Sunday, August 21, 2011

Preparing to Install the next Bridge: Millrace

Hey folks, hope your summer is going well. Sara and I finished up the building and glazing of the Millrace bridge and have been busy making pots for the Fall season. It has been great to feel ahead of schedule for once! I attended a construction meeting last week and dropped off my foam forms for Hill Country Bridge to use during the construction of the guardrail on the Millrace bridge. It is looking like the installation will take place in about a week or so. This week I plan to stop by the construction site daily to check in, gather up supplies and get everything in order as I am aiming for a painless install. I am hoping the 100 plus degree heat will start to decline soon, because thinset mortars, assistants, and I all have difficulty working in such heat!

I am adding some pics of the finished tile, it is currently all resting away in tons of bubble wrap.




This last pic is of Sara applying the amber glaze (it is dark grey/black in the image because the glaze has about 4% black iron oxide as the colorant) to the unfired clay. For this bridge we were able to once fire the tile by applying underglaze and glaze to the bone dry tile and firing the tile slowly. This method saved a lot of labor and the glaze actually looks better once fired that it does when applied to bisque!


Thanks!
Diana