Sculptural Sightseeing in Seattle

For now, the volcano is not in an eruption phase. A little huffing and puffing with steam plumes...but we're keeping our fingers crossed the airport will stay open so we can get back to Anchorage from Seattle. A handful of my artist friends who are glass makers and potters told me they are collecting the ash that fell in the Anchorage area for use in their art. Can't wait to see some of the results.

The Pacific Northwest has an incredibly large artist population. The galleries, outdoor sculpture,

ure, public art, studios and architectural design is fresh and invigorating. Artworks I've seen in very cool shops such as Fireworks (one of my longtime favorite haunts) has inspired me to try some new ideas and designs. Though my offspring are growing up, another new favorite store I visited was The Land of Nod. So sweet! I did find (and buy) a great book for the youngest "The Kid Who Named Pluto -and other stories of other extraordinary people in science" by Marc McCutcheon. 

On an outing in the Seattle U-District we came upon this cool sculpture. The entire outdoor sculpture is made of cast metal and titled "Lifes Motion" by Brad Rude, 2004. 

More Explosive Eruptions and Ash Fall

We are still in Seattle and have a few days before we need to return to Anchorage, which may be good considering that the Alaska Volcano Observatory released information on the latest blast. "Another explosive eruption of Redoubt volcano occurred at approximately 15:29 AKDT. NWS reports a radar cloud top above 35,000 ft above sea level. Seismicity is still quite elevated." The Alaska Volcano observatory is now on Twitter. For ash fall advisories, refer to the National Weather Service Redoubt Coordination web page. The volcano images are from the March 27 and March 28 eruptions as captured by Dennis Anderson, taken from near Homer, Alaska.

Before I left for Seattle I was able to pop the kiln lid on the laser decal test pieces and take a couple of quick pictures. What I did (due to my tight schedule) is I applied duplicate decals over the first faded decals and refired lower and slower. I know this really wasn't the best way to get solid results but I hated wasting the pieces that didn't fire so well. In my larger kiln, it appears that lower and slower will work better for firing -kiln controller set to Slow Glaze setting at only ^07. This isn't actually a fair test and will require a few more firings to confirm my hypothesis because of the success that 

the first round of laser decals had when I used the Majolica gloss glaze. PLUS, I added the same small butterfly decal on the "Frog Prince" plate that had successfully fired on the Majolica, and when fired on the Matte glaze it wasn't nearly as clear and dark...hmmm. I'm really thinking the trouble lies with the decals being fired on my favorite Matte glazes. Bummer. So that means I need to crank out a few more pieces of ware and use some of my other glossy glazes -which I don't like as much. Hopefully the volcano will let me get back into the studio sooner rather than later!

Heating Up

No volcano eruption yet but things were hot in the Shop! With the radio frequency issue resolved (thank you Jay!) on my digital kiln controller, I was able to have a successful bisque firing -yeah! I unloaded some of my "Woobie Souls" that I have pictured. I'm not sure how I am going to glaze them but I did get a new set of Majolica glazes in...hmmmmm, so many artful possibilities. I'm still experimenting with various facial features and different heights of each sculpture. I enjoy making them because it's soothing creating individual face details then being able to wrap each one in it's own comforting blanket.