Here you find older journal entries
We redesigned our webpage in Oct 2020. Since the blog from the old page could not be imported into the new design, we added it as a regular web page in the form of an archive.
August Post
8/29/2020
Well, it's been a busy time the last month or so. We got the pugger and have had a steep learning curve on how to use it. Dirk is getting very good at it :)) So nice to have. Not having to think too much on the reclaiming. We are slowly going through clay that I've had for a very long time...
Bad news a few weeks ago, the two figure sculpture I made and had packed and shipped to Oregon got badly damaged in transit - irreparable damage in fact. Really bummed for the customer and really bummed for me as I have to make it again. Let's hope it will turn out better than the first version. And now also how to get it over there without it breaking again!? I have been working on the figures and making good progress. Still waiting on getting reimbursed by UPS - :/
I have been making some cool little table lamps. Dirk has been making some wooden bases for me. They are pretty neat. I also dug out the obsidian clay by Aardvark - it is so fun to work with! Messy but what an awesome quality to it both green and fired. Cone 4 seems a really good temperature for it.
I have had some commissioned jobs and still making/selling my sweet honey mugs for Ho'ola Honey in case anybody wants to get one for themselves.
We had a great fundraiser for one of the local weekly food drives. We raised $800+ !!! over three weekends selling seconds and other special goodies at $5 each. 127 items including some that were donated by Melisa and Mark at OceanRaku! Thanks to the generous donations from a few of the buyers we raised more money then we expected :))) We had most of the items out in our 'honor stand' and I am happy to say we had only a few losses.
I have a ton of bisqueware to be fired. I am always curious to try making new forms so I have some pieces I haven't made before. Since glazing is not my favorite thing, I am going through it slowly. I am trying to get most of the decoration done in the green state so glazing requires less thought and work.
Dirk has been helping me transition the gas kiln to a downdraft. We've been working on making a pulley system for the lid and a movable chimney. We are almost done I think.
Trying not to get too depressed about the state of our country.
The islands still have the two week quarantine in place and covid cases keep going up in the State and on the BI. So still hunkering down.
Pugger's Here!
7/5/2020
Aloha,
Exciting that we got our pugger!!!! After years of schlepping scraps, it is a bit easier now to recycle clay and recondition it when it's been sitting in the box for a while. We also got a new batch of clay in so that is always nice as well. I didn't think it through very well about how hard it is to get materials and supplies here in Hawaii. More expensive, takes longer, blah blah blah. I know, I know, unforgivable whining, right? But I do have to say that I think Hawaii is not the ideal place to be a clay artist. However, what is true is that we have inspiration everywhere. No excuse for not getting the creative - creation bug around here! :)
Other good news is that the D&J sculpture came out of the bisque fire just fine. I went slow and it seemed to pay off. Now to do a little sanding and add some oxides then back into the fire for its final firing so Dirk can build the fence and stand. Then to crate it up and off to its final destination in Oregon!!
Greetings,
Jill & Dirk
Happy July!
Mid Summer Days
7/1/2020
Aloha,
It's July already! I have been keeping busy in the studio. working on lots of new forms and using new techniques. I've been doing a lot of carving. Having some fun with it. Making some covered jars and serving bowls. Of course mugs. Just sold a nice little jar with a wooden lid that Dirk made for it from trees harvested from our yard. It's been getting warm so sweating in the studio.
Big news is that i finally finished a two figure sculpture that I have been working on for a couple of years now and that has gone through a couple of renditions. It is in the kiln undergoing a sloooooooow bisque fire. Hoping that it remains intact. It will be nice to have the big E kiln available again for firing since the sculpture has been in the kiln for weeks now drying, since I did not feel safe putting it in there in the bone dry state. After two days of candling it will be slowly cranking up today. I have a bunch of greenware piling up so need to have the kiln available for getting all of that fired. No rush though other than a space issue I guess as the farmers market sales and the artist's co-op isn't generating much income :/
Another big project is our gas kiln. We have converted it from being an updraft to a downdraft kiln. It has been an odyssey for sure, we make small progress then have to wait for something we need etc... Now at the point where we have tested it once. I want to use it for my cone 6-10 reduction firings. When we added the flue we took out two of the burners, it's a pretty small kiln so I didn't think we really needed that much power. During the test firing I was firing to cone 10 (2340F) and the kiln stalled at 2223F (per pyrometer) and wouldn't get any hotter, in fact it went down a little. Once it was cool it was confirmed by cones that we actually had a good cone 9 firing (2295F) so the kiln got a bit hotter then the pyrometer was reading. A couple of things could be going on to have made the kiln stall. Perhaps not enough burner power, we use two 7 gallon propane tanks so maybe a gas issue. We did get a nice reduction firing. I had just a couple of things in the kiln besides the cones. I have been making some thin porcelain lamp shades and that turned out kind of neat. When we added a chimney to the lid of the kiln it made it pretty heavy. The hinge for the lid of the kiln is pretty crappy anyway so we decided to make a counter weight for it to lift it off the kiln. That has been a process as well but I think we have that figured out and finished - we haven't done a final test yet though ;P .
I did solve the glaze issue. My testing of the bad glaze by adding the new ff3134 and kaolin to get the percentages correct solved the issue and the turned out great. A good lesson to properly label all dry ingredients!!!!! Especially because so many of them look just alike!
Below are some pics of what I have been working on.
Summer Post
6/8/2020
hey there to anybody who might be reading this.
Aloha!
We forgot to write anything in May, sorry. I kind of feel like we are always writing into a vacuum anyway so no problem. However, I imagine that this could be similar to what people who are a minority feel when they speak, not a very pleasant feeling and/or thought. It's time we all do something about that. The US is in such a state of upheaval right now. The protests going on are encouraging in that we finally seem to give a crap about people other than ourselves and a lot of us are finally starting to get a clue.
The corona virus is still wreaking havoc on everyone's livelihood's and lives. I am still not back to teaching classes. I am trying to figure out a way of doing them, maybe holding them in the yard??
Hardly any tourists in Hawai'i right now. The 2 week quarantine is still effect til the end of June - maybe longer. We haven't had much in the way of sales in the last month. I keep debating about whether to resurrect my etsy page or not. Online sales seem to be the only sales clay people are making these days. If you are well known they seem to be doing well. However, for the rest of us sales haven't increased much.
On a more positive note I have been making a bunch of new things, which has been fun. I have been working with mid fire and high fire porcelains. I am currently working on table lamps, carving on bowls. working more with underglaze techniques. I have a ton of ware to glaze fire. One of my least favorite things to do. I am learning how to spray. I have a big sprayer that works well but wastes a lot of glaze. I am getting a smaller one that will hopefully work well and be more cost effective. i made a "spray booth" out of tyvek and a big cardboard box. I take it out on the deck for good ventilation (and wear a respirator of course).
I also just solved a problem that I had with one of my ingredients. I had made a bunch of test batches of 100g each. The ones I wanted to make big batches of I did, however, my clear, white and a couple others turned out bad. They came out matte, or crawled or bubbled... After an extensive examination of my recipes I narrowed down the possible culprits as being my kaolin, silica or ff3134. I was leaning toward the frit. I finally got a new bag of it. It's not cheap! $100 for 50lbs not counting shipping. Anyway yesterday I made various tests with the old frit 3134 and the new frit 3134 and it does appear that indeed the old frit was mislabeled. Visually there is no difference in appearance from the frit and the silica so today I am trying to test whether the mystery ingredient is indeed silica. I took the batch of clear glaze I made yesterday with the "old ff3134" and assumed that it is instead silica and keeping the ratio the same between all the ingredients I added the new ff3134 and more EPK. I will try and give a follow-up as to whether I could determine if it is silica. Ingredients are kind of a drag to get here in Hawai'i. They are very expensive anyway but we have to get them shipped here, this can be very expensive depending on how much you need and how its shipped. I usually try and get them when we have clay shipped but the timing isn't always right.
The honeycomb bee mugs are looking good. I have been making some neat ones with Hawai'ian native flowers with the little bees buzzing around them. If anyone is interested in checking these out and/or purchasing these mugs, spoon rests, or soap dishes please visit Ho'ola Honey (savehealthrive.com) website. They also have fantastic honey and honey with wonderful additives. They are a wonderful local family taking good care of the bees.
I think that's enough for now.
Aloha
Practice staying safe
D2E Jill and Dirk
Shelter in Place
4/12/2020
Aloha from D2E and Islandia Haus. This past month has been an unusual one to say the least! First and foremost, our condolences to all the families and friends of loved ones lost to the COVID19 virus!
With sheltering in place, social distancing and a virtual halt of the tourist trade life in Hawaii has changed a bit. My studio existence has always been a solitary adventure so that hasn't changed much. Unfortunately my sculpture class was canceled (rightfully so) after three sessions due to the quarantine precautions. I also put on hold the studio lessons I have been giving. The art Co-op where we sell our work is closed as well. and the sale of the honeycomb mugs which are my bestselling item is on hold as well due to the farmers markets being closed. We had just gotten a foot in the door with the gift store at the Four Seasons Hotel, but the timing was all wrong and that is on hold as well. I have to to say however that this has given me a chance to build up my inventory of various items as well as get a sculpture done that has taken me way too long to finish.
Dirk runs the occasional errand. The only time i get out is to exercise or go to Kona for groceries every two weeks.
One nice and fun thing that I have been doing is making bowls for the Donkey Mill Art Center's Cool Fusion fundraiser that is slated to happen in the fall, fingers crossed. Making 100+ 1.5# bowls, a bunch of them I have been decorating with slip and underglazes. I have been bisque firing them in my studio and I am hoping they look as good in the final firing.
There has been plenty of yard work to do. So we have been staying busy with that. It's getting warm now so we have to most of it in the morning or evenings.
I was hoping it would be a brood-free spring this year with the chickens but no, we have one in jail right now to try and get her over it. It worked well last spring but we are on day three with this one...
Another nice thing that has been happening is that i have been talking with my siblings more in the last month then I have for a long time via phone and email! its good to see their faces and hear their voices. So far all is well with them and my children :))))). I really hope it stays that way!!!!
With the world in even greater turmoil then ever right now I hope the human race learns a few valuable lessons from this and we keep them in our memory banks and take action for more than a few seconds as is the norm!
Greetings from Jill and Dirk
What happened in February?
3/1/2020
It is March already, and we haven't even put our February post on line! So much for a "monthly" post.
Jill was planning to teach a class at the Kohala Artists' Co-op on hand-building, but not enough people registered, so we cancelled it. This was unfortunate, since the Co-op was really interested in having a class like this. The Co-op gallery sells primarily to tourists, and they were hoping that a clay class would attract some locals to the Co-op. Putting on a clay class is more expensive than some other classes at the Co-op. There is the cost of material (clay and glaze) and the time and energy costs for firing the pieces. Perhaps the local community is not willing to pay the realistic cost of such a workshop and thus the idea failed. Lack of interest in the bucket idea is always a possibility as well.
Jill had made some clay buckets in her studio for demonstration purposes. Here is one that is finished with glaze firing. This bucket is approximately 10 inches tall and pretty sturdy. It would work well as a container or flower pot.
The honeybee/honeycomb themed mugs that Kailin (Ho'ola Honey) sells for us are flying out the door. People really like them (we do too!). Kailin is happy to have these mugs for sale at her market stand. She says that people are attracted by the mugs and end up buying honey or her other products as well. Jill is hard pressed to keep up production. She tries a variation on the theme once in a while, like using a different clay, which then affects the color and feel of the mug. This variety of mugs adds to their appeal. Kailin is also selling her Ho'ōla honey in a gift shop of one of the fancy hotels on the North Kona Coast, and that gift shop is now also carrying the honey mugs.
Jill took a weekend class at the Donkey Mill Art Center (DMAC) on sculpting and produced a family of mer-people. They still need to be fired and maybe glazed. Here are some pictures of the merman and mermaid (guess who is who...):
Last weekend Jill started teaching an 8-week class on sculpting at the Donkey Mill. Yesterday was the first class. It's a long drive to Holualoa where DMAC is, but the students are excited and Jill likes teaching the class. So for the next 7 weeks, we go to the Donkey Mill on Saturdays :P
Aloha, DIrk and Jill
Weekly? Monthly!
1/23/2020
It looks like that our weekly blog is turning into a monthly blog. So it is high time for an update. The kiln performs well. Our inventory of mugs got a bit low during the Christmas season, and Jill has been working at making mugs and other ware. We had visits from Jill's children and they all wanted to take advantage of the studio and play with clay. Jessica made an impressive sculpture of a horse with an archer. Maddy and KC are still here and the kiln is firing right now so that they can take their pieces home next week.
Jill will teach a class on hand building at the Kohala Artists' Co-op early February. The plan is to have the students build fairly large containers like buckets or pails.
We will try and make the next blog update a little sooner than this one was.
Cheers, Dirk and Jill
Bubbles in the glaze
12/10/2019
As I wrote in the last post already, we had some bad firings and replaced the elements and some of the thermocouples in the kiln. One of the problems we had was that we had the glaze on some bowls turn out rather bad. There were craters from bubbles that developed during the firing. The bowls had blue rutile as well as ancient jasper glaze, and the bubbles were mostly on the ancient jasper. First we thought there was something wrong with the glaze, maybe something had crystallized out? Jill made new bowls, glazed them the same way and fired them in the repaired kiln, but apparently the kiln wasn't the cause of the problem. Some research on various internet sites and glaze books brought up a number of possibilities. Most had to do with the clay rather than the glaze: there is the possibility of impurities in the clay that cause out-gassing during the firing. One suggestion was to slow down the cool-down and hold for 45 minutes on the way down at about 2095F. So we did that and it worked a bit better, only one of the test bowls had developed craters. Another suggestion was to slow the heating process, and that proved to be the best method. Holding during the cool-down or firing to cone 6 instead of 5 with a hold at the top temperature affected the color of the glaze as well, and did not produce acceptable results. I think Jill did about 6 or so firings in the test kiln to figure out what the best solution to the problem would be. At the end we decided on a slow heating to cone 5 - a shout out to John Britt-. That preserved the colors the way we wanted them and eliminated the bubbles. It was a long and frustrating process! Our electricity bill for this month was also a bit on the high side. Sometimes this is necessary for the learning process :P! A couple positive results of this is we finally ended up with great bowls for our customers :)) and an interesting idea Jill has for a wall sculpture comprised of bowls. Because, even though the failed glaze was not functional and not useful for food use, it is still very beautiful. We will try to remember and post a photo of the finished piece with one of our future posts.
Cheers, Dirk and Jill
Here are some pictures form the process:
Kiln Repair
11/18/2019
A week or two ago we had a firing where the kiln didn't quite reach the desired temperature. This was a bisque fire, so not actually that hot. We were aiming for something around 1800F but only got to about 1600F or so. Turned out to be a faulty relay, and one of the heating elements did not come on. Fortunately, we had a spare relay, so it was only a short downtime. In the meantime we have ordered and received new spare relays, since we seem to be using them up occasionally. We have replaced all three relays once by now, maybe that's not so bad for a 12 year old kiln. But on the downside: the extra low fired bisque ware seemed OK for glazing, so we omitted a refire of the ware. But it turned out that it wasn't quite good enough, and when Jill opened the kiln after the glaze fire of that batch, a lot of the bowls in there looked awful with glaze too thin or patchy and bubbly. So this week Jill has been busy throwing new bowls, firing them, and glazing. Hopefully they will come out better now, so that the customer for this special order doesn't have to wait much longer....
We were at a local Sip&Shop market last Saturday and were able to sell some of our ware. It is getting close to the holiday season, and people are looking for nice things to give away. We'll have another night market coming up at the end of the month, and we hope that will be equally successful.
Kona Coffee Festival Prize
11/10/2019
Jill had submitted two items to the Kona Coffee Festival juried art exhibition, and one of them won second prize in the category "The Perfect Cup". it was a with a submission consisting of three pieces: an espresso cup with an inverted miniature pour-over filter holder for a saucer, and a shot glass. Congratulations!
In other news: the Kohala Artist's Co-op plans to produce a calendar that features all 30 artists who are active members. I volunteered to take photos and put the calendar together. That is finally completed and the calendar will go to the printer on Monday. Here is a sneak preview:
Once the calendar is printed it will be for sale at the Co-op for $20. I hope we will sell enough to not only recover the printing cost but also make a little bit extra.
Cheers, Dirk & Jill
Getting Cooler
11/1/2019
Temperatures are finally cooling a little. Walking into the studio this morning it actually felt cool - warming fast though.
Studio time has been divided between doing some home improvement stuff which of course took several weeks instead of the one we thought it would take. Looks great though. The continued task of harvesting Mac nuts and yard work sucking up time as well.
I also have a new student so i am up to four now. It is fun helping young minds and hands discover the joys of clay. I had them making jack-o-lanterns for Halloween, that was fun and i was under a time crunch but was able to pull it off with the last firing completed this last weekend. They all came out great and so different. i don't have a pic of them otherwise i would include it, sorry about that. In fact i was sorry i didn't make one of my own. but i have several ideas for next year :)!
I have some orders i need to get done and out. My honeycomb mugs continue to do well. I have several ideas for sculptures i want to get started on. I have also been thinking of some more lawn art ideas. I've been making stand sales as well as co-op sales which is nice.
So in other words we've been staying very busy around here.
Pot on Jill & Dirk
Busy in the Studio
10/2/2019
We've been busy in the yard beating back the jungle - a never ending task... Mac nut season has started so I spend an hour a day picking up nuts and Dirk spends an hour husking and and 2 hours cracking (when dry) a five gallon bucket worth... which makes 3lbs of completed nuts. They are a lot of work but they are yum yum and available for sale at our honor stand.
I've also been busy in the studio. I was busy making big plates and goblets for a fundraiser for the Donkey Mill Art Center's Ceramic Studio. There are multiple artists making and decorating the dinner ware. A good cause :) They are having family style dinner for 48 people and a silent auction. It should be a fun time. Good music by John Keawe, good food. $150 per person, and you get to take home you very own plate and goblet! It's scheduled for the 19th of October. I was able to get the promised plates and goblets done :)) I am including a couple of photos of them with this post. In the photos they are all in the greenware (not fired) state. the plates are 12" across!
I'm now working on some pour-over cups with another new idea for an espresso cup. We will see how those turn out. Maybe I will post a pic of them next week.
Exciting news, Dirk got us one of those graduated backgrounds for taking photos - so no excuses for a bad photo now Dirk! :P
Repairs
9/12/2019
This week I've been doing some repairs on a couple of my sculptures that have gotten damaged during transport. Unfortunately, with ceramic sculptures repair is sometimes a necessity. Whether it's from something getting damaged in the firing, a surface that is just not quite right, or like these, it got damaged while being moved from point A to point B...
At a recent workshop I attended, I was turned on to a repair epoxy called fixit. It is the consistency of chewing gum after being combined and before it sets. It has a long working time. I am still learning how to use it. It retains the texture given to it before it sets - which can be useful when being used on ceramics. It is slightly off-white and i'm not sure if color can be added or not, I will have to experiment.
While i was working on one of the sculptures (I hadn't really thought about it or looked at it for awhile) I found myself looking at it with fresh eyes and getting renewed pleasure from it. Both from the making of it and what was happening in my life at the time and also from finding that it still moves me today.
Unfortunately one of the broken areas occured in a spot that was left unglazed. Trying to hide the fact that it was broken is very difficult when it is on bare clay because it's harder to use paints that match it. for whatever reason when it happens on glazed surfaces it is easier to hide. Probably because of the more smooth and shinier surfaces.
Other things going on in the studio, getting ready for a sip-and-shop next week in Waikoloa Village, hope to sell a few things there. I've working on small hand-built items.
Below are a couple of images from the sculpture i repaired this week. See how rich her skin is unglazed? I just put a light oxide wash on it. She is one of the few sculptures that came out of the kiln almost exactly like I wanted her to. Unfortunately eventually needing a repair - Argh!! such is clay life...
Enjoy some handmade ceramics today :))))
Fall Musings
9/3/2019
I just couldn't get around to posting in here last week. a bit going on, working in the studio.
My oldest daughter has been visiting which has been very nice. She's twenty five, Just starting her new life in the lower 48 with her boyfriend. She will have to find a new job. I corralled her into spending some time with us before we have to start hearing the various (legitimate) excuses as to why she can't come over to visit.
It's funny how when we have children we would love it if they love the same things we do. Not that they should. But somehow we feel that if they do, we have succeeded somehow. It all seems pretty irrational when I think about it. For instance I would love for one of my children to be really into Ceramics, but i don't think that is going to happen - and that is really okay. While she has been here I have asked my daughter to help in the studio and have encouraged her to do her own things in there as well. But it feels more like work to both of us. That shouldn't mean either of us has failed however, I have to make myself not to go down that route. I need to remember to just take pleasure in the fact that our children care for us enough to want to spend time with us even though they are not that into what makes us happy. Fortunately there are always a few things we both really like and we need to be satisfied with that. Such as going to the beach ;)
I fired some black sand to see what it would do. I had a cone 6 glaze fire. it melted but the chunky bits did not really smooth out. next time i am going to add some ash from the fire pit and see what happens. the color is not black but a mottled brown, black with sparkles. It had a lot of olivine in it. i wonder if that is what is making the sparkles...
Happy potting - or whatever makes you happy!
Aloha
D2E
New Elements Work Well
8/20/2019
The new heating elements in the kiln have already gone through two bisque firings this week. Ware had been piling up waiting for the kiln repair, and now that that's done we fired the backlog. Both firings took just about the time they were supposed to take and reached the selected temperature. So it looks like the thermocouples are still OK.
Aurora is visiting this week, and she is helping in the studio. Lots of glazing to be done. We have a glaze firing planned for Wednesday. That way we have new ware for the upcoming Sip & Shop at the HUB in Hawi this weekend.
Staying very busy this week!
Element Replacement
8/13/2019
Aloha!
Well the time had come to replace the elements in the big Bailey Kiln. After all, the Kiln records show it has about 200+ firings in it. The firings were getting longer and longer and the elements had some cool spots. Of course changing them out isn't easy and its hard on the kiln. It was a lot easier with two people - less cursing on my part ;P . Test firing is complete and according to the cones it was a perfect cone 5 :))).
Here are a few of the photos dirk took. I did a bisque firing since we replaced the elements. I now have plenty of bisqueware to glaze, the bowls and fish trays fired nicely. I can finish some of the Ho'ola bee mugs too.
Just an FYI in case anyone is confused about my last name. I decided it change it back to my maiden name. - Backus. While it is a bit of a hassle I decided to do it anyway...
I had an idea in the middle of the night for an earring holder that should be easy to throw on the wheel. I'll try it out and posts a photo or two when i get a few done if they prove worthy.
happy creating!
Summer Happenings
8/5/2019
We decided to try blogging. No promises that i will be able to keep it up but between Dirk and I we will give it a shot. :)
This week I've been making more honey bee mugs. I recently had a logo stamp made for Ho'ola Honey whose wonderful proprietor Kailin, sells our bee honeycomb mugs along with her wonderful honey and many of other great natural porducts. For anyone wanting great honey with a sweet Ho'ola mug to drink your coffee or tea in look them up on Wednesdays at the Waimea mid-week market at Pukalani Stables waimeamidweekfarmersmarket.com.
I've also decided that I need to make some bowls, so yesterday I threw a bunch for a sip and shop market that is coming up later this month at the HUB in Hawi on August 24th. I will have my usual array of mugs, spoon holders, sponge holders, etc. there as well. I will debut my fish mugs, tumblers, shot glazes, sushi trays, etc.
I need to get back to working on a commissioned sculpture of two figures. I will post some Pics of that when it is finished. I do have a couple of in-process pictures of it on the website. I should have my lawn sculpture piece done this month. I need to fire the last couple of spacers for it as well as mosaic the base. I'm hoping it will be a neat piece with a lot of birds checking out the solar water fountain.
I also started a new line of fish ware this summer. I have been having fun hand building. We mixed up many new glaze test batches, trying to figure out the best glazes for the design. So far semi-opaque greens and blues have worked best and a unlikely brown is a favorite too?! I will try to include a couple of my favorite glaze recipes with my next posting.
A highlight of the summer was attending our son's wedding in Oregon. He has a wonderful bride and we are all so lucky to have her and her family in our lives.
Studio tours and sales possible, just contact Dirk if you want to stop by.
till next week :)) Pot on
Starting a Blog at D2E
8/5/2019
We are starting this blog to keep you up to date about new developments at Down 2 Earth Studio.
Cheers, Dirk and Jill