Definitely not the most efficient stack ever but I needed to get a few orders out and will make do with a light load. In no particular order are some pictures of pots below. It’s been a while since I’ve posted anything pottery related so here you go….

I’ll turn the mains on shortly and then get a couple of turn-ups done throughout the night. I guess I’ll go watch another episode of “Mad Men” on iTunes.

Posted in Uncategorized on 09/12/2008 01:43 am | Comments Off

Mmmm…..

Kiln was half loaded when I realized that it was date night. Evangelina and I went out to dinner and had a great meal down the road at Pisces. At Brian’s request, I’ve added another posting about food here at Kreeger Pottery.

Pots get so boring when there is such good food to be had. The pictures not great…it was taken with my phone. The Mediterranean Style Fisherman’s Stew on the other hand was great…as was the Knob Creek on the rocks that I had with dinner.

I’ve been watching Mad Men on AMC and I have to say that those guys sure knew how to drink at work.

Posted in Uncategorized on 09/12/2008 01:37 am | Comments Off

Thought of the day

Glazing is very messy.

Update:

That might have been too general a statement.

I am making a huge mess glazing. Especially since I am glazing larger pots.

I only have one to go but it is a monster. Time to go outside and glaze with a kiddie pool to catch the mess.

Posted in Uncategorized on 09/11/2008 01:58 pm | 3 Comments

Getting on with it.

As true to form if I actually make it into the studio first thing I can actually get some work done. I just mixed up a couple glazes and I’m back the computer to figure out if I have enough silica to make one more. I did have copper today but it’s time to get an order of some of the basics together. I’ll screen the glazes shortly and then glaze this afternoon. There’s not too much to glaze but most of them are larger pieces which are always tough to figure out how to glaze. And, I mean what to glaze them with and how to get glaze on them without spilling it either all over my studio or our backyard. I’ll try to get some pics later.

I made one big bowl yesterday and I’ll get a move on some more of those while I fire the kiln. It’s definitely going to be a session of bowls. I’ve already got a few dozen balls of clay wedged up for some soup bowls. So, between the soup bowls and the large bowls and platters I want to make I guess this will be a cycle with quite a bit of trimming.

Time to figure out the silica shortage situation.

Posted in Uncategorized on 09/10/2008 01:55 pm | 3 Comments

Pasta Night

Well, the end of summer and the first week of school have finally passed and I think I’m ready to restart my life as a potter. I don’t even really know what I’ve done the last couple of weeks. The last couple of weeks of summer are always a blur. Even though it’s a short season up here on Cape it’s definitely exhausting.

Now it’s time to really get back to work. My reduction kiln is still waiting for those pots I’ve been talking about all of August. I organized the studio a bit this morning and tomorrow I’ll get serious about getting back to work in the studio. This kiln is full of a couple of orders and some bigger pots. I really want to get this firing done because I want to get some new pots made. More on those pots once I get this kiln loaded and fired.

But…it’s not like I haven’t done anything. We had a really busy week of first days of school on three consecutive days for each of the kids. Today, we watched the Harwich Cranberry Festival Parade go right by our house. While we were watching the parade the sauce I had started in the morning was slowly simmering in the kitchen. It turned out to be a delicious Pasta al Ragu. The pasta came from Nantucket Wild Gourmet, which, in addition to having great pasta and other things makes some of the best smoked salmon and irish brown bread around…and don’t forget the pickles.

Here are some pics of tonight’s dinner. The pasta, Strozzapreti, is known as the priest choker.

Posted in Uncategorized on 09/08/2008 12:20 am | 3 Comments

Back in Bisque

New York was great. The kids are at a fun age so we’re able to do lots stuff now when we get places. We made it to lunch over at Walter’s….and as usual it was so good. Then we took a little trip down memory lane and drove by the house I grew up in and then headed out to Manor Park and the kids climbed on all of the rocks that I climbed on as a kid. Then it was off to get some ice cream in town and get some back to school shopping done. Everyone got a new back to school outfit. Everybody is starting something new next week so we’re trying to get really excited about it. Javi is starting kindergarten, Ale is starting at the Salt-Box School 5 days a week and Clarita is going to the Bunny Den at the Family School twice a week. The plan is to have some very productive Tuesdays and Thursdays but we’ll see what happens when it comes down to reality.

I’m trying to get a firing done before Labor Day but it’s starting to look like the Wednesday after is more likely. Today is bisque day and glaze inventory day. I know I need to mix up a few glazes and I want to try a blue celadon on those new platters. Well, they were new when I made them about a month ago. Maybe I’ll even take a look and see if I need any glaze ingredients before I start mixing so the round of phone calls looking for a spoonful of copper isn’t necessary this time.

Evangelina’s mother is coming in today from Houston which is great because the kids haven’t gotten to see her since May. I’m sure a trip to Fort Hill is in the works as a field trip.

Well…off to figure out what glazing needs to be done. It’s also time to stare at that big planter I made over a year ago and try to remember how I was going to glaze it.

Posted in Uncategorized on 08/28/2008 01:48 pm | 2 Comments

Off to NY

We’re off to New York.

It’s my Great Aunt Shirley’s 90th birthday party and we can’t miss that.

We’ll be down until Wednesday so I’ll have even less pottery stuff to blog about. The shop is going to be closed until Thursday for our last blast during Labor Day Weekend. Thursday is load a bisque day and then hopefully fire a gas-kiln on Saturday.

If we do anything cool in NY I’ll post about it. It will probably be food related as I’ll be re-visiting all of my favorite places from growing up. I can’t wait to take my kid’s to Sal’s Pizza and Walter’s Hot Dog Stand. I don’t think they’re ready for Pat’s Hubba Hubba yet.

Posted in Uncategorized on 08/24/2008 11:28 am | Comments Off

Pots from the collection

So…I haven’t posted in so long I have nothing to really say. I haven’t gotten anything in the studio recently. We’ve just been enjoying the past couple of weeks. My brother and sister came up from NY with their spouses and kids so we had a great weekend with 7 grandkids playing together down the road at my parent’s house. It was the first time we have had everyone together since the two newest babies came around this past spring. It was very strange….everywhere you looked there was a pair of kids doing something.

To at least give something interesting to this post…here are a few pots from our house. I guess I’ll follow what is going on around the pottery blogosphere and open up the comments for the answer of whose pots are these? And…why don’t we just combine this with all of the political blogs I read as well and open up the comment thread to include any VP predictions. Sounds like we’ll know Obama’s pick this weekend and McCain’s right after the Democratic Convention. Enough politics. Back to pottery….enjoy.

Music night tonight here in the port. If you’re on Cape come check it out. It’s the last one of the summer and we have a great band out front as well as some pots on sale inside the gallery.

Posted in Uncategorized on 08/20/2008 07:38 pm | 6 Comments

La Noche de la Paella!

My wife’s aunt and uncle are up for the weekend. This means two things…my kids get to play with their “big” cousin Eduardo who is 14. But what may be even better is the fact that we always make a paella when Tia Maria Elena is in town. Unfortunately for her, I have cooked a few paellas this year so I think I know what I’m doing…and if you couple that with my control freak nature of cooking we had a little battle going outside by the paella. But, I think we ended up working together well enough to make a great paella.

Here’s a little step by step of the paella.

First, grab some propane and connect it to the paella burner stand that your wife’s Salvadoran grandmother has somehow brought back from Spain. (They’re also available online at a number of places.)

Saute some chorizo, peppers, onions and garlic.

When the veggies are nice and soft, saute the rice for a little bit. (I used traditional spanish paella rice…it’s similar to arborio rice for risotto. This was our first little disagreement. Maria Elena and her mother swear by Uncle Ben’s but I’m more of a traditionalist. Lo siento Tio Benjamin!)

After you saute whatever rice you choose for about 1-2 minutes add the stock. I was lucky because Maria Elena had spent the entire day making a stock.

After the rice has had 10-15 minutes of cooking time add the seafood. Tonight we had scallops, shrimp and clams but feel free to put in whatever you like and can find nice and fresh. We’re definitely lucky out here on the Cape. We get our seafood at Chatham Fish & Lobster.

Alejandra was crowned as the new paella princess tonight. Her new responsibilities included serving the paella…..and since she walked downstairs this morning with her crown and earrings on I assume she also had to sleep in the outfit.

I can only upload 5 pics at a time so you’ll just have to believe me that the next step is to sit down with friends and family, drink wine, eat paella and just have a wonderful evening in the backyard.

Posted in Uncategorized on 08/10/2008 12:36 pm | 4 Comments

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