Upcoming Show for The Loon

I am so excited ! In August I will be showing my work at The Tryon Fine Arts Center In Tryon N.C. in "Gallery Too" . I do not have the date of the show yet and when I do I will post it. And as I get closer to the date I will write a little more about it. For now it means lots of hard work and brainstorming. I have so many ideas . I will have to think of a name for my show also. Oh how exciting !
I am going to dig me a pit and fire a few pieces of my things in the pit. For those not familar with this technique it is quite fun except of course for the digging of the pit. I will dig me a pit 5x5x2 . Since my ground is nothing but red clay this should yeild some very interesting pieces I am hoping. After I dig the pit I will take a few pieces I have made especially for the pit and burnish them with smooth stones I picked up from behind the Hartwell Dam until the pieces have a smooth and shiny surface to it. I prefer to use Lyman Red lowfire clay and white raku clay. Then I will bisq fire the pieces in my kiln but not too hot because I do not want to burn the shiny suface off. Then I will add different oxides to the pieces . Also believe it or not plant foods and cheap dog foods ( I dont feed my dog these cheap dog foods by the way) can be added all around the pieces in the pit and because they are full of copper and other metals and chemicals they can sometime produce some pretty interesting colors to the pitfired pieces. My favorite method is to take copper scrubbers you buy in the grocery store( I hate to scrub with them as I hate housework. domesticated I am not) ) I unfold them . This gives me a long sleeve of copper mesh which can be stretched around the burnished bisqued piece of clay . Also thin copper wires can be wrapped around the piece. Then I add saw dust to my pit and put my pieces all around in the saw dust and heap lots and lots of dry wood on top of my pieces and start the fire. And if I manage to get my fire hot enough it burns the copper right off of the piece leaving some very pretty colors of red and orange and black with different patterns. I may go to one of the local farms around and see if i can get some cow pies (manure) . Cow pies make a very beautiful shiny black finish . Maybe I could do some cow sculptures and color them with cow pies. How cool would that be??
I think I will start digging my pit today since it rained all night the ground should be soft and easy to dig . I have all kinds cured wood lying all around my woods where trees have fallen . I can accomplish 2 tasks with this pit I am going to dig (3 if you count the exercise it takes to dig it) I will get great surface and finish designs and I will get my woods around the house cleaned up. I will take pictures and write more about this later.
Looks like I am going to be a very busy girl . I better get started.......